Read InDepthNH.org’s Northern Pass coverage here.
By Nancy West, InDepthNH.org
It was a real David and Goliath story played out over seven years. And while Northern Pass plans to appeal after regulators denied its $1.6 billion transmission project last week, lots of people along the proposed route from Pittsburg to Deerfield are celebrating.
The celebrants are, however, keeping an eye out for any surprises as Northern Pass plans to appeal and somehow hold onto the coveted Massachusetts clean energy contract it was set to begin negotiating before the unanimous vote against its application. Today, Northern Pass’ future shifts to Massachusetts where officials are scrambling to figure out how to proceed to meet their own energy goals as required by law.
Northern Pass supporters are also voicing their own unanimous opinion: disappointment.
North Country writer John Harrigan of Colebrook, whose syndicated column runs in a dozen Salmon Press newspapers, embraces the David and Goliath metaphor for improbable victory.
“And we didn’t even have anything in our slingshot,” Harrigan said. “Somebody blew a bugle and a bunch of us came running.”
Harrigan and scores of citizens and small business owners found new friends fighting to kill the plan to build a 192-mile high-voltage power line to bring Hydro-Quebec electricity to the New England grid.
“I can’t tell you how many people who got caught up in this fight are so tickled we met, thrown together with other kindred souls,” Harrigan said.
Kris Pastoriza of Easton, the only person who was arrested for civil disobedience during the Northern Pass proceedings for refusing to move away from a test bore hole, said she made friends and enemies.
Pastoriza could often be seen knitting and sharing her research with other intervenors at the 70 adjudicative hearings in Concord.
Balsams developer Les Otten, left, speaks with Michael Iacopino, the attorney representing the state Site Evaluation Committee in the Northern Pass application process, during a break in the technical session in which Otten answered questions about his pre-filed testimony and his opinions regarding Northern Pass.
“The Balsams is disappointed by the SEC’s decision, which seemed to ignore the significant benefits Northern Pass is already bringing to New Hampshire as well as those it would bring in the future,” said Balsams spokesman Scott Tranchemontagne.
“In stark contrast to the SEC’s decisions to approve several mountaintop wind farms and the Burgess Biomass plant with conditions, there seems to have been no discussion of potential mitigation that Northern Pass could have considered,” he said.
The Berlin Daily Sun reported Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier’s disappointment:
“Total irresponsibility,” Grenier said, noting the SEC decision came after only two days of deliberations. “This sends a very chilling message to anyone working to bring economic development to the North Country,” he added.
Grenier told the Berlin Daily Sun that the benefits included a $7.5 million Coos County Job Creation Fund as well as a $200 million Forward N.H. fund that would give preference to North Country economic development efforts. Northern Pass also promised tax benefits and to spend an estimated $50 million to upgrade the Coos Loop transmission system to allow it to accept additional power generation, the newspaper reported.
Coming up roses
But for Northern Pass opponents like writer Harrigan, “everything’s coming up roses,” he said. “I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve heard from lawyer friends that the SEC’s decision is bullet -proof. We won this one,” Harrigan said.
Harrigan summed up his feelings in his latest column’s headline:
“For those who fought so hard, for so long,
one word seems almost enough: ‘Huzzah!’”