Over the years the Lewis Family Foundation developed a set of core tenets that help guide all our work – Be Mindful; Be Urgent; Be an Example; Be a Teacher; Be in the Fight. These core tenets are particularly important in our work in conservation and sustainability because they remind us that for all its beauty and power, the Earth is fragile and urgently needs our care. We know these are David and Goliath fights and the terrible giants can be huge, for profit corporations with seemingly endless resources. But remember, David volunteered to fight Goliath and he won because he was clever and his cause was just.

We are proud supporters of  The Society to Protect New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF), who has been locked in battle with the giants Eversource and Hydro-Quebec for years. Eversource and Hydro-Quebec want to build 192 miles of new transmission line in northern New Hampshire, impacting three conserved Forest Society Reservations and thousands of people along the route. They want people to accept their insulting offer to bury only one third of the 190-mile line, leaving most communities along the route with unwanted visual blight. They want to cut closer yet to homes, playgrounds and schools. They want to take something from all of us. We need your help to stop Northern Pass once and for all. 

The allure of potential profits makes it hard for Goliaths like Eversource (formerly Northeast Utilities) and Hydro-Quebec to listen when regular people say no.  Instead, their response is often to hire more lobbyists and more lawyers in an attempt to impose their will on citizens.

SPNHF, founded by a handful of concerned citizens in 1901, is now one of the country’s most effective statewide land conservation organizations, and the leader in this fight to either bury the project as proposed so that it never sees the light of day, or bury the transmission lines completely underground along existing north-south transportation corridors.

The Site Evaluation Committee decided by unanimous vote last Spring  to deny a Certificate of Site and Facility to the proposed 192-mile transmission line through the heart of New Hamsphire.

It’s no surprise that Eversource, the company behind the Northern Pass transmission line proposal, appealed the SEC’s decision to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in August 2018. They just don’t want to listen. The state Supreme Court has accepted the appeal, as was anticipated in a high profile case such as this.

The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests filed its Northern Pass brief at the New Hampshire Supreme Court on March 21, 2019. The brief argues that the NH Site Evaluation Committee (SEC) was right to deny Eversource a certificate for site and facility for its 192-mile transmission line.

The Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the Northern Pass case for May 15 at 10:00 a.m. at the Court’s facility in East Concord. The Supreme Court is the last stop for Northern Pass, which was denied a Certificate for Site and Facility by a 7-0 vote of the Site Evaluation Committee on March 30, 2018.

For those who wish to observe the oral argument in real time in the comfort of your own home, the proceeding will be live streamed live by the Court.

Please Help Stop The Northern Pass!