Northern Pass

The extremely low prices for natural gas – which can be used to generate electricity - have some  opponents  of Northern Pass wondering whether Hydro-Quebec  might reconsider the project. But a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that’s unlikely.

“The current situation in the natural-gas  market  is not one I would think makes any difference in terms of the economic value of the project,” said Henry Jacoby, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

After 18 months of federal and state review, Northeast Utilities has completed a $5-billion purchase of Boston-based NStar. The deal makes PSNH’s parent company the largest utility in New England.

During a conference call, CEO Tom May said the acquisition would help his company pursue the Northern Pass project.

"The new NU will, because of the financial strength of the combined companies, actually have credit rating upgrades, which should make it a lot easier to finance this project," said May.

The Northern Pass plan calls for the creation of expensive--and controversial--transmission lines that would bring hydro-electric power from Canada.

The combined company will have 3.5-million customers throughout Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Looking at day-to-day coverage of Northern Pass, it tends to (unsurprisingly) focus on the New Hampshire perspective.  Will the project provide a much-needed boost to the North Country economy, or just create a spot of temp work?  What will the project do to land values?  Who’s selling their land, who’s holding fast, and why?  What are the chances the project could invoke eminent domain?

Two of three North Country towns yesterday approved an ordinance designed to fight the Northern Pass project by trying to strip corporations of their power.

Lancaster, Sugar Hill and Easton all had the same idea: An ordinance that would assert a town’s rights over those of corporations.

The idea is to prevent large corporations – such as those behind the Northern Pass project – from using the legal muscle given them by U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

Another part of the ordinance says state and federal officials cannot overrule a town’s wishes.

The goal is to stop Northern Pass from crossing the towns with the huge towers carrying power from Canada.

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. 

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 eminent domain for Northern Pass.

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.