Northern Pass Interveners Start Submitting Testimony to SEC Decision Makers

The seven members of the N.H. Site Evaluation Committee’s Northern Pass (NP) Subcommittee have a growing body of evidence to consider as they prepare for adjudicatory hearings now scheduled to begin next April.   The first of two deadlines for evidence filed by the Forest Society and the 145 other interveners in the NP docket passed Nov. 15.  This evidence, referred to as “pre-filed testimony,” can be found for all interveners -- individuals, municipalities, conservation commissions, nonprofits, etc. -- at this page on the SEC website. The Forest Society’s pre-filed direct testimony is in seven parts, prepared by various parties on behalf of the Forest Society:

Part 1: Jane Difley, President/Forester 

Part 2: Will Abbott, VP Reservation Stewardship and Policy

Part 3: Will Abbott, VP Reservation Stewardship and Policy and Brian Hotz, VP Land Protection

Part 4: Kelly O'Brien Normandeau of Concord Equestrian Center, conservation easement landowner   

Part 5: John Conkling, New Hampton conservation easement landowner

Part 6: Diane and Donald Bilodeau, Dawn Bilodeau Scribner and Dana Bilodeau, Clarksville conservation easement landowners

Part 7: Dean Wilbur, Mapletree Farm, LLC, Concord

Part 8: Lore Moran Dodge and Lise Moran, Longue Vue Farm, Whitefield

Interveners have a second deadline of Dec. 30 for submitting pre-filed testimony addressing specific issues related to natural resources, aesthetics, local economic impacts and market economic issues.  This pre-filed testimony becomes one part of the full body of evidence considered by the SEC subcommittee.  According to the present schedule, the subcommittee will start adjudicatory hearings on the NP application in April 2017.  The current schedule suggests a final decision by the subcommittee for Sep. 30, 2017.  Considering that the full record may exceed 100,000 pages of submitted evidence by next March, this may be an ambitious schedule to meet.   

One of the more innovative submissions of pre-filed testimony is a 20-minute video with stunning overhead views of the landscapes of northern Coos County that will be permanently scarred by the project as proposed.  The video keys on the 16 miles of land between Hall’s Stream in Pittsburg, N.H., (where NP proposes to cross into the United States from Quebec) to the Stewartstown/Dixville town line (near Coleman State Park and the Balsams property).  The video was prepared by landowners in northern Coos County who have intervened in the SEC proceeding as opponents to the project.