Quebec – New England Transmission

The line was planned to extend beyond the two terminals at Des Cantons and Comerford to the hydroelectric power plants of the La Grande Complex, in the James Bay region of Québec, and to the high consumption area around Boston, Massachusetts — specifically, by 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) to the north toward the converter station at Radisson Substation, and to the south to the converter station at Sandy Pond in Massachusetts.

[citation needed] For the connection of the Montreal area, a further converter station at Nicolet was put into service in 1992 with a transmission capacity of 2,000 megawatts.

[11] According to Jim Robb, a senior executive from Northeast Utilities, New England could have met one third of its Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative commitments with the hydropower coming through this new power line alone.

In 2004, shortly before U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Canada, a tower along the Quebec–New England Transmission circuit in the Eastern Townships near the Canada–US border was damaged by explosive charges detonated at its base.

[3][20] In November 2015, the Sierra Club of New Hampshire expressed opposition to the new line, saying that it would benefit Connecticut and Massachusetts residents more than those in New Hampshire, and expressing concerns about the flooding of boreal forests during the construction of Hydro-Québec's dams in northern Quebec, disputes with the Innu First Nations, and the effects on tourism and the environment within the White Mountain National Forest.

[22] United States Congressional Representative Carol Shea-Porter[23] and Senators Maggie Hassan[24] and Jeanne Shaheen[25] also oppose expansion of the line.

The authors concluded that environmental impacts of large reservoirs are therefore not necessarily a direct consequence of new transmission lines, especially if exports are settled primarily on the short-term market rather than through long-term power purchase agreements.