The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee's vote comes days after Eversource won lucrative utility contracts in the Bay State.
A $1.6 billion New Hampshire power line recently chosen to deliver massive amounts of Canadian hydropower to Massachusetts has been shot down.
The New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee on Thursday denied an essential state permit to Northern Pass Transmission, a project of Eversource Energy and Hydro-Quebec. The committee concluded that the project failed to show it would not impact property values, tourism and land use.
The bombshell New Hampshire vote comes one week after Massachusetts officials chose the 192-mile Northern Pass in a high-stakes, weighted procurement contest to deliver low-carbon electricity to homes and businesses in the Bay State in the form of utility contracts worth billions of dollars.
Now the future of the Northern Pass is uncertain, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy RFP is on the rocks. Eversource had expressed confidence that the New Hampshire permit would be granted and that Northern Pass would be operational by the end of 2020.
Greg Cunningham, a vice president for Conservation Law Foundation, said the New Hampshire rejection represents an opportunity for the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources to "go back and choose the best project -- which clearly was not Northern Pass."
Eversource could appeal the New Hampshire decision to that state's highest court. "However, that could be a lengthy process," Cunningham said.
One reason Massachusetts chose Northern Pass was because it could ostensibly start delivering low-carbon energy on an expedited timetable -- and now that apparent advantage over competing transmission proposals is gone.
On Jan. 25, Massachusetts energy commissioner Judith Judson announced that Northern Pass and Hydro-Quebec would be the sole winners of lucrative 20-year contracts to provide Massachusetts utilities Eversource, National Grid and Unitil with 9.45 terrawatts of clean energy per year.
In the Massachusetts contest, Northern Pass prevailed over proposals for less-expensive transmission lines through Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont that many saw as having less environmental impact. The Eversource line would be buried 60 miles through the White Mountain National Forest.
Critics took aim at the Massachusetts decision-making process, noting that Eversource the utility had seats on the state-sponsored committee that chose the project advanced by Eversource the developer -- even though the corporation agreed to an ethics standard and an outside procurement monitor.
The New Hampshire vote "raises serious questions" about the claim Northern Pass would be in service at the end of 2020, said Chloe Gotsis, spokeswoman for Attorney General Maura Healey, who last week vowed to scrutinize the Massachusetts bidding and procurement process.
"At a minimum, it appears today's development requires re-evaluation of the selection of Northern Pass. The attorney general's office remains committed to an open and transparent review, and we will be following this closely," said Gotsis.
Eversource did not immediately comment on the New Hampshire decision.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workeers Local 104, which had been promised thousands of construction jobs, said Thursday's vote was a "major disappointment to the working families of New England."
"After years of collecting evidence and data, in the end it appears that the SEC made their decision based on special interest opinions and not the facts," said IBEW business manager Brian Murphy. He said the union "looks forward to working with Eversource to continue to move this project forward and will continue our fight for clean energy and local jobs."
Environmentalists who had fought the controversial Northern Pass since it was first announced in 2011 expressed jubilation.
"This decision gives Gov. Baker the perfect opportunity to pick better clean energy projects that deliver more jobs and economic benefits for Massachusetts families and businesses," said Emily Norton, of the Massachusetts Sierra Club.
Competing high-voltage lines from the Canadian border were proposed in Vermont by TDI New England, in Maine by Central Maine Power and Emera, and in New Hampshire by National Grid. Dozens of wind and solar proposals in the northern states had also hoped for the Massachusetts utility contracts.
Massachusetts is under a court order to implement its own Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires slashing carbon emissions by 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Massive clean energy procurements were mandated by Baker's 2016 Energy Diversity Act.