Transmission Cable Approved in Lake Champlain

The U.S. Department of Energy recently released their final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) concerning the construction of the New England Clean Power Link, an electric transmission line that would carry power from hydroelectric and wind sources in Canada, under Lake Champlain and into New England for consumption.  This transmission line will deliver 1,000 megawatts of power to the region, which is in need of new and renewable energy sources.

While running a massive electric cable under Lake Champlain seems like it may have detrimental environmental impacts, the EIS proved otherwise. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard worked together to create the EIS and have not raised environmental concerns with the project.  Receiving this approval serves as the presidential permit necessary to begin an infrastructure project crossing the Canadian border.

Numerous environmental advocates were involved in assuring that the environemntal impact of the cables was minimal. As a result of these negotiations, the developer TDI New England will pay a total of $720 million over the next 40 years to various environmental groups working to improve the health of Lake Champlain. Groups receiving funds include the Clean Water Fund, the newly created Lake Champlain Enhancement and Restoration Trust Fund and the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund.

The New England Clean Power Link is just one of many cables proposed to bring Canadian hydropower into New England through under Lake Champlain. Other proposals are the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE), the Northern Pass transmission project in New Hampshire and the Green Line.
The CHPE has already received its presidential permit. This 1,000-megawatt cable was proposed by TDI-NE’s affiliate Transmission Developers, Inc. The Northern Pass Transmission Project, a 1,200-megawatt cable, has not been approved due to public discontent. The Department of Energy is currently waiting to receive the Environmental Impact Statement.

The CHPE cable has many of the same anticipated environmental impacts as the other cables, New England Clean Power Link and the Green Line.
Mike Winslow, a scientist at The Lake Champlain Committee (LCC), which works to protect Lake Champlain and keep it accessible to the public, told The Campus that the environmental effects of such cables are negligible as long as some basic principles are followed.

“We determined that the environmental impacts were somewhat minimal. There will be sediment disturbance during the installation of the cable, though that’s expected to remediate itself in a very short period of time,” Winslow said.

Water temperature is another concern to consider, since even a minimal rise in water temperature can affect the aquatic ecosystem.
“The cable will likely increase water temperatures slightly in the areas immediately around the cable but, that’s going to be very deep in the water and will dissipate quite quickly,” Winslow said.

“There is the potential of electromagnetic fields affecting the fish migration, but that’s more of a theoretical problem, and we weren’t able to find any evidence that it could actually exist or that it would have significant consequences,” Winslow continued.

The Lake Champlain Committee has attended public hearings about the CHPE and submitted comments about the EIS in order reduce the environmental impact. They mainly wanted the CHPE cable to avoid wetlands and the company to establish a fund for the mitigation of environmental impacts.
“One other issue we’re concerned about is whether it would be going through wetlands, and we requested of the folks installing it that they try to avoid wetlands and they did that in their routing procedures,” Winslow said.

To address environmental problems that may arise in the future, LCC requested that the CHPE also set up an environmental mitigation fund for Lake Champlain. The CHPE complied, and has now arranged for a $117 million fund entitled the Hudson River and Lake Champlain Habitat Enhancement, Restoration, and Research/Habitat Improvement Project Trust. According to Winslow, this fund is a “big deal” and “will be helpful to mitigate whatever effects there are” from the transmission line.

These cables are just a few of the many energy options that New England and New York are facing in light of energy shortages. According to the Boston Globe, there are at least eight other proposed sources of energy – including natural gas pipelines or electric cables – that will be considered in the coming years.

“We looked at the cable, we compared it to alternative means of delivering that same energy and it’s much less environmentally damaging that those,” Winslow said.  Many residents in the Lake Champlain region worried that a natural gas pipeline would cause damage to the environment, and Winslow believes that these electric transmission cables are relatively risk-free in comparison.

While the cables will be passing through Lake Champlain and Vermont, the impetus for these electric transmission lines comes from farther south. Massachusetts’ legislation requiring more renewable energy and other sources of electricity powering down have created a need for more energy and more clean energy in southern New England.

According to Ed Krapels, CEO of Anbaric, the transmission development company, Massachusetts requires a certain amount of power to come from renewable sources, and gives special priority to wind.

“Our renewable targets require us to access a substantial amount of wind, and so our project was expressly designed to meet that requirement,” Krapels said of the Vermont Green Line, one of the many proposed transmission lines.

“And if Massachusetts utilities don’t meet the requirement they have to pay very heavy penalties,” he continued.

New England has seen the closure of several power sources, and will see more close their doors soon. In December of 2014, Vermont Yankee, a nuclear power plant in southern Vermont, shut down. Vermont Yankee had previously been supplying energy to parts of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, located in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is also slated to close by June 2019. Throughout New England in general, many old coal-powered plants have been shut down, as they cannot afford to update the plants to new, cleaner emissions standards.

Given the current emphasis on transitioning to renewable energy sources, and the closure of other sources of electricity, New England is in a need of some sort of energy solution.  Transmission lines from hydroelectric and wind power sources in Canada and northern New England seem to be the answer to New England’s uncertain energy future.