Eversource expected to file second motion for rehearing Northern Pass
The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) set May 24 and possibly June 4, 2018 (if necessary) as dates for deliberating on any Motions for Rehearing on the Northern Pass application that was denied. Those deliberations will be held at 49 Donovan Street in Concord, NH (where the more than 70 days of adjudicative hearings were held) beginning at 9 a.m.
No testimony nor oral argument will be heard unless requested by the Subcommittee.
On February 1, 2018, the SEC Subcommitte hearing the Northern Pass application voted to deny the permit. The applicant, Eversource, filed a Motion for Rehearing on February 28, 2018, before a written order was issued. The SEC declined to grant nor deny that Motion, but set out a process for considering such Motions in an order issued March 13. On March 28, Massachusetts announced that it was dropping Northern Pass in favor of negotiating a long-term contract with a competing transmission line project in Maine, the so-called New England Clean Energy Connect.
On March 30, the SEC issued a written order formally denying Northern Pass the requested Certificate of Site and Facility based on the applicant's failure to meet the burden of proof that the project would not interfere with orderly development of the region.
Eversource is expected to file a second Motion for Rehearing within 30 days of the written order, and other intervenors may file Motions for Rehearing as well. Intervenors such as the Forest Society then have the opportunity to file Objections to any Motions for Rehearing for the SEC to consider as well.