11/01/22 CT RIVER DEFENDERS STATEMENT TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF ISO NEW ENGLAND
Board of Directors, ISO New England
Directors,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. We are speaking on behalf of the Connecticut River and in response to the ongoing devastating Climate Emergency, both of which we believe you have a responsibility to prioritize and act upon in your capacity as Directors of ISO New England. We are speaking in opposition to ISO’s engagement with FirstLight and its Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station.
The Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station has been destroying the ecosystem of the Connecticut River for over 50 years. As we are certain you know, the facility sucks the river backwards, in order to force the river up the mountain holding it in a reservoir to be released downhill, thereby providing energy. At least 20+ miles of the rIver are negatively affected in this process, killing millions of fish, eggs and larvae in huge turbines. This complete entrainment of life on this stretch of the river is ECOCIDE and is acknowledged by FirstLight, as well as those who have and are participating in studying this project.
We are all aware that there is an undeniable Climate Emergency which can not and must not be ignored any longer. Swift and determined action must be taken by you in your capacity as Directors of the New England grid to assure that necessary actions are taken to save the planet. Contrary to FirstLight’s green-washing claims, Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station is a fossil fuel operation. FirstLight’s operation is not hydro power. It is not clean energy. Northfield Mountain is, in effect, a highly inefficient fracked-gas fueled battery. It utilizes fossil fuels, especially so-called ‘natural” gas, to suction the water backward and to pump the water up the mountain. In fact it uses 1/3 more dirty, climate-destroying energy to do this pumping than is obtained by the release of the water. FirstLight purchases the power, to run this project at low prices and then holds the water for peak electricity use times, thereby maximizing its profits, while the river, people and planet suffer from this method and its use of fossil fuels. It is a travesty that people and the ecosystem of the great Connecticut River are allowed to suffer, while using fossil fuel to create profit for a private entity. This is totally nonsensical and absurd. It is a false solution to global warming and in fact contributes to the Climate Emergency. We are killing a river and in the process, we are killing all life including ourselves.
FirstLight is making no significant investment in addressing any of these problems. It has put forth plans to install an ineffective temporary net for fish flow, but will not do this work until nine years following its relicensure. In the meantime, FirstLight continues to “skim the cream” and rake in high profits from its acts which accelerate Ecocide.
You, as Directors working in the name of the people, have a mandate to assure that the contributors to our grid are responsible and trustworthy partners in the provision of services and the protection of the environment and our future. FirstLight does not meet these standards. FirstLight is a profiteering enterprise. It is a Canadian venture capital investment giant which purchased the Northfield Mountain facility in 2016 at a price far below what the previous operator paid in that same decade. Within months of the expiration of its “license to kill” in 2018, FirstLight reregistered the facility into a limited liability tax shelter in Delaware. In 2019 FirstLight reported $158 million in sales in Northfield alone and paid only $100,000 in state taxes. FirstLight prioritizes profit over its responsibilities for the ecological health of the river and for operations in the best interest of the people. As the world community confronts Ecocide, the profit maximization which this irresponsible company prioritizes is disgusting and unacceptable. Directors who shirk their responsibility to stand against this Ecocide are equally complicit.
Lastly, we would like to address the issue of “forward capacity.” It is a failure of ISO and thereby you, its Directors, to be relying on “forward capacity” entities such as FirstLight to provide for power needs at peak times of use. We all know that these times are just a small number of days throughout the year. The Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station can only provide approximately 6 hours of power on these days. This does not justify the killing of a river and the use fossil fuels. There is no daily power emergency on the grid. There is however, a daily deadly aquatic pillage of an ecosystem that is part of a daily planet emergency. ISO should not be relying on and supporting the continuance of fossil fuel infrastructure in order to meet the needs of the grid, including peak times. It is very unsettling that you have not moved beyond this point.
Decentralization of the grid is necessary. It is not productive nor ecologically sound to move electricity from long distances to power facilities nearby. Conservation measures by corporations as well as the public are necessary at peak times and can be instituted and strengthened, if there is a will for such. It is very unfortunate that you are not leading in expressing and implementing this will. We urge and expect you to do so.
Further, we earnestly demand that you remove FirstLight as a providers for the grid. We urge that you inform FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) that you do not support relicensing of the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Station; citing its destruction of the Connecticut River ecosystem, the impact on the overriding Climate Emergency and FirstLight’s irresponsible and unacceptable financial exploitation of people and planet.
Thank you for your time,
Authored by Priscilla Lynch, edited by Terisa Turner for Connecticut River Defenders
“Living Rivers flow Downstream”