Liberty Utilities planned to get rich off the destruction of New Hampshire’s air, water and climate. They proposed the Granite Bridge fracked gas project in December 2017 and 350NH set out to stop them. Liberty Utilities wasted a whopping 9 million dollars trying to force the Granite Bridge Pipeline on our communities. They used this money to buy out our legislators on both sides of the aisle and to spread lies and false tax promises to NH communities. Liberty Utilties outspent our movement by more than 100:1 and we still WON. 

We started out in 2018 by building public awareness and opposition to the project. We held dozens of informational meetings and organized with residents in Epping and Exeter to launch local opposition groups. In 2019 Exeter voters passed the “Right to a Healthy Climate” ordinance and Epping voters passed a resolution suggesting that residents should be allowed to vote on whether or not to allow the siting of a liquid natural gas tank in their town. In 2020 Exeter voters also passed a resolution opposing the Granite Bridge Pipeline because the project was in direct opposition to the “Right to a Healthy Climate” ordinance passed in 2019.

In Manchester, residents spoke out publicly about the harm the Granite Bridge fracked gas pipeline would do to their community. They marched in the Climate Strikes and held visibilities at Lake Massabesic to draw attention to the fact that the pipeline would run alongside Manchester’s water supply. We demanded that our elected officials stop the pipeline at actions at the NH State House and Liberty Utilities Concord office. In 2020, the 350NH Action team got presidential candidates to publicly oppose the pipeline and made the Granite Bridge pipeline a key issue in the Governor’s race. 

These efforts and clear public outrage forced Liberty Utilities to cancel the project in July of 2020. They tried to pass the wasted 9 million dollars on to ratepayers but the Public Utilities Commission sided with us and denied their request. We showed Liberty Utilities that if they want to build a fracked gas pipeline, they will have to come through our movement.