Right off the bat, they describe the project as having been proposed by Northern Pass Transmission, LLC.  That may be technically true, but the fact is that this project is the brainchild of Hydro Quebec.  PSNH is a willing accomplice in the land grab that HQ needs to pull off in order to get the transmission line that will allow them to sell their electricity to Southern New England.

Northern Pass LLC is the company that PSNH set up to make it look like this is not a PSNH project.  Don’t be fooled – the first page of the newsletter shows the address of Northern Pass LLC as 780 North Commercial Street in Manchester.  That’s the same address as the PSNH Headquarters.  But wait, perhaps they simply share the same office building?  OK – the PO Box for Northern Pass LLC is 330… the same PO Box as PSNH. What a coincidence.

They also assure us that the shell company set up by PSNH will pay for all of the construction.  Interesting… the projected cost is $1.1B and a company that can’t even spring for its own PO Box is going to pick up the tab.  Please.  Hydro Quebec is paying for the construction – Northern Pass LLC is simply writing the checks.

Here again they describe the permitting process as “2 to 3 years”.  That’s ridiculous – the first step of the permitting process is scoping the EIS.  “Scoping”: meaning just determining what is going to go into the EIS as opposed to actually writing, reviewing, and approving the EIS itself.  The scoping process alone has taken nearly 10 months already with no end in sight.  To describe this as a 2 to 3 year process when the very first (and relatively simple) step has taken nearly a year is ludicrous.

Devoting a large portion of the first newsletter to vegetation management sets the stage for some unpleasant near term activities.  Most of the existing ROW is not cleared to its boundaries – PSNH has cleared what is necessary to clear for the existing lines which is usually around half of the actual right of way.  However, as mentioned above, the environmental review process is dragging on and setting the project behind schedule.  Clearing the entire width of the existing ROW now will allow them to save time after the project is approved.  Look for PSNH to strip their ROW clean over the next couple of years – they’ll call it routine maintenance but it’s Northern Pass prep work through and through.

As bad as this project is for us, it’s even worse for other folks.  There are some people with easements that are too narrow for even 135 foot towers.  This is where the “Benefit” of ROW expansion comes in.  If these people give even more of their land to PSNH, then PSNH will only put 135 foot towers up.  Otherwise, if people decide to keep their land for themselves, then they’ll just build the towers as tall as they need to.  Great choice: fork over the land or we’ll put even bigger towers up.  Some benefit.

We all need to keep in mind that PSNH doesn’t just want this project… they NEED it to survive.  They have mismanaged their company under the protection of state mandated electric rates that are consistently among the highest in the country.  They’ve spent billions on boondoggles like Seabrook and the “scrubber” at Merrimack station – the problem they have now is that the state no longer requires everyone to purchase electricity from PSNH.  Nearly 40% of their largest customers have fled already and that trend is starting to spill over into their residential market.  With such a large fixed cost base, PSNH has no choice but to raise the rates even higher on the customers who remain.  That causes the customer exodus to accelerate resulting in more frequent and larger rate increases.  It’s a death spiral for PSNH and it’s happening right now.

The Northern Pass project will allow PSNH to leverage its easements – which were granted to promote the public good by bringing reliable electricity to areas that did not have reliable electricity – as new revenue sources.  They will literally be profiting off of the use of our land.  The Northern Pass is as close as they are ever going to get to the “good old days” when the legislature forced people to pay them whatever they asked for.  Those days are over and instead of bearing down and trying to be successful in a competitive marketplace, PSNH has simply found another way to get free money.

The Northern Pass Proposal CAN fail.  By rights, it SHOULD fail.  The reality is that the only way it WILL fail is if we continue to stand up to the people who are inflicting this on us and force them to back down.

I pointed out that my question wasn’t exactly technical: are you or aren’t you going to move and replace the wooden poles?

Ms. Berry’s most recent email to me states: “In the area near the Mountain River East Association properties, the current wooden structures will not be relocated or modified, and they currently range from 47-55’. ”

Ordinarily, I’d conclude that the wooden structures will not be relocated or modified. However, given that this statement came from a Northern Pass official, I remain skeptical…

“As proposed, the project would use rights of way owned by PSNH from Groveton to Deerfield. The project still needs to secure a new 40-mile right of way from Groveton to the Canadian border.
Northeast Utilities is PSNH’s parent company. Northern Pass would be a sister organization to PSNH with profits going to Northeast Utilities stockholders, not ratepayers or property owners.
The way it is set up, Hydro-Quebec will pay Northern Pass to use the lines and will make their money on the New England grid by selling the power. PSNH’s existing poles would be removed and replaced by metal poles along the edge of the right of way. That cost would be paid for in the $1.1 billion construction costs, in addition to the towers for the Northern Pass line, placed in the middle of the right of way, which in most cases would be about 85 to 90 feet tall, and in some cases would reach 135 feet. “

I’ve responded to Jennifer Berry – the Northern Pass “landowner outreach specialist” who contacted us last month – with the following questions:

1.  Is it true that the existing wooden poles in the ROW will be replaced with metal poles?
2.  If so, where will the metal poles be placed?
3.  How high will they be?
4.  Will there be more or fewer metal poles than there are wooden poles today?

As you can see, PSNH is holding back details about their plans – as each detail emerges, the impact on us gets worse.  Bad enough we’re getting 90′ metal towers for the new line, but now they’re going to be tearing out the wooden poles and replacing them with metal towers as well.  And the replacement towers – based on an earlier statement by PSNH about the Northern Pass lines being on the “far side” of the existing lines – will be sited on the edge of the ROW which means the existing wires will be even closer to the buildings than they already are.

If you haven’t written to Senators Ayotte and Shaheen yet, I urge you to do so.  They need to understand that this is not just a Coos county problem.

My intent is to have a single source of updates on the project and to gear it to the MRE community. Since we all received the same letter from the Northern Pass last week, this seems like a good place to start.  Disclaimer: I don’t try to hide my opinions here – what I write is what I believe to be true.  I’ll do my best to stick to the facts but when it comes to breaking down a letter like the one we’ve recently received, my write-up is going to be biased.

That said, let’s get started.  From Ms Berry’s letter to the association:

“Over the past few months, the preliminary engineering and design work for the proposed Northern Pass transmission line has continued to move forward.”
Because the route has not been announced yet and because the Environmental Impact Statement Scoping has not been completed, any engineering and design work that is moving forward is premature.  At least it should be.  The reality is that most/all of this “preliminary” work was done long before they even sprung the project on us a year ago.  Since then they’ve had Normandeau Associates collecting the environmental data that will prove the one and only route they’ve offered is the Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative.  Normandeau was removed from the project due to conflict of interests and was replaced by new environmental contractors in August.    The fact that they are moving forward with design and engineering shows the confidence that they have in their ability to ram this project through the regulatory process without incurring any substantial changes.  They know that DOE loves new transmission projects and they know that the NH PUC is absolutely bought and paid for by PSNH.

“We are available and willing to meet with you to discuss the project, including preliminary engineering designs, potential structure types and locations, easements, and any other aspect of the project specific to your property and your community”
They’re willing to meet, but notice that they are not seeking input – they’re more than happy to tell us what we are going to get but they don’t mention trying to work with us to minimize impacts.  Their arrogance is on full display here: any discussion of structure locations is premature given that the route is far from approved and even if the route is approved each structure location must be approved by the NH Site Evaluation Committee.  But they are speaking with the confidence that comes from knowing that the deck is totally stacked in their favor – the DOE has never denied a presidential permit and PSNH controls the site evaluation committee.

“We have developed visual simulations from a variety of public vantage points”
Of course they have.  Question: who needs a “visual simulation” to know what a 130 foot tower looks like when you have 40 foot poles on your property now?  Just “visualize” 2 more of those poles stacked on the first one.  Or better yet, just go out to Littleton and look at the existing HVDC line.  And who are you going to believe, PSNH’s “visual simulations” or your lying eyes?

“While most of the necessary field work has been completed for 2011, it is anticipated that additional historical, archeological, visual, and natural resource data will be collected in some locations along the proposed route in 2012.”
This data is typically used in the preparation of the EIS.  The intent of the EIS is to ensure that the applicant is using the Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative.  In this case the Scoping for the EIS hasn’t even been done yet because they haven’t finalized a route through Coos county.  And since they’ve only proposed one route, this data can’t be used to select among alternatives.  As such, the only thing that the collected data could possibly do is halt the project.  If you read the Memorandum of Understanding between DOE, the Northern Pass Transmission, and the environmental contractors you’ll see that Northern Pass Transmission controls the budget for the environmental contractors.  Does anyone believe that they are going to allow any data to be collected that could potentially halt the project?  Of course they won’t.  This data collection is a complete farce.  They have their route, they have regulatory agencies firmly in their corner, and all they need to do is craft a few studies showing that clear cutting forest, widening rights of way, and erecting massive steel towers is going to have no impact on the environment whatsoever.  None.  I swear I could write their studies for them.  In fact, I think I just did.

The bottom line is that the Northern Pass folks want to reach out to us.  They just don’t want to hear from us.  They want to be able to say that they’re “working with us” while they proceed to roll right over us.  We have to get our representatives in Washington involved and working on our behalf.  Write and/or call Senator Ayotte, Senator Shaheen, and Congressman Bass.  Tell them that the process is unfair and that your voice is not being heard.