North Country

For more than a year landowners and a conservation group have been trying to keep Northern Pass from finding a route through Northern Coos County.

But there’s one possibility that would give Northern Pass a big step forward: Crossing a huge conservation tract controlled by the state.

Such an effort could easily make the project even more controversial.

NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

Compiled and written by Tova Cohen of Franconia.

The newsletter typically announces events in the next week. The calendar shows you events in the coming months.

CEREMONY TO MARK TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF COLLAPSE OF THE OLD MAN

Friday May 3 11:30 AM Old Man Memorial on Profile Lake in Franconia Notch. Presented by the Old Man of the Mountain Legacy Fund. The free festivities will be held in rain or snow.

LITTLETON NATIVE TIMOTHY WOODWARD BOOK SIGNING, LITTLETON

During a quarterly conference call Thursday officials at Northeast Utilities, the parent company of the Northern Pass project, said while they have a new route they still aren’t ready to say where it goes. 

And that the soonest the project could now get underway is 2017.

NHPR’s Chris Jensen listened in and has this report:

One reason the starting date of Northern Pass has slipped from 2015 to 2017 is opposition to the project.

Northeast Utilities, the parent company of the Northern Pass project, did not announce a new route during a conference call with analysts Thursday morning. 

NHPR’s Chris Jensen listened in and has this report.

Late last year Northern Pass officials said they finally had a new route through the North Country.

But they said they weren’t ready to disclose it.

Then, at the end of March officials basically said the same thing.

Last month Northern Pass opponents complained that U.S. Department of Energy contractors working on the Northern Pass project were trespassing on their land to carry out environmental studies.

That prompted Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte to ask DOE about it.

Now DOE has responded but things are still unclear.