FYI: Northern Pass High Voltage Transmission Project

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Northeast utilities CEO Tony May, earlier this month, in a presentation to investors, is quoted as saying NP has the support of EVERY environmental group in New England as well as Maggie Hassan, and the support of the Regional grid operator, ISO New England.

None of the three claims bear any factual backing and representatives from all three have come out publicly saying so.

The arrogance, bullying, and lies associated with NP continue. It's clear they plan to move this project forward by whatever means are necessary, whether ethical or otherwise.

Www.clf.org
 
Northeast utilities CEO Tony May, earlier this month, in a presentation to investors, is quoted as saying NP has the support of EVERY environmental group in New England as well as Maggie Hassan, and the support of the Regional grid operator, ISO New England.

None of the three claims bear any factual backing and representatives from all three have come out publicly saying so.

All three probably asked, who is Tony May? :)
 
Charles Muntz signed the lease on behalf of RPI (Renewable Properties, Inc.).

Hmm … we all know what happened to the last Charles Muntz:

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Boston Globe Slams Tony May, Northern Utilities CEO, for Lies to the Public

All three probably asked, who is Tony May? :)

And now many more people will get an introduction to Tony May from the front page of the Globe where he has been called out on the carpet for his ignorant, misleading comments.

http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/12/23/utility-ceo-under-fire-for-northern-pass-comments/GwoDwGH0LI72DYaFMiTVDO/story.html

Their strategic position is weakening day by day and more investors are losing faith. IMO, now is the perfect time to hit them hard.

There is an AMC petition that can be signed, there is the Forest Society's Trees not Towers Campaign, there are politicians to call, and there are any other number of options.
 
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20121227/NEWS02/121229373

Only a few days left for NP to announce it's new route as they promised by year's end. Whatever they come forward with will necessarily be an incomplete route and will ideally expose the uncertainty of this project moving forward. I am hopeful that many investors are waiting until this announcement to determine if this project is worth continuing to finance.

If I were an investor, I would be unimpressed. :)
 
Northen Pass Misses EOY Deadline To ID New Route.

The facade continues to crumble...

http://www.concordmonitor.com/search/3590377-95/northern-pass-route-project

Favorite quote from article:" “The bravado and confidence of (Northern Pass’s) spokespersons are matched only by their lack of credibility,” Baker said yesterday by email."

Time to bow out NP. It's getting embarassing.
 
Some recent transactions

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130123/NEWS05/130129707/-1/news

No matter what happens with Northern Pass, there is some serious money being handed out in far northern NH for the "right" pieces of property. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it when the issue is resolved one way or another.

There have been recent articles in the Maine press discussing exporting power through western maine from Quebec, the concensus is that no party even wants to try due to potential public backlash. Unlike NH, CMP is in the distribution business and doesnt stand to make a buck off a NP like project so there really isnt a publically subsized driver to build one.
 
From Thursday's Union-Leader, speculation that the folks at Northern Pass may try to have the project enter the US via Vermont, and then cross over into New Hampshire through Littleton.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130301/NEWS02/130309958

There was speculation (denied by NP of course) that the NH route was originally chosen because environmental laws were tougher in VT, now that NH is a hornets' nest it may be time for Plan B

SPNHF seems to think VT may actually favor this, I'll leave it to the VT residents here to comment :)
 
A route through Northeastern VT running along the current HQ HVDC corridor to Littleton does skip the current most contentious section of NP, but only for now. In my opinion, given that a right of way didnt exist in northern NH, the people against the project from southern NH and the areas immediately west of the the WMNF who would get impacted decided that the best defense was to block the route in the north country. SPNHF probably didnt mind the visibility and lightning rod that allowed them to collect record amounts of money to forward their long term agenda of protecting forest lands from development.

I expect that opposition dollars will flow to the northeast kingdom of VT quite quickly if it looks like the NP is heading that way. The govenor of VT may be a supporter of renewable, but to date the approach VT has followed is high cost distributed (AKA local) generation. Velco the regional grid operator has flat out told the state that billions of dollars of investment are required to get the VT grid to the point where it meets federal reliability standards and to date the state has elected to ignore the recomendations predominantly due to resistance to building a lot of new high voltage transmission lines. VT does use HQ power already but it mostly is via current transmission lines. Given the former Champion lands which are now off limits to development and the Silvio Conte national wildlife refuge along with other conservation lands, I expect running a right of way is still quite a challenge. Not sure how ACT 250 and other rules impact the timing but given the years of effort to run a new transmission line to the Burlington area a few years back, I expect its significant.

Unfortunately unless NP is run all the way south to Mass along the current HQ corridor, the Littleton connection via the current right of way still requires going through areas with high levels of opposition to NP, like Sugar hill and Franconia and still requires getting a new special use permit to cross the WMNF south of the South Kinsman. It also still means that the current right of way south of the WMNF is going to be widened substantially and the impacts to those along their right of ways will still be significant. The net result is the "front" of the battle will move south but the majority of the opposition will remain.

I personally still believe that there is a plan C where the current and upcoming future significant grid limitations in Coos county will be "solved" by PSNH by adding a substation north of the whites to allow locally generated renewable power to be exported via the NP line. This step then gives PSNH the right back to use eminent domain and all the SPNHF money spent is moot unless the land is quickly wrapped into a federal entity like Silvio Conte which is not subject to eminent domain. Given that the majority of the SPNHF purchaes were development rights I dont know if donating it to the feds has the same protections as fee ownership. I expect that if PSNH elects to bury the line thru the WMNF and run it through Kinsman notch on the current state of NH highway right of way, that getting a special use permit will not be a significant issue especially since the line would become essential to the north country rather than a strictly commerical entity.

Given the resources PSNH has brought to bear to date, I expect there is alternatives d,e,f,g,h etc all the way to z.
 
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Although the state senate in NH may have their hearts in the right place, the White Mountain National Forest is owned and controlled by the federal government. The resolution says that they will send notes to the President, our delegates in Washington, etc. This may make NH residents believe that our state government is doing something but in reality, they have no say in the matter. It is federal property and the feds do what they damn well please in most cases. National forests are designed to be lands of many uses. This includes recreation but also includes timber operations, mining, grazing of cattle (perhaps not in NH), etc. It certainly does not exclude transmission lines to bring power to cities that may lie outside NH.
 
The NH Senate needs some new help in its back office. There's one helluva difference between the "should" in the wording of the resolution and the "shall" in the analysis that precedes it. Someone needs an education in federalism ...
 
My wife and I are looking to buy a vacation home north of Franconia notch so I have been following this project. Looks like the project is throwing the state of NH a bone with a proposed fiber optic line. http://www.northernpass.us/news/press-releases/49/. We found a nice potential near the rocks estate but about 1000 ft from the existing psnh row. So if amyone was a betting man is this going to happen and is the last proposed route the likely path? Thanks.
 
Gee isn't it generous of them, laying fiber is cheap and most likely would be used for the NP project nyhow, its the infrastructure required to get from the fiber to the user that is the expensive part. Considering that extensive fiber backbone is already being installed in the north country I am not sure how much this offer bring to the table. Due to the low population density very few companies are extending line outside of built up areas.
 
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