The Martha’s Vineyard Commission, state representatives, town officials and others are all calling on the utility giant to find alternatives to herbicide spraying under power lines this year.
For the first time in four years, Eversource Energy plans to apply herbicides under some of its power lines on the Vineyard. A public comment period ends March 27.
The future of the Cape Wind project on Horseshoe Shoal was thrown into uncertainty this week when National Grid and NStar announced they had terminated their contracts to buy power from the private wind developer.
Islanders can expect to see their electric bills go up this winter, with Cape Light Compact and NStar both announcing increases in electricity costs beginning as early as December. Utility companies said the price increase can be attributed to a growing demand for natural gas paired with pipeline constraints.
New NStar undersea cable is expected to add redundancy to Vineyard power system and make service more reliable. The cable stretches 29,000 feet from Falmouth to West Chop.
The state Department of Agricultural Resources will allow comment until Feb. 18 on utility's plan to use herbicides to control vegetation under power lines.
Amidst public scrutiny of NStar’s vegetation management practices, senior arborists from the utility company addressed concerns of Tisbury residents at a meeting on Tuesday of the board of health.
I have lived on Lake Street in Vineyard Haven for 25 years. A few years ago, I went to pick up my mail at the cluster box under the power lines and saw a crew of workers with chainsaws taking down a lovely grove of small trees that shaded the boxes. I called NStar and was told that they have a mandate from the federal government to keep the rights of way free from vegetation lest something fall on the power lines. Since the power lines are at least 50 feet off the ground, this scenario seemed very unlikely, insofar as the trees were no taller than 12 feet.
