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The above link is to an article from the NH business review dated July 1, 2011 titled:
As large customers flee PSNH, what can the utility do? by Bob Sanders
This is as pertinent as it gets to the situation we are facing here. Definately a must read. Not partisan, just facts but facts are all we need in order to understand what's going on. It's shocking but not surprising. Send the link to everyone you think might care to know.
We've got them on the ropes, we can't let up now. Lower rates may be but one bankruptcy away.
Way too many pages to read through, but I have a question. Okay, it's an easement and not a seizure of property. But I assume that the proprosed route does not only go through property with existing (but not exercised) easements. So aren't we talking forced easements or people who purchased land free of easements?
Easements are often not better than simply losing the property. I live on small-ish (10-ish acres) plot of land through which PSNH has an easement. It was in place, along with existing small powerlines, when the house was purchased, and we were well aware of it. The rest of the land is beautiful and the power lines aren't huge. Still, it cuts right through the property and dramatically affects where we can build anything - even a fence. You have to be X hundred feet away from the area in order to build. Given where the house is positioned, we will have to be extremely creative if we want to build an addition or even a garage.
We have also found that people assume power line areas to be public land, and use it for recreation without our permission. In our case, where we don't have hundreds of acres of land and the house is near the corridor (though blocked by a row of trees) we don't want ATV-ers and snowmobilers coming through.
We can't complain because we knew about this going in, but what of people on land with no easements? Or is it the case that all of the proposed route is through pre-existing easement areas?
And NHForester - can the easement area be used for farming? Every few years, PSNH comes through our land with some kind of grinding machine, and grinds every bit of vegetation down to the grown. The area looks clear-cut and horrible for awhile.
Cowbell look at the first pages and see the links to the mapping of the proposed take over(s). That will help you decide what it is you want to know. Me: I am a back woodsman, and just for the lost views i don't want it, and see no reason I should have to suck it up. This seems to be just so CXt can get power, and they took their blasted nuke down first.
Let them build a new nuke plant in CT if they need so much more power. This grab is wasting Canada too. They plan to flood a valley where not many people live, but that will still make waste methane and with no way to gather it or use it. Total hog wash IMO. You can't just flood a forest valley and not have issues.
Cowbell, Their "preferred" route follows existing psnh right of ways [ROWs] for about 130 of the 180 mile route. It needs to "take" or "acquire" 40 miles of new ROW in the north, although a new route may make this figure even larger. It also wants another 10+/- miles of new ROW in the Concord area. These are pristene woodlands and residential areas, no easements, no powerlines. Now they are proposing 135' metal scaffold towers [about twice as tall as the treeline] not the 45' to 65' wooden ones that you are familiar with. The existing ROW is also too narrow for these huge towers so it will need to be widened in most places [including the White Mountain National Forest] which means a "new" ROW and eminent domain, not just using their own ROW. Some people do farm under the lines but most of these areas have had some pretty nasty herbicides and pesticides used on them before the grinding machine was an option for those who object to spraying. The strong EMFs from the lines is considered by many to be a potent health hazard although the industry denies any such links. Studies have shown a link to a two fold increase in childhood leukemia as well as other ill effects. Google it, or for a local view: Bury the Northern Pass: Childhood Cancer Cluster near High Voltage Lines in Plymouth NH
Mac is right. Why are they treating us like second class citizens? This line would be illegal in the utility's home state of CT but they want to do it here hoping we don't know any better. This thing is so wrong for so many reasons, that NHBR article is long but if you print it out it's easier to read and has some startling info. and facts about the power company, not the particulars of this proposed project. PSNH is losing customers like water through a sieve. According to the article:
Nearly all of Public Service of New Hampshire's largest customers have gone, ever since they were allowed to buy their power elsewhere at a cheaper price. That raises the questions: Will these customers come back soon, or at all? In the meantime, what can be done about it?
These are serious questions. Nearly a third of the entire load that PSNH used to sell is now being sold by suppliers -- PSNH's competitors -- leaving residential customers and small businesses behind to maintain a system that is much larger than is needed right now. Doing so is driving up customers' electric bills by 8 percent. These higher costs are causing more customers to flee and could result in a "death spiral," claim PSNH critics.
In the fall of 2010, according to PSNH's quarterly report provided to the PUC:
Of the 117 largest customers in PSNH's service area - commercial and industrial users with a peak demand of more than 1,000 kilowatts - 78 percent had left, taking with them 92 percent of the large customer load.
• Of the 1,400 mid-size commercial and industrial users in the service area - those with a peak demand between 100-1,000 megawatts - 51 percent had left, depriving PSNH of 61 percent of that load.
• Some 10 percent of the 73,500 small businesses (using less than 100 megawatts) have ditched PSNH, taking with them over a fifth (21 percent) of the load in that category.
• Meanwhile, almost all of the 422,300 PSNH households have stayed behind. Only a third of a percent have migrated.
Freedom Energy, an alternative residential supplier is expected to be among the first to tap into the market of people who have had enough of psnh. They expect to begin offering service in August or Sept. of this year. Google it for more info.
With their customers running away, their only hope for survival is the millions in line rental fees they can charge for this Canadian power flowing south to their home state as well as the millions they recieve from maintaining a fleet of dirty, outdated, plants like the one in Bow. It's obvious they are unconcerned with our air and water quality, our health, our Constitutional rights, our life's work and investment in our property, our views, or our pride in our beautiful state and our way of life, they are concerned with the bottom line - profit. [Theirs]
I was polled by telephone on Saturday morning about this project. I let them know I was strongly opposed and would be available for more discussion if they desired.
Took Rt 113 from Holderness to Tamworth using Rt 113a as well. It's well posted at most homes along that route. While a phone survey may be one thing, they need a driver out to see all the signs. I suggest some big shot, who spends days if not weeks touring every back road in the state.
Yeah, a driver and a video camera person riding shotgun to document the level of disgust with this proposal. It should be on TV more often than those stupid no pass ads. Any takers?
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