Northern

Pass & NEPA

New England Clean Power Link

A new, completely buried transmission project by TDI New
England
Will run from the Canadian border to Ludow, VT
Will deliver 1000 MW of clean, renewable hydropower to the
New England Marketplace using state of the art High Voltage
direct current technology
Proposes running 2 6 inch wide solid state cables 150 miles
exclusively in VT
100 miles will be buried under Lake Champlain using lowimpact installation techniques
HVdc technology is environmentally friendly, has a small
footprint and allows for very controllable electric flow which
helps with grid reliability

Inelfe Underground Transmission

Project between France & Spain

Economic Disadvantages
Home and property value depreciation
Destruction of potential agricultural lands
Increased dependence on foreign energy
Due to the the first 140 miles of the line being
high voltage direct current (DC) residents,
businesses and power suppliers cant plug
into the line to obtain or sell electric power
The Northern Pass would effectively turn New
Hampshire into a extension cord

Environmental Disadvantages
Impact

almost 95,000 acres throughout the state

Tower structures up to 155 feet high
Rights of way up to 410 feet wide
Towers placed roughly every 800 feet
Will cut a swath through some of New Hampshires
most scenic landscapes
White Mountains National Forest
The Pondicherry division of Silvio O. Conte National
Fish and Wildlife Refuge
Private conservation lands
Numerous wetlands

DC Transmission Line
1200

MegaWatt Transfer Rate

Much larger than any other power line in
NH (450 Megawatt rate is the highest
now)

Northern Pass LLC

Headquarters

are in Concord, NH
Jointly owned by NSTAR, Northeast
Utilities
In charge of Construction and Operation
of proposed transmission lines and
facilities

NSTAR, Northeast Utilities &

Hydro-Quebec
NSTAR

is one of the largest utility

companies in MA and is the main
provider for Boston
Northeast Utilities based in Windsor, CT
provides power to millions of CT
customers
Hydro-Quebec was founded in 1944, it is
a centralized utility run by the
government of Quebec

The Towers
New

Towers will be higher then existing

lines at a height of 85 to 135 feet
Much taller than trees
Requires a wider right of way for safe
operation

Purpose and Need

NEPA
Passed

in 1969, the National Environmental

Policy Act was the first major statute of
environmental law
Relies on information, forcing agencies to
consider the environmental impacts of their
proposed actions and alternatives
Requires agencies to do an EIS(Environmental
Impact Statement) on a report on proposals for
legislation and other major federal actions
significantly affecting the quality of the human
environment

Map of Proposed HVDC Lines

Environmental Impact
Statement
Must

analyze the environmental impacts

across a wide range of proposed actions
Analysis must consider both
unavoidable adverse impacts and
mitigation alternatives
Must consider all environmental impacts
from this approach, alternatives,
including no alternative

Council on Environmental Quality

CEQ
Overseas

the NEPA process but does not

have enforcement authority
Enforcement has come from citizen suits
under the Administrative Procedure Act

Scope of the Northern Pass EIS

The EIS must include the results of detailed
assessments of all reasonable alternatives
EIS must include a broader statement of the
purpose and need for federal action beyond
the DOE (ie the Presidential permit process)
Must provide a scientifically sound accounting
of the greenhouse gas emissions impacts and
other environmental impacts of the project
Full analysis of visual impacts