Government News, May 26, 2016

Since organizing in late March, Government Relations has gained support from the Sudbury Board of Selectmen (unanimously against both overhead and underground options of the current Eversource proposal), numerous state level officials, and reached out to the agencies involved in permitting and approvals.  Protect Sudbury has established ties with Hudson, and we meet regularly with the Sudbury Board of Selectmen and Town Manager on issues concerning the Eversource proposal and viable alternatives.    Through letters, calls, and networking, we have informed officials that alternatives to meet energy needs have not been adequately evaluated.  Our efforts contributed to Eversource’s delay in submitting their proposal to the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board.  On March 23rd, Protect Sudbury raised concerns to Siting Board staff and five days later, Eversource postponed their filing from Q1 to Q2.  On May 11th, Protect Sudbury met with Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, Matthew Beaton and the next day, Eversource suggested that they will likely postpone their June filing to a later date,  a date to be determined but anticipated to be in late summer.

The next step with Secretary Beaton is to present him alternatives which are less detrimental to the environment, so he can put the onus on Eversource to explain why other routes cannot work.  There is a narrow time window for Sec. Beaton to act before Eversource petitions the Siting Board, so we are funding expert analyses to validate alternatives.

ISO-NE is the quasi-public non-profit regional operator which awarded the project to Eversource on the basis of lowest cost and straight line on a map route but without adequate consideration of the negative impact it would have on the community and environment along its path.  We are preparing to petition ISO-NE on this issue.

At the federal level, we are in communication with Sen. Warren, as she successfully advocated for the withdrawal of the recent $3B Kinder Morgan gas pipeline project.  We have an active letter-writing campaign described on our website:  http://www.protectsudbury.org/letter-writing-campaign/  which targets Sen. Warren, Gov. Baker, AG Maura Healey, US Congresswoman Niki Tsongas (whom we met with 5/21), and State Sen. Mike Barrett.  Please call/write often!