I think the public would like to know that FirstLight Power and executives will be holding a giant conference this Tuesday and Wednesday. Sadly, its not open to the public. It’s just industry insiders. They are calling it a hydropower conference, but highlighting the Northfield Mountain Pumped Storage Project — even though it is the most murderous machine ever installed on the Connecticut River, reverses miles of river flows, is powered by 60% natural gas from the power grid, and literally wastes 34% of that climate scorching gas pulling the Connecticut River backwards and uphill.

Northfield Mountain’s original Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license expired in 2018. FirstLight’s new owners, Public Sector Pension Investments of Canada swooped down into the Connecticut River Valley in 2016, then re-registered their cash-cow, Northfield Mountain, into a Delaware tax shelter less than two years later. In the meantime, they have bled, stalled and starved the relicensing process of time, money and energy through the efforts of their corporate legal team, consultants, and “extension of time delays” granted by the FERC.

FirstLight’s Northfield has been the Connecticut River ecosystem’s most murderous and disruptive machine for over half a century. It is clear to all that, as a giant, transnational investment owned company, they arrived here for the money. The public, and the children of the future, have always deserved a living river, not a mislabeled, wasteful Trojan Horse, masquerading as their key to the mega-grid future — while the climate solution is clearly local micro grids and distributed power. Thus, I thought I should pass this along to those who care. All the executives you’ll never see will be there, and even “foreign nationals” will be allowed on the tour of Northfield. Sadly, we’re not invited.

Karl Meyer

Greenfield