An open letter to New Haven residents:
I am writing on behalf of Anbaric Transmission Company, and National Grid to introduce you to and update you about our project, the Vermont Green Line. Our proposed project will deliver clean energy to the New England Grid. The project, the Vermont Green Line (VGL), will run from upstate New York carrying 400 MW of wind and hydro power, it will travel under Lake Champlain and connect to the New England power grid in Vermont.
Last Tuesday evening we had an opportunity to appear before your Board of Selectmen. As has been reported, we indicated to the board that our financial commitment to the town would be in excess of $1 million annually. This would be new revenue — provided to the town directly, not shared with the state.
Furthermore, on the previous Monday evening, we met with representatives from the New Haven Fire Department to discuss our project and general issues they face in serving your community. It was a productive meeting with some concepts identified as to how we might work with the department. Those meetings will continue.
We want to thank the selectboard, the fire officials and all who have made themselves available to hear from us, it is greatly appreciated. A number of issues and questions have been posed about siting, and what impact our project may have on existing electric infrastructure in New Haven.
We will continue to approach our work with the residents of New Haven and its elected leaders in a collaborative manner to address all of the issues raised.
There are many additional key policy benefits that will come with the project, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increased diversity of our region’s energy sources and more electric bill stability for customers to name a few.
In addition to our discussions with the selectboard, we are announcing the creation of Vermont Green Line Coffee Hour. Every Monday preceding a New Haven selectboard meeting, representatives of the Vermont Green Line will be available to take questions and discuss the project. Thanks to the courtesy of the Village Green Market we will be available from noon to 1 p.m.
Our teams have successfully built similar projects in other locations, and in each case, it was the local community partnership not just the engineering that made the projects successful. It will be through a collaborative effort that the best solutions are identified. We look forward to that process.
Bryan Sanderson
Project Manager, Anbaric Transmission
Editor’s note: The New Haven selectboard has submitted 69 questions about the Vermont Green Line to Anbaric, and two selectboard members have questioned whether the company can claim that the money given to the town won’t be shared with the state.