MANCHESTER — Northern Pass officials are refuting claims by the Conservation Law Foundation that the third-party contractor selected to evaluate environmental impacts of the project should be dumped.

CLF is opposing the proposed high-voltage transmission line through the state. It obtained federal documents it believes show that the Northern Pass officials told the Department of Energy to choose the SE Group and two other contractors to do a third-party evaluation.

CLF has called on the DOE to remove the contract and go back to the drawing board, potentially setting the project back months if not years.

On Tuesday, Northern Pass sent a letter to the DOE defending the federal agency's decision.

Anne Bartosewicz, project director, wrote to the DOE calling either false or irrelevant claims by the CLF.

She told the DOE it retained its decision-making authority in the final selection and that the process followed “strict standards.”

But CLF has documents showing the project's attorney, who used to work for DOE, suggested they choose SE Group.

Northern Pass is being proposed by Northeast Utilities and Hydro-Quebec to deliver 1,200 megawatts of hydro power over a 180-mile, high-power transmission line from the Canadian border to Deerfield. A Presidential Permit from the DOE is required to build the $1.1 billion project.

Part of the federal process requires a through environmental impact statement done by an independent third party.

Companies that do that work are paid by the applicant but work for the DOE.

CLF was able to argue that the project's first contractor, Normandeau Associates, had too many ties to the applicant. Normandeau withdrew.

Bartosewicz wrote that the current contractor has no past experience with them, something that is hard to find, but still has experience on environmental impact statements that follow the National Environmental Policy Act rules.

Mike Skelton, spokesman for Northern Pass, said accusations by the CLF do not make sense.

“We felt it was important to respond and set the record straight given how off-base CLF's complaint is. In our view, CLF's actions are more of the same from a group that has consistently worked to oppose Northern Pass at every turn.”

“Upon review of the facts, it's clear their complaint has no merit and was aimed at misleading the public,” he said.

“The final decision of which contractors to hire for Northern Pass belonged solely to the DOE,” he concluded.

Christophe Courchesne, staff attorney for the CLF, said on Tuesday that the Northern Pass Transmission letter “leaves us in exactly the same place: the fairness and integrity of the process remain in serious jeopardy. The facts speak for themselves; as NPT admits, NPT handpicked the contractor team and was given enormous influence over the process so far. The public can have no confidence that the contractor team will exercise its duties independently and impartially when it owes its job to NPT.”

“NPT not only picked the contractor team, but was allowed to rule out the qualified experts at DOE's own National Laboratories because of cost. This is unacceptable and proves that NPT has been unfairly given the opportunity to control the review of its own project. New Hampshire deserves an independent, rigorous and world-class review of Northern Pass, period,” Courchesne said.

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Paula Tracy may be reached at ptracy@unionleader.com.