Scoping Comment Tally (with weekly updates through June, 2011)

All figures are calculated from the tallies on the Department of Energy Environmental Impact Statement website.

This post will be updated weekly. Last updated: April 20, 2011.

The comment period closes June 14, 2011. Register your comment here, or write to Brian Mills at brian.mills@hq.doe.gov to enter your comment in a different format.

Scoping Comments

Total scoping comments recorded on file to date: 670

Highest town tally to date: New Hampton and Plymouth are tied at 46

Furthest town from which a comment is registered to date: Tujunga CA

Intervener Comments Received During Scoping: 81

Easton Conservation Commission's Meeting on Northern Pass (April 16, 2011)

Easton Town Hall Sign

On April 16, 2011, the Easton Conservation Commission (ECC) sponsored a meeting on the proposed Northern Pass project in its ongoing "Pastry & Preservation" series. Will Abbott, SPNHF, talked about the "unanswered questions" raised by Northern Pass. All ten ECC members and alternates attended as well as 120 other people. 60% of the land in Easton belongs to the White Mountain National Forest, and the entire town lies within the forest proclamation boundary. The towers would cross the Easton Valley, entering at an elevation of 1800' on the northwest corner, dropping to 1200' on the valley floor, then climbing to 2600' on the southeast corner in the WMNF. In the fragile habitat of high-elevation spruce-fir forest, 2600' is the highest point for towers along the entire proposed 180-mile route. (This year, Easton has been accepted into NH Fish & Game's Taking Action for Wildlife  program in recognition of its critical habitats for wildlife.) The towers would directly cross some 22 parcels of private land in Easton, with a dozen or so abutting private parcels. 80'-130' towers (with towers in excess of 130' in the WMNF) on the especially high elevation ROW would be seen widely throughout town from numerous other private parcels and beyond from both the WMNF and Franconia Notch State Park. At town meeting this year, Easton adopted a neighbor-friendly ridgeline ordinance to limit the visual impact of new structures above the 1300' elevation. Easton also voted unanimously to oppose Northern Pass at town meeting and appropriated $2500 for that purpose.

Councilor Ray Burton attended the April 16th meeting and told the crowd that we are all going to help the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee "write history" next year when it issues its first denial to a transmission project. (Northern Pass is a private merchant line unrequested by the regional planning group, ISO-New England.)




Proposed Northern Pass "preferred" route through Easton and the WMNF





ECC Chair Maria Hynes opens the meeting



Will Abbott, SPNHF, speaking on "Northern Pass: Unanswered Questions"

Six of the ten ECC members who attended

Some of the 120 members of the audience

More audience members

Northern Pass: A Plan B Coos Loop?



Northern Pass has evidently decided that it cannot (or will not be able to) use eminent domain to seize private land for its 40-mile "preferred" route from the border crossing at Pittsburg (Point A) to Groveton (Point B), where PSNH's existing ROW starts. One would hope that had led to the recognition that not only does the North Country reject the project, but the entire length of New Hampshire, another 140 miles on the "preferred"  route, rejects the project. (All except Franklin.) Instead, Northern Pass is apparently developing Plan B, searching for another route through Coos County. It looks like NP will try to go east through the Dixville area and then loop around to the west again and join up at Lost Nation (Groveton). But, if that route succeeds, Fred King has something to say about where the big fight will then be, as reported in today's Colebrook Chronicle.



Point A > Point B Black Line = Current 40-mile "Preferred" Route with no ROW
Blue Dotted Overlay = Alternate "Preferred" Route with no ROW
Yellow Line = Existing PSNH ROW
Red Line = Approximate Existing Coos Loop 115 kV Transmission Line
Green Line = Approximate Granite Windpark Line
(Windpark map)

The Chronicle reports that NP has recently talked with selectmen in the town of Dummer and with residents in the unincorporated places of Dixville and Millsfield. In Millsfield, NP said it was "looking at potentially creating a [150 foot] ROW near the windpark as an alternative route away from Stratford, Columbia, and Colebrook," the Chronicle notes. Among Millsfield residents' concerns was whether they would see the towers behind the windmills. NP also visited the general manager of the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel, Jeff McIver. McIver told NP that it should bury the line, but NP said it was "cost prohibitive," the Chronicle reports. If Plan B in Coos is forming up, Fred King supports it. But, asked about NP using existing PSNH right of way from Groveton to Deerfield, King said that "'fight has yet to be fought--and that can be the ungluing of the whole thing. Those people in the south have a legitimate concern. I think that's where ultimately [NP] is going to have a big fight'."

The North will fight, the South will fight, and we'll continue fighting together as we have since we first heard about Northern Pass. The possible Plan B Coos Loop is not going to change New Hampshire's mind that this project is bad policy for the entire state. And we doubt that Colonel Timothy Dix will smile down upon a Coos Plan B either.

Read the entire article, "Northern Pass Looking Into Placing Line Further East?," in today's Colebrook Chronicle, and thanks again to the Jordans for continuing high quality, in-depth investigative reporting.