DO YOU WONDER WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON?
FirstLight, the Canadian venture capital investment parent of the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station is now required to provide biweekly reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on its progress in securing signatures to the Agreement(s) in Principle ( AIP) with identified stakeholders in its attempt to obtain another 50 year license to operate. One only has to review the entries in the FERC Docket (P-2485) to follow FirstLight’s delayed and failed attempts to meet its own requested deadlines and FERC’s complicity in these delays and failures.
On 8/21 FERC allowed the MA DEP request for a delay in the issuance of the Ready for Environmental Assessment (REA) to 11/21 to allow FirstLight to complete its AIP(s) with the identified stakeholders. At this point FirstLight stated, “substantial progress has been made on a settlement” and indicated they intended to file the AIP(s) on 6/22. On 8/22 FirstLight told FERC again that “substantial progress had been made,” and that a final agreement would be filed by 12/31/22. On 1/4/23 FirstLight reported that some agreements had been reached and were being circulated for signatures. FirstLight indicated its intent to file further agreements by 3/31/23. On 1/12/23, FERC required bi-weekly updates from FirstLight. On January 24, 2023, “FirstLight received an emailed letter from a subset of settlement parties, also addressed to Rebecca Tepper, Secretary of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for Massachusetts and distributed to a number of Massachusetts political offices, requesting a meeting to discuss the current state of settlement…. “ On 2/10/23, FirstLight informed FERC that a full settlement agreement meeting was held on 2/3/23 with another scheduled for 2/17/23. There were still no new signed agreements. FirstLight expressed an intent to present a Comprehensive Agreement in Principle, but noted if this were not possible, FirstLight would provide those agreements that were reached by 3/31/23.
Common sense would conclude that either FirstLight is having difficulty obtaining the AIP(s) or that FirstLight is not motivated to obtain the AIP(s), more likely both. Why wouldn’t “stakeholders” be on board with FirstLight’s Pumped Storage Station, if it were the environmental panacea FirstLight claims it to be, especially considering the ever present climate emergency? Why wouldn’t FirstLight want to delay this and every other process for as long as possible? FirstLight’s license expired in 2018 and since then FirstLight has been running free of additional agreements and investment, skimming the top and leaving the bottom. FirstLight takes this cream, $58 million in 2019 and stashes it in a Delaware tax haven. All the while destroying the ecosystem of the Connecticut River, killing everything in its wake and using fossil fuel to do so. FirstLight never mentions the fact that for more than 50 years their facility has pulled the river backwards for a minimum of 3 miles, causing the river to no longer be a river and violating the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. It is a fact: Living Rivers Flow Downstream!
To say NO to this big boondoggle and to insist the Connecticut River has a Right to Live, enter your comments in the FERC docket re: the relicensing of FirstLight’s Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station (FERC.gov, E-Library, project # P-2485).
Contact these stakeholders who are at the table and tell them that you want them to stand up for the Connecticut River’s Right to Live, stand up for the Peoples’ Right to a live river, stand up against FirstLight’s destruction of the Connecticut River ecosystem and stand up to FirstLight’s profiteering off our river and everyone of us. Tell them not to sign any agreements with FirstLight!
Audrey Mayer, New England Field Office Supervisor, US Fish and Wildlife Service audiey.mayer@fsw.gov
Jesse Leddick, Chief of Regulatory Review, MA Natural Heritage Program
Caleb Slater, Director of Hatcheries, MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife
Tell the same to:
Melissa Hoffer, MA Climate Chief,
Rebecca Tepper:, MA Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs
Your state and federal Representatives and Senators