The utility seeking to build a 140-mile power line to carry hydroelectricity from Quebec into New England took another stab on Thursday at appeasing concerns in New Hampshire by moving the northern-most section of the project into less populated areas, burying nearly eight miles of the line, and reducing the height of some of the power lines.
Gary Long, president of Public Service Co., a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities, said the company listened to concerns raised by New Hampshire residents about the firm’s original 2010 proposal and sought to address them. “We’ve done our homework. We’re ready to move forward,” he said.
The proposed changes would cost an extra $200 million, raising the price tag on the so-called Northern Pass project from $1.2 billion to $1.4 billion. The entire project is being paid for by Hydro-Quebec, the province-owned power company that is eager to expand electricity exports to New England.
Most of New England is also eager to import Canadian hydroelectricity. Every New England state except New Hampshire is exploring the best way to import more Canadian hydroelectricity as a way to reduce the region’s carbon emissions and its overreliance on natural gas for electricity production. The Northern Pass project would deliver 1,200 megawatts of electricity into the region.
New Hampshire Gov. Margaret Hassan, who opposed the earlier Northern Pass route, issued a statement saying she appreciated some of the changes made by the company yet still had concerns. ”From an initial review of the proposal, I continue to believe that project officials must more fully explore options for burying more of the lines,” she said.
The Conservation Law Foundation, an environmental group that has been highly critical of Northern Pass, dismissed the proposed changes as a “band-aid on a gaping wound.” Jonathan Peress, vice president of the foundation, said: “The new route has the same flaws that have doomed its progress to date, primarily the lack of consideration for the communities that would unnecessarily bear all of the burden of the project and none of the benefit, which would instead flow to PSNH’s shareholders.”
Long, in his remarks, said the project would provide enormous benefits to New Hampshire, including the employment of 1,200 workers during the three-year construction phase and the generation of an additional $28 million in annual property taxes. Public Service Co. already pays $60 million in property taxes, more than any other taxpayer.
The Northern Pass line would travel on 140 miles of existing company-owned right of way from Deerfield in southern New Hampshire to Northumberland in the north. The remaining 40 miles to the Quebec border requires acquiring new rights of way, which the company says it has done.
In 2010, the company proposed a fairly direct route between Northumberland and the border town of Pittsburg, but the new plan calls for the route to swing much further east into less populated areas. The new proposal would also bury a 7.5-mile portion of the new route and also bury another small section where the line crosses Route 3 in the far north.
Company officials say they have also tried, wherever possible, to reduce the height of power towers from a maximum of 135 feet to 85 to 95 feet.
