New Hampshire’s Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Northern Pass project, allowing hydro-electric power to run from Canada to New Hampshire to the grid supplying New England.
The total project would run almost 200 miles from Pittsburg to Deerfield, bringing down about 1,000 megawatts of electricity and supplying enough power to the area to support an estimated one million homes.
With a recent New Hampshire Supreme Court ruling, the power lines are able to be buried under the North County highway, including Coos County.
The area in dispute is located on Route 3 in Clarksville, on land owned by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled on the lawsuit brought about by the Forest Society, who sued Eversource claiming they did not have the right to bury the powerline on Forest Society property.
The state’s highest court upheld a lower court’s ruling, allowing the project to proceed.
New Hampshire law allows utility projects to use highway corridors, and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests disputed the Northern Pass project as different from previously allowed utility projects.
“We conclude that use of the Route 3 right-of-way for the installation of an underground high voltage direct current electrical transmission line, with associated facilities, falls squarely within the scope of the public highway easement as a matter of law,” said the New Hampshire Supreme Court order, signed by three justices.
The Northern Pass is expected to have final approval by the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee by fall of 2017.