More clean energy could be coming to New England with the approval of funding for a new transmission line that will mostly be buried underground.This will be the third such project to bring such power into New England.
The Twin States Clean Energy Link will stretch from the border with Canada in Canaan, Vermont, to Londonderry.
Officials said electricity has become expensive throughout the Northeast.
"A large part of that stems from our inability to deliver affordable and reliable resources into the region," Chris Ellms Jr., deputy commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Energy, said.
The lack of infrastructure to supply New England could change with the Twin States Clean Energy Link project. Federal funding has been approved for the mostly underground transmission line that officials said would allow Canada and New England to share clean energy.
The first two – Northern Pass and the CMP project - were supposed to bring hydroelectric power from Quebec into New England, the first through New Hampshire and the second through Maine. Both were blocked by the NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard), BANANAs (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything), and so-called Watermelon Environmentalists (‘green’ on the outside but ‘red’ on the inside, using environmentalism as a means of pushing forth a socialist agenda). All worked to kill these previous two powerline projects and succeeded. (The CMP project was declared illegal ex post facto after a state ballot initiative. This is still going through litigation based upon the ex post facto law being unconstitutional.)
Goodness knows the region needs the power considering the number of generating plants that have been taken offline and not replaced. It doesn’t help that much needed natural gas pipeline projects were blocked which affected the ability to use existing natural gas fueled generators to provide electricity, particularly during the winter. New England is dependent on foreign natural gas brought in on LNG tankers from Trinidad and Tabago, Libya, or Yemen, and done so at world market rates rather than cheaper domestic rates. This happens every winter.
While this latest powerline project is badly needed and even though most of the powerline will be buried – out of sight, out of mind - I figure the chances of this one succeeding are poor. The same NIMBYs, BANANAs, and Watermelon Environmentalists who killed the first two projects will do their best to kill this project, too. (These are the same folks who will also complain about their electricity bills being so high, unable to make the connection between their actions and their sky high electrical utility bills.)
I hope my expectations regarding this new project will be proven wrong.