Energy generated in New York to power proposed Vermont Green Line project

Approval process for $600 million project expected to take several months

BEEKMANTOWN, N.Y. —The North Country has many natural resources with the potential for clean energy projects from wind to solar to hydro power. Massachusetts-based Anbaric Transmission is hoping to take advantage of them.

The company wants to build and co-fund the $600 million dollar Vermont Green Line with National Grid to bring energy from New York to New England.

"We're working within the community in Beekmantown and in Clinton County to put those lines in and collect that power and move it into the markets," said Mike Relyea with Amanus consulting.

He says a combination of wind and hydro power would generate enough energy to power about 400,000 homes.

Energy would be generated by wind turbines from the proposed Bull Run Wind Energy Center in the towns of Clinton, Ellenburg, Altona and Mooers. That energy would be supplemented by hydropwer from Hydro-Quebec, on an as-needed basis, and would go from a converter station in Beekmantown through about 60 miles of underground cables, traveling under Lake Champlain, until reaching another converter station in New Haven, Vermont, where it would then be placed on the New England grid.

Relyea said about 40 of the 60 miles of cable needed to transport energy from New York to Vermont would be buried under Lake Champlain without harming wildlife.

"This is designed so there's minimal impact on the communities," he said.

Relyea said it's all part of a request for proposals from Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for more clean energy.

"We'll take that wind power and collect it and move it into the southern New England states who are looking for the clean energy," he said.

Although the North Country wouldn't receive any of the energy generated, Relyea said about 300 jobs would be created in both New York and Vermont and millions of dollars would go back in to communities on both sides of the lake.

"We're close to $90 million in Clinton County and about $60 million coming into the town of Beekmantown," Relyea said.

He said a lot of the money coming into Beekmantown would go towards offsetting the taxpayers expense on school taxes. Beekmantown superintendent Dan Mannix thinks it's a win-win situation.

"You're going to see taxes lower in 20 years than they are now," Mannix said.

Before any of that happens, the project plans need to go through the approval process which is expected to take about 18 months. Relyea said building the Vermont Green Line could take a couple of years.

"We're about a year and a half to two years on both sides of the line," Relyea said.

He hopes the project gets the green light so the Vermont Green Line can get up and running by 2020.