State Permit is the One that Will Make or Break the Project
On August 10, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Northern Pass project, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for federal actions on projects seeking a DOE Presidential Permit. The August 10 announcement stated that the FEIS identifies the project alternative presently before the NH Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) as the “preferred alternative” among the 12 reviewed in the EIS process.
Contrary to some press reports, this DOE announcement is not a decision by DOE to grant a Presidential Permit. In fact, the EIS is designed to inform the DOE decision, and it could well be another year before a final decision to award a Presidential Permit is made by DOE.
Three things to keep in mind:
- The DOE has repeatedly said it will only make a decision on whether to issue a Presidential Permit AFTER (and if) the N.H. Site Evaluation Committee issues a state siting certificate permit for the project. This state-level decision won't happen until March of 2018 at the earliest, since the SEC recently pushed back its earlier deadline.
- A Presidential Permit would give Northern Pass only the right to cross the international boundary between Quebec and New Hampshire. It does not give Northern Pass the green light to start construction of the more than 1,000 new towers it proposes to build through New Hampshire. The siting decision still rests entirely with the N.H. Site Evaluation Committee.
- The FEIS also informs two other federal permits required for Northern Pass to proceed: a Special Use Permit for the right to use lands of the White Mountain National Forest for the project and a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit, issued under authority granted by the Clean Water Act. The White Mountain National Forest issued a draft decision on August 31, 2017, called a “Draft Record of Decision.” This draft recommends that WMNF issue a Special Use Permit for NP to co-locate parts of the buried line through Easton and Franconia lands owned by the Forest Service. No final decision has been made.
What's Next for Federal Review?
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency published the DOE FEIS in the Federal Register on Aug. 18 in what is referred to as a Notice of Availability (“NOA”). Each agency with permitting authority must wait at least 30 days from the Federal Register publication of the NOA before it can issue a decision on the merits of the permit application. In federal jargon this is known as a “Record of Decision” (or ROD).
In the case of the DOE Presidential Permit, in addition to the Secretary of Energy, both the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State must sign off on the permit before DOE can formally issue it. The President gets involved only if there is not a consensus among the Secretaries of Energy, State and Defense to grant the permit. In the case of the New England Clean Power Link project in Vermont, which received its Presidential Permit from DOE Dec. 5, 2016, more than a year elapsed between the date the FEIS was published in the Federal Register and the December 2016 award of the Presidential Permit. If the N.H. SEC denies Northern Pass a siting permit, the Presidential Permit application to DOE becomes moot.
How to Comment -- Federal Process
Written comments (formally called “objections”) may be submitted to the US Forest Service on the draft Record of Decision by any party that commented on the EIS (either in scoping hearings or in reply to prior drafts of the EIS) by October 14. Send objections to:
Mary Beth Borst, Reviewing Officer
USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region
626 East Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 700
Milwaukee, WI 53202 (414) 944-3963
Email: objections-eastern-region@fs.fed.us
How to Comment -- State SEC Process
Written comments can be submitted to the SEC at any time until the adjudicatory hearing is closed. Send written comments by email to Pamela.monroe@sec.nh.gov or by regular mail to this address:
New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee
Pamela G. Monroe, Administrator
21 South Fruit Street, Suite 10
Concord, NH 03301