The New Hampshire State Supreme Court has sided with the Site Evaluation Committee’s rejection of Northern Pass. If the committee has that authority under law, then that’s the right call. But while some factions are cheering, this is indicative of a serious issue.
Articles tagged as
Northern Pass
“Environmental activists ignore energy security realities”
by Skip
Occasionally, the Concord Monitor will print something against “type” and puts up an LtE / Op-Ed that is opposite their in-bred philosophy. This on environmentalists eschewing basic economics and science for ideological purposes (e.g., the Sierra Club’s “Beyond <insert fossil energy source here>” programs which stand on solely on one point – keep everything in the ground). A bit of a read but worth your time. And no, the author has nothing to do with environmentalism or energy fields – he just wants to run his company here but the environmentalists here are willing to hurt the economy for all simply to satisfy their few (reformated, emphasis mine):
The willingness of environmental activists and their elected and appointed allies to ignore the drumbeat of bad news about the security and costs of the region’s energy supplies is a stunning abdication of responsibility for sound public policies to protect both the environment and the economy. While responsible environmental policies are necessary, to assume that somehow New Hampshire and New England can quickly move from natural gas to 100 percent renewable energy, while avoiding any new transmission to deliver renewable energy, is naïve and dangerous.
The author misunderstands – for the environmentalists, this is a FEATURE, not a bug.
The Tyranny of Administrative (Green) Power in New Hampshire
Barry Brownstein, writing at the Foundation for Economic Education, outlines the problem and abuses of administrative power, right here in New Hampshire, summed up in his closing paragraph.
Holding PSNH’s feet to the fire? Part 2
by Skip
I had posted about a relatively new TEA Party’s invite to PSNH to have them come in and talk about their side of the Northern Pass Project. Result? No show. How couth to bail at the last moment. Well, I ran into Tim Carter of the Lakes Region TEA Party at the TEA Party Express … Read more
WILL LIVING OFF THE GRID BE ILLEGAL SOON?
by Rick Olson
“Doesn’t the fight for survival also justify swindle and theft? In self defence, anything goes.” ~Imelda Marcos USA Today reported back in April 2006, that 180,000 families were living “off the grid” Moreover, USA Today in that same story reported that that rate has jumped to upwards of 33% a year for a decade according … Read more
Northern Pass: Still Ignoring the Overarching Reason for Opposition
by Rick Olson
“The only people who support the use of eminent domain for private development are cities that use it, developers and businesses that benefit from it and planners who plan it. Everyone else hates it.” – Dana Berliner, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice Yesterday’s Union Leader featured, Another View of Why New Hampshire should be open … Read more
Northern Pass: Redux Of 1970’s Pope County Michigan
by Rick Olson
Northern Pass wants to build a build a 180-mile power line corridor through 44 Granite State Communities from as far North as Pittsburg down to Deerfield.
House Bill 648, “An act relative to eminent domain petitions by public utilities” brought 250 supporters, roughly 170 of which are property owners located on the proposed or alternative route of the project. According to the Bill’s analysis section, the bill seeks to, “Prohibit public utilities from petitioning for permission to take private land or property rights for the construction or operation of a private large scale transmission line.” The bill drew overwhelming support by those who fear their land might be taken from them or rendered worthless.
Such fears are not without precedent. This fight is not a new fight. This very situation played out in Minnesota in the early 1970’s where farmers waged a fight against big power companies taking farmland by eminent domain. The farmers ultimately lost this fight. This account is detailed in the book Powerline: the first battle of America’s energy war, written by the late Senator Paul D. Wellstone and Barry M. Casper (Forward in 2003 by lefty Senator Tom Harkin). Aside from the book being written by a couple of liberal progressives, the book is otherwise instructive in the plight of these farmers against Big Power.
Arguments against the project range from blighting the landscape and disparately affecting the tourism industry to devaluation of land have been leveled. those are all reasonable. But there is one component given very little attention in the discussion here.
Big Power will nearly always make an attractive financial offer to you for a utility easement over your land. But what few really comprehend what happens after such an easement is given by a landowner. Read the account of a Fond-du-Lac Wisconsin Farmer that granted a power company a lease to install a wind turbine on his farm land.