ORFORD — Texas Congressman and Presidential candidate Ron Paul said if he were asked to sign a Presidential Permit required for the Northern Pass proposed transmission line, he would not do it.

“It’s a states’ issue and a property rights’ issue,” said Paul, who came to the Thomson Family Tree Farm Wednesday to sign the Thomson Presidential Pledge, thereby agreeing to cut taxes if elected.

He was asked by Tom Thomson, son of the late former Gov. Meldrim Thomson known for his motto “Ax the Tax” whether if as President he would sign the permit needed for the project to bring Hydro-Quebec power across the Canadian border into New Hampshire.

“I wouldn’t sign it. I wouldn’t give the permit,” he said. Private property rights are “really basic to solving our problems.” He said in his home state of Texas, where drilling for oil is the norm, there are strict property rights’ laws that he supports.

The Northern Pass is a proposed $1.1 billion hydroelectric transmission project that would bring 1,200 megawatts of power to New England. The project is being proposed by Northeast Utilities, the parent company of Public Service of New Hampshire and NSTAR and would be paid for and the electricity provided by Hydro-Quebec. The project would use 140 miles of existing PSNH right of way to build new transmission towers. It also needs to secure 40 miles of new right of way in northern New Hampshire to connect with Canada. To cross the international border requires a Presidential permit.

Paul said he does not support the President having that sort of power, and he said it should be decided at the state level and have the support of the state. While Northern Pass officials have said recently they have no plans to seek eminent domain and are working to get landowner consent to build the entire line, at public hearings on the issues earlier this year, representatives said that they might resort to petitioning for eminent domain to complete the project.

Paul said he felt government leaders “were a little loose” when it came to allowing eminent domain or the right to take private land for a public good, such as a highway or a sewer system.

“But it should never be used for a private project,” he said.

Northern Pass would be a for-profit project that has been deemed by the Independent System Operator of New England as not being necessary for electric system reliability. Rather it would be additional power that could help reduce rates in the region. Most of the power would likely be sold in Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“If they don’t want to sell their land, they shouldn’t have to,” Paul said as he signed the Thomson family document, which has also been signed by six other Republican presidential candidates: former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer, Christopher Hill, and U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn.

It pledges that they will cut taxes, spending and the size of government. The pledge also has the candidates agreeing to secure the nation’s border, become energy independent and “faithfully and forcefully uphold, follow and protect the U.S. Constitution.”

Paul said the pledge is not limiting his control if elected President.

“It confirms what I hold myself to,” said Paul, “and it supports what I have said.”

Some candidates have declined to sign the pledge including former U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr. and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. Thomson said he has not decided who to support in the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire but would like make a decision by November.