Northern Pass

Opposition to the Northern Pass Project has inspired lawn signs, bumper stickers and even legislation.   Avid hiker Larisa Dannis has taken her protest of the proposed 180 mile transmission line through New Hampshire’s North Country to the top. 

The 24 year old is hiking New Hampshire’s four thousand foot summits this winter- all 48 of them.  At the top of each mountain, she pauses to unfurl a bright orange banner expressing her opposition. She then has a companion snap a picture- sometimes with a fellow hiker she meets along the way. She’s been posting those pictures online, and says she is trying to tell fellow hikers about the Project and why she’s against it. 

Town meetings begin next month.

One issue some towns are looking at is a radical new tactic ultimately designed to challenge the legal power of corporations.

Opponents of the Northern Pass hydroelectric project are at the forefront of the move.

NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

Northern Pass opponents have won what they see they see as a victory in their fight against the huge hydro-electric project.

The legislature has now passed a bill that makes it hard if not impossible for Northern Pass to use eminent domain to take the land it needs for its transmission towers.

But some opponents aren’t stopping there.

The controversial Northern Pass hydro-electric project “cannot happen without local support” and “should not happen with eminent domain,” Gov. Lynch’s said today in his State of the State address.

Here is the paragraph from his speech:

"One of the biggest issues facing our state and our environment is the proposal for the Northern Pass. I support bringing more renewable power to our state. It is in our long-term interests to diversify our power sources, and we should not dismiss out of hand the idea of hydropower from Canada.  But the proponents of Northern Pass need to listen better. This project cannot happen without local support. And it should not happen with eminent domain.”

StateImpact’s Amanda Loder has an interesting analysis – with some help from the Concord Monitor – at how opposition to eminent domain breaks out demographically and by political persuasion.

Here’s her report.

StateImpact NH is a cooperative project between NHPR and NPR.

Recently the Concord Monitor reported on a Granite State Poll commissioned by a key Northern Pass rival–the New England Power Generators Association. The big news coming out of the study was 68 percent of the 500 respondents were against Northern Pass.

The New Hampshire Senate has voted to strengthen the rules for taking private property by eminent domain. But there are questions as to what the wording of the final Senate bill really means.

Mark McCulloch lives in North Stratford, way up North on the Vermont-New Hampshire Border.

His house is smack in the middle of the route for the hydro-electric transmission project, Northern Pass, the 180 mile transmission line that would bring electricity from Canada to New England.

A new study says far fewer jobs will be created by the Northern Pass than the utility has forecast, according to StateImpact, a project between NHPR and NPR.

Here’s part of Amanda Loder’s report:

“Today, the New England Power Generators Association released a report it commissioned from PolEcon Research.  The Association is one of the major opponents of the Northern Pass project. 

“Unsurprisingly, the report found the jobs created by the project will be much less than the utility group claims.  According to a Power Point presentation accompanying the release, PolEcon found:

“•Job impacts one-half the magnitude estimated in other studies.

An industry group has put out a new study that disputes Public Service of New Hampshire’s claims about the number of jobs the Northern Pass project will create.

The study cuts PSNH’s jobs prediction in half.

A trade group representing power plant owners commissioned an independent analyst to study how many jobs the Northern Pass project might create.

That analysis found that the project could expect to create just over 600 jobs in New Hampshire, about half of the 1,200 jobs figure released by Northern Pass.

Dan Dolan is the president of the New England Power Generators Association, who commissioned the study.

One of the main questions that lingers over Northern Pass is: Will it create jobs, especially in the struggling North Country?

And, befitting the layers of controversy surrounding the project, the simplest answer won out.

It depends on whom you ask.

Lynne Placey, a North Country woman who’s struggling to make ends meet but has refused to take money from Northern Pass, has been given $2,650 by a group that admires her gumption.

Placey, of Stewartstown, says she turned down an offer of around $500,000 from Northern Pass for a right-of-way on her land although her only income is Social-Security and giving piano lessons.

“She’s a modern-day hero,” said Rikki Ramsden, one of the owners of Atta Girl Records of Thornton, which was behind the fund-raising effort.

Last week Placey was given the money which included $2,000 from an event at Flying Monkey Movie House in Plymouth, $500 from the Alliance Against the Northern Pass and miscellaneous contributions.

The Forest Society says it has raised the $850,000 needed for a conservation easement at the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel in Dixville Notch. It blocks a right-of-way for the proposed Northern Pass hydro-electric project. NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

The Forest Society’s deadline for raising $850,000 for a 5,800-acre conservation easement at the Balsams resort was January 15th.

It raised the money with a record 1,500 contributions.

And, The Forest Society says Northern Pass’ hope to use the land for its electric towers deserves some of the credit.

Jack Savage is a spokesman for The Forest Society.

John D. Judge, who will take over as head of the Appalachian Mountain Club next month, says its priorities will include continued opposition to the Northern Pass project and trying to get more children away from computer games and into the outdoors.

The proposed hydro-electric project would clearly have a detrimental impact on recreation and conservation, said Judge.

Consequently he said the organization will continue to fight the issuance of a Presidential Permit by the U.S. Department of Energy. That permit is necessary for the power to come into the United States from Canada.

The A.M.C. is one of several conservation groups to oppose the controversial project which would run power lines about 180 miles through New Hampshire.

A donor who asked to remain anonymous has contributed $150,000 to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forest to help it buy a conservation easement at the Balsams resort in Dixville Notch.

The forest society has a deal with the Tillotson Corp. to buy the easement for $850,000. With a deadline of January 15th it has raised $609,000, according to a news release.

The easement covers about 5,800 acres as well as a right-of-way that the Northern Pass project sought to use for its transmission lines.

Northern Pass has offered to buy the easement if the society can't come up with the money.

Newt Gingrich was in Littleton Thursday and he put aside national and international issues for one focused on one of the biggest issues in the North Country: The Northern Pass. 

Like a good politician Newt Gingrich couldn’t have come up with a more popular position at a town meeting at the Littleton Opera House.

It had to do with Northern Pass, the proposed hydro-electric project despised by many in the North Country.

In particular it had to do with the federal government’s consideration of a Presidential Permit.

Without that permit, which is necessary for power to enter the United States, the Northern Pass is dead.

And Newt Gingrich used the opportunity to appeal to North Country voters.

Senate lawmakers met today to discuss a bill that would change the rules of eminent domain.

The debate is spurred by people concerned that they will lose their land to the Northern Pass Project