With the Northern Pass “new route” drama entering its third year (Northeast Utilities executives once again failed to announce any progress on last week’s investor conference call), it’s important to remember that all we’ve been talking about is the northernmost forty miles of what is a 180-mile project that stretches from the Canadian border to…
May 8
2013
2013
Apr 26
2013
2013
A Message to the Energy Industry: The Demise of Northern Pass 1.0
Earlier this week, I brought a message from New Hampshire to a gathering of major players in the Northeast’s energy industry in lower Manhattan, the Platt’s Northeast Energy Markets Conference. Remember Northern Pass, that novel Northeast Utilities transmission project that would import 1,200 megawatts of large-scale hydropower from Hydro-Québec? The project, as it was conceived…
Jan 3
2013
2013
Another Blown Deadline: For Now, No “New Route” for Northern Pass
The ball and other ceremonial objects have dropped, and 2013 has arrived. Although we mark the turn of the year with champagne, Auld Lang Syne, and a bevy of news stories and year-end blog posts, there’s not much genuinely “new” about the New Year. We hang a new calendar and start writing 2013 on legal…
Dec 28
2012
2012
The Latest on Northern Pass: A Year-End Roundup
As CLF begins a third year of advocacy on the Northern Pass project, some updates are in order: The “New Route” Drama With 2013 only days away, it is looking more and more likely that Northern Pass Transmission LLC (NPT) will not have secured 100% of a “new route” for the project’s northernmost portion by year…
Nov 15
2012
2012
Getting Desperate: Northeast Utilities CEO Falsely Claims Wide Support for Northern Pass
This week, the developer of the Northern Pass transmission project, Northeast Utilities (NU), sunk to a new low. In a presentation at a utility industry conference, NU CEO Tom May stated that: “[T]his project has the support of every environmental group in New England basically.” This is unequivocally untrue. In fact, CLF is not aware…
Sep 5
2012
2012
Two Years Later and No Path Forward for Northern Pass
After a summer when many in New Hampshire expected to hear about a revised route and a renewed public relations campaign for the Northern Pass transmission project, the current proposal, which surfaced almost two years ago, is facing new obstacles: On the heels of its successful campaign to protect the Balsams, the Society for the Protection of…
Jun 29
2012
2012
New Video: Real New Hampshire Voices Speak Out on the Northern Pass Proposal
Northern Pass’s developer has a long track record of public statements attributing the deep New Hampshire opposition to the current proposal to the go-to developer bogeyman – “not in my backyard” obstructionism. Accusing critics of short-sighted “NIMBYism” is even part of Northern Pass’s expensive marketing campaign (which suffers from other deliberately false and misleading claims). Continuing this…
May 24
2012
2012
The “New Route” for Northern Pass Won’t Cure Its Failings
This summer, New Hampshire is bracing for news of the Northern Pass project’s future and its “new route.” It’s now been nearly a year since the federal permitting process for the Northern Pass project was put on indefinite hold. North of Groveton, New Hampshire, the developer – Northern Pass Transmission LLC (NPT) – is still…