Power company petitioned for a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) for the construction and operation of a clean energy connection project to deliver 1,200 megawatts of electricity from Québec to the New England Control Area.
The Public Utilities Commission granted the petition, and intervenor appealed.
The Supreme Judicial Court held that:
- Intervenor had standing to appeal from the issuance of a CPCN;
- Commission did not legally err when it that found power company was not required to submit the statutorily required results of an independent third-party investigation into the use of nontransmission alternatives;
- Commission did not err as a matter of law by concluding the term public need was a general standard of meeting the public interest;
- The statute governing construction of power transmission lines did not require the Commission to undertake consideration of any mitigation of adverse impacts;
- Substantial evidence existed to support the Commission’s finding that a proposed power transmission line project would not adversely impact the State’s renewable energy generation goals; and
- Parties to a stipulation that recommended approvals and findings regarding issuance of the CPCN, CPCN conditions, and nontransmission alternatives, represented a sufficiently broad spectrum of interests.