Sugar Hill, Easton, and Plymouth, New Hampshire, have all passed rights-based ordinances prohibiting high voltage transmission lines through their communities. Specifically “Northern Pass”, an ecologically devastating hydroelectric project from Hydro Quebec in Canada.
It shall be unlawful within the Town of Easton for a corporation, or any person using a corporation to engage in land acquisition necessary for the construction of an unsustainable energy system, or to engage in construction or siting of any structure to be used in the operation of an unsustainable energy system.
“Unsustainable energy systems” means those systems that are controlled by state and federal energy policies, rather than community controlled energy policies; hydro-electric and industrial scale wind power when it is not locally or municipally owned and operated, energy systems using fossil fuels, including but not limited to coal, natural gas, petroleum products, nuclear and radioactive materials and other fuel sources that are non-renewable or which produce toxins and substances that cause injury to humans or natural communities and ecosystems, or that are in violation of residents’ rights to a sustainable energy future. The phrase shall also include any energy system which violates the rights ecosystems and human and natural communities under this ordinance or under other laws.