Excerpts (1) from Alex Lee's "Big Hydro: Is It Green?," Franconia, Dec. 14, 2010

First in a Series



Alex Lee, founder and executive director of Project Laundry List (http://www.laundrylist.org/), is a self-described conservationist dedicated to finding and teaching simple ways of energy reduction that everyday people can put into effect--for example, the clothesline rather than the dryer. He is opposed to corporate energy developers who encourage increased consumption. His talk tonight focused on the negative environmental impacts of Hydro Quebec. Alex has visited and canoed in Quebec over four summers; he is on his way to China soon to promote Project Laundry List. Alex has generously given permission to share the excerpts from his talk tonight that follow.


Before--undammed free-running river in Quebec:

After:

And PSNH still wants to bring in 1200MW from Hydro Quebec even though it admits there is no current need for this power

To be continued.....

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What Did We Know and When Did We Know It?

Or, "Speak to Your Friends First"




A brief timeline of what and when we, the average North Country citizens who will bear the brunt of Northern Pass's proposed transmission line, have learned.

Sometime during 2007-2008: PSNH begins planning the Northern Pass project.

February 24, 2010: in a talk to other corporate energy developers in Atlanta GA, PSNH's Patrick McDermott enumerates those who have been included in the company's "targeted audience" back in New Hampshire: "county commissioners, community college presidents, local business leaders, county economic development directors, and the governor’s staff for northern New Hampshire. Other targeted groups are the North Country Council, state parks, New Hampshire Fish & Game Department, Northern Forest Center, New Hampshire Business & Industry Association, state Department of Historical Resources, state economic development commissioner’s office and the Society for Protection of New Hampshire Forests." McDermott's playbook reportedly includes the advice, "speak to your friends first."
http://siteselection.com/theEnergyReport/2010/mar/hydro-power.html

October 12, 2010: Northern Pass puts out a press release, "City of Franklin Will be Site of Quebec-New England Converter Terminal." It briefly mentions a transmission line from Hydro-Quebec to New England. No details about the route are given.

October 12, 2010: The office of the Governor puts out a press release, "Governor Lynch, Franklin City Officials Announce Major Job Creation Project." The transmission line is not mentioned.

October 13, 2010: New Hampshire's newspaper of record, the Union Leader, picks up the press releases and runs with them. Its first article on the Northern Pass is entitled "Power Station to Give Franklin a Jolt." The article focuses almost exclusively on the $250M converter station to be built in Franklin NH and on various other alleged benefits to NH. Less than a sentence notes that there will be "a 140-mile long direct-current 1,200 megawatt transmission line built from Quebec to Franklin." The route is not revealed.

October 14, 2010: Northern Pass files its application with the Department of Energy for a Presidental Permit.

October 14, 2010: the Union Leader runs a follow up article under the alternative titles, "Franklin Power Station a Winner" and "New Power Station Means Lots of Construction Jobs." The article pursues the same tack as the Oct. 13th piece, touting the alleged benefits of Northern Pass to Franklin and to the state. Details about the "route" are not revealed again: ". . .the electricity will be transmitted from Quebec to Franklin through high-voltage, direct-current lines to reduce the energy lost through long distance transmission."

October 15, 2010: Northern Pass puts out a press release, "Northern Pass Project Takes Another Significant Step Forward with Filing of U.S. Federal Pemit Application." It states that the application reveals a "preliminary preferred route," but other than to say that the line will follow existing PSNH rights of way, no details are given about the route in "northernmost New Hampshire" (i.e., Coos County), where no PSNH rights of way "currently exist."

Late October 2010: Public information meetings between PSNH and selectboards begin in Coos County, where PSNH routes do not exist. Many citizens are frustrated and angry because the proposed route is not revealed. The Union Leader publishes "North Country Residents Voice Anxiety Over Power Line Plan," with a Colebrook byline on October 25.

November 2, 2010: Mid-term elections.

November 8, 2010: Public information meetings with selectboards commence to the south in upper Grafton County. Citizens in Franconia, Sugar Hill, and Easton hear from PSNH about the project for the first time. Details continue to be skimpy, including the width of the ROW necessary for the HVDC line. Maps are not provided. The audience is referred to the Northern Pass website (http://www.northernpass.us/).

November 16, 2010: the Federal Register publishes notice of Northern Pass's application, effectively making it available for comments, protests, and petitions to intervene. 30 days is allowed to file a petition with the Department of Energy (DOE) or to comment.

December 16, midnight: DOE input is due.

There are only three more days for North Country citizens to file petitions or comments with the DOE, and we still do not know the actual route of the proposed transmission line, the width of the ROWs, and a number of other facts that a concerned citizen requires to make an informed and cogent response. This alone should be grounds for a denial or continuation of the application.

What did we learn and when did we learn it? We learned about the project only in late October to early November, 2010, long after others had been "briefed," and we have learned precious little about it to this day.

What can you do as a concerned citizen? First and foremost, take a page from the PSNH "playbook": speak to your friends first. We'll be talking to PSNH in due course. Do not assume that your friends and neighbors, many of whom are second-homers, know about the Northern Pass and its impact on the North Country. Tell them. Give them the chance, albeit at the eleventh hour, to participate in democracy as it is supposed to function: a full and informed citizenry that involves itself in decisions that vitally affect our well-being. Speak to your friends first, please. Tell them about the email list. Mention this blog (http://burynorthernpass.blogspot.com/ ). It has had 1,494 pageviews since inception.

Alex Lee will give a talk, "Big Hydro: Is It Green?," at the Franconia town hall tomorrow night, Dec. 14, 7 p.m. Speak to your friends about it, please. (Disclaimer: views expressed at tomorrow night's talk do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Town of Franconia or the Franconia selectboard.)

Bury the Northern Pass is a group of concerned citizens based in Grafton County. We work in solidarity with our neighbors to the north in Coos County. To join the Bury the Northern Pass email list, write to burynothernpass@gmail.com

See also the website of Coos County, http://livefreeorfry.org/ , which contains a link to the Stop the Towers Facebook page.

Environmental Justice: Some Questions for PSNH

In her 2009 scoping comments on a proposal by the Transmission Agency of Northern California to build a 600-mile overhead HVDC transmission corridor through low-income intermountain communities with minority populations in Shasta County, a project called "TANC TPP," Jean L. Saffel invokes the policy of environmental justice and raises a number of critical questions related to it.

What is environmental justice?

On February 11, 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, which directs federal agencies to make achieving environmental justice part of their mission by identifying and addressing, as appropriate, disproportionately high adverse human health or environmental effects of its activities on minority and low-income populations.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work."
<http://www.epa.gov/compliance/environmentaljustice/>

As Saffel explains, "environmental justice involves reviewing a project’s significant

individual or cumulative impacts on human health or the environment, including

interrelated social and economic effects," to prevent disproportionate adverse

effects upon disadvantaged communities, e.g., those with lower income and higher

unemployment rates (48).

One of the disproportionate adverse socioeconomic effects of a major transmission project like TANC concerns the universally acknowledged drop in real estate values, which seriously disadvantages senior citizens on fixed incomes, Saffel notes:

"Many senior citizens in Oak Run and Round Mountain will not live long enough to

recover from the financial impacts of this corridor project. How will TANC mitigate such

impacts for lower income residents such as seniors, those on fixed incomes, etc?

For many Americans their home and equity in that property is all they have to carry

them through retirement and their so-called golden years. These Transmission Lines

will create a significant reduction in property values of seniors, dramatically changing

people's lives. How will they manage to survive until their end days? How will we?

The ratepayers who are beneficiaries of TANC TTP are not the people whose lives,

living environment and property values will be disrupted by this project. Who will

mitigate for these long-term costs for our communities? Will TANC?" (48)

 TANC's profitability, she concludes, does not justify environmental injustice:

"Improving TANC’s profitability is not an equitable, fair or environmentally just
reason to build TANC TTP and leave the irreversible environmental impacts in the
laps of economically strapped counties and the equally strapped impacted families" (50).

Will PSNH mitigate for the long-term costs of the Northern Pass project on the economically strapped North Country, including our senior citizens who will not live long enough to recover from the financial impact of the project? Will PSNH say it's "too expensive" to mitigate by burying the lines or running them along public ROWs? Does PSNH find it acceptable that those who will profit from the Northern Pass are not the people whose lives, living environment, and property values will suffer for it?   

  Saffel's full report is worth a read. (But a warning for those on dial-up and satellite:
it's a big file, 5MB.)


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