This week, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) is conducting seven “public scoping meetings” in different communities in New Hampshire as part of the scoping process for the Northern Pass Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).  A one-page summary of the scoping process, suitable for printing, is here, and more detailed context is here.

This is a critical, early part of the review process, and an important opportunity to explain your concerns about the project to DOE officials. If you did not reserve a spot in advance, you should be able to sign up to speak when you arrive at the meetings. I’ll be presenting brief remarks at tonight’s meeting in Pembroke. The schedule is:

• Monday, March 14 (TONIGHT), 6-9 pm, Pembroke, Pembroke Academy cafeteria, 209 Academy Road  (map | directions)
• Tuesday, March 15, 6-9 pm, Franklin, Franklin Opera House, 316 Central Street (map | directions)
• Wednesday, March 16, 6-9 pm, Lincoln, The Mountain Club on Loon, Hancock Room, 90 Loon Mountain Road  (map | directions)
• Thursday, March 17, 6-9 pm, Whitefield, Mountain View Grand Hotel and Resort, Presidential Room, 101 Mountain View Road (map | directions)
• Friday, March 18, 6-9 pm, Plymouth, Plymouth State University, Silver Center, 114 Maine St. (map | directions)
• Saturday, March 19, 1-4 pm, Colebrook, Colebrook Elementary School, 27 Dumont Street  (map | directions)
• Sunday, March 20, 1-4 pm, North Haverhill, Haverhill Cooperative Middle School, 175 Morrill Drive (map | directions)

Each meeting will include both an “informal workshop” and a more formal session for the public to present information regarding the potential environmental impacts of the project.  The formal portion of the meeting will be transcribed by a stenographer, and all public testimony will be included in the official administrative record of DOE’s review of the project.

CLF is working to secure a clean energy future for New Hampshire and New England – one in which our energy system (1) is cleaner and less carbon-intensive, (2) provides reliable power with minimal environmental impact and at reasonable cost, and (3) is supported by a robust, local clean-energy economy built on energy efficiency and renewables.  CLF is working to ensure that the Northern Pass project moves us toward – and not away from – this future.  We are dedicated to promoting fair, well-informed, and rigorous environmental permitting processes to achieve:

• A solution with minimal impact on the environment and communities;
• Equitable sharing of benefits and burdens;
• Displacement of dirty power; and
• A market that encourages energy efficiency and provides a level playing field for local renewable energy.

Read the full news release >>

UPDATE:  Check out my post on the first meeting in Pembroke.

For more information about Northern Pass, visit CLF’s Northern Pass Information Center (http://www.clf.org/northernpass) and take a look at our prior Northern Pass posts on CLF Scoop.

(image credit: flickr, cannuckshutterer, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

CLF and all stakeholders concerned about the fairness and objectivity of the environmental review process for the proposed Northern Pass electric transmission project scored an important victory today.  Responding to concerns raised by CLF and others, Northern Pass Transmission, LLC has today formally requested termination of an agreement with the Department of Energy that tasked Northern Pass’s contractor, Normandeau Associates, with preparing the federal Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed project.  Northern Pass Transmission, LLC has requested that the Department of Energy, which is administering the environmental review as part of its Presidential Permit process, select a new contractor to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement.

In filings with the Department of Energy last month, CLF and other parties sounded the alarm about the Department of Energy’s choice of Normandeau on the grounds that Normandeau was also working for the project applicant, Northern Pass Transmission, LLC and demanded that the Department of Energy retain a different contractor without a conflict of interest.  More recently, New Hampshire’s two U.S. Senators added their voices to the chorus questioning the selection of Normandeau to prepare the EIS.  With the pressure mounting and scoping meetings for the EIS scheduled to take place next week, Northern Pass’s action today means that the Department of Energy should now move forward with the environmental review of the Northern Pass project with the objectivity and independence that federal law requires.

As the process gets underway and a new contractor is selected, CLF will continue to advocate for an open, fair and rigorous environmental review of this transmission project, its many significant potential impacts and all possible alternatives to the current proposal.

On Wednesday, CLF received some welcome, high-profile help in its effort to ensure that the Department of Energy’s environmental review of the Northern Pass electric transmission project is unbiased, objective, and legitimate.

As noted in the Concord Monitor, Senators Shaheen and Ayotte joined CLF, its partners the Appalachian Mountain Club and Coos Community Benefits Alliance, and others, in questioning the Department of Energy’s selection of Normandeau Associates, the same consulting firm that project proponent Northern Pass Transmission, LLC has engaged to obtain other permits for the project, to prepare the Environmental Impact Statement or “EIS” for the project.

Both New Hampshire Senators sent letters to Secretary Chu (Senator Shaheen’s is here and Senator Ayotte’s should be posted here soon) demanding an explanation for Normandeau’s selection.  As Senator Shaheen put it:

In order for the public and those affected by the proposed transmission project to have confidence in the DOE permitting process, it is essential that there be no conflict of interest in the approval process. While DOE, Normandeau and Northern Pass LLC have sought to address the potential conflict of interest by separating the employees and teams working on their respective aspects of the project, even the perception of a conflict is problematic given the significance of this project.

Senator Shaheen attached CLF’s and its partners’ formal objection filed with the Department of Energy to her letter.  As our objection made clear, Normandeau’s conflict of interest is both clear as a matter of common sense and forbidden by the federal regulations governing the environmental review process.

The Department of Energy has not said when (or even if) it will rule on CLF’s and others’ objections to Normandeau’s selection. It is critical that it do so soon, as the EIS “scoping” process is about to kick off with a series of scheduled public meetings throughout New Hampshire in mid-March.

CLF will be an active participant throughout the environmental review process for the Northern Pass project, and an overview of the project and CLF’s concerns is here.  As the process moves forward, we will be posting additional resources on the project, its impacts, and the permitting process on CLF’s website.