Beverly Council Holds Hearing on National Grid Cable Route Through City Neighborhoods

BEVERLY — November 15, 2021 — Beverly residents and city councilors demanded a pause on National Grid's plan to bury a 115-kilovolt transmission cable through residential streets rather than along the existing MBTA rail corridor. At a joint session of the Legal Affairs and Public Services subcommittees Monday, co-chairs Council President-elect Councilor Flowers and Ward 4 Councilor Scott Houseman detailed what they called a "fatally flawed" public notice process, including a state siting board hearing held on December 11, 2019, with a comment deadline of December 27, that Houseman said he was never notified of despite the route running through the entirety of his ward. Mayor Michael Cahill confirmed the city has commissioned independent peer reviews of National Grid's electromagnetic field study and is retaining a separate engineering consultant to assess whether the MBTA right-of-way is a viable construction alternative to the city streets route — a challenge to National Grid's own "constructability review." Resident and attorney Alyssa Raymond Reed told the council, "We do not have the power to fight Goliaths like National Grid, but we do have moral justice on our side." State Representative Jerry Parisella pledged to convene a meeting with National Grid alongside Senator Joan Lovely and the chair of the legislative utilities committee.