Western Mass Communities for a

Responsible Grid

We want utility companies to responsibly limit their environmental impact in Western Massachusetts to only that necessary for protecting the grid.

To that end, we aim to inform and support community advocacy and legislation, both for the transmission line projects that are currently being planned, and for all the projects to come:

1. Current, major transmission line projects planned for Western MA

Eversource (NSTAR)

WT-11 Transmission Right-of-Way Reliability Program (TRRP) Project

Impacting: Northfield, Erving, Wendell, Montague, Leverett, Shutesbury, Pelham, Belchertown, Amherst, Granby, and Ludlow

More information here

National Grid (New England Power)

Central to Western Massachusetts Energy Improvement Project

Impacting: Auburn, Belchertown, Conway, Deerfield, East Brookfield, Leicester, Leverett, Millbury, North Brookfield, Pelham, Shelburne, Shutesbury, Spencer, Sunderland, Ware, and West Brookfield

More information here

2. Future transmission line projects in Western MA (and beyond)

After the two projects at left, there are far more to come. Eversource, for one, is proposing another ~20 transmission line projects in Western MA in the next 7 years, totaling about 2000 acres of clear-cutting.

Rather than depending on the public to oppose each project 's excesses individually, we need legislation so that all such projects start off with some basic, environmentally responsible principles baked in.