(Em)Powering New York: Local Perspectives on the Champlain Hudson Power Express Project

This study examines local perspectives on the controversial 1250 MW Champlain Hudson Power Express (“CHPE”) electrical transmission project connecting Québec to New York City. The study reviews scholarship relevant to CHPE controversy and adopts critical environmental justice (“EJ”), whole energy systems, and mixed-methods approaches to comprehensively understand project consequences for individuals, organizations, and governments affected by CHPE (“local stakeholders”). Based on thematic analysis of public comments, newspapers, documents, and interviews, this study argues that local stakeholders think about these consequences with four interrelated EJ principles: comprehensive public engagement, responsible land use and environmental protection, fair distribution of project consequences, and equitable relationships to Indigenous peoples. The study also argues that local stakeholders support an energy transition that aligns with these principles; relies on extensive, incentivized, and publicly developed renewable energy development; and provides context-specific community benefits and expansive, local, and union employment. Justice matters in and of itself, but also because local opposition to electrical infrastructure projects that promote environmental injustice could critically delay urgent decarbonization efforts, thereby escalating atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations and worsening climate change impacts.