GREENFIELD — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s public comment sessions at Greenfield Community College on Wednesday drew opposition from attendees who cited a lack of transparency in the comment process pertaining to FirstLight Hydro Generating Co.

FERC’s public comment sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening, were structured to allow individuals and organizations to provide testimony on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement that recommends a 50-year operating license for FirstLight’s Turners Falls dams and the Northfield hydro-pump facility, with recommendations.

The morning session, which started at 9 a.m., had guests register to provide comments to FERC representatives and two court reporters in a private room down the hall from GCC’s Cohn Family Dining Commons. Attendees were told the session wouldn’t include an informational presentation by FERC, or a public hearing, but officials were available to take questions. They faced opposition from attendees over the comment session being conducted on a one-on-one basis in a private room, with no guests or press allowed access.

FERC’s notice about the comment session, last updated May 30, 2025, states there will be no formal presentation, but set times for “individual oral comments that will be taken on a one-on-one basis.” The notice does not specify whether these comments would be taken in the style of a public forum.

Emily Carter, of FERC’s New England branch, said the one-on-one comment procedure, which the commission implemented, is done for efficiency in gathering public comments from multiple sources before the Aug. 28 deadline. All written and oral comments will be attached to the final Environmental Impact Statement, and a transcript of all comments made to FERC will be made available online following the two sessions.

A bit of a compromise was reached following a tense back-and-forth between FERC officials looking to explain their public comment policies, and attendees sharing their issues with transparency and communication.

Leading the effort was the Connecticut River Conservancy’s Massachusetts River Steward Nina Gordon-Kirsch, who recommended people gather in a circle to discuss their testimony and concerns about FirstLight’s relicensing, allowing FERC officials to record the comments one-on-one that would be documented for the commission to publish later, while also allowing an off-the-record discussion among concerned individuals and groups.

“This meeting is actually a public meeting, not a public hearing, and once we figured out the format of what the process was like, I didn’t want us to lose the opportunity to actually hear from each other, and let the FERC process happen, but also simultaneously let us hear from each other,” Gordon-Kirsch said about forming the discussion circle.

The discussion circle was made up of members of the Connecticut River Defenders, a citizen-run environmental advocacy group seeking the closure of the Northfield hydro-pump facility; Joe Graveline, former president of the Nolumbeka Project, a nonprofit Indigenous history and culture preservation organization; and other residents. They spoke about their concerns for the Connecticut River, the impact of the relicensing, current environmental conditions during FirstLight’s yearly drawdowns, and Indigenous cultural resource considerations by state and federal organizations. During the relicensing process, FirstLight has repeatedly faced criticism over the facilities’ impact on fish, the Connecticut River and the surrounding environment.

Prior to joining the discussion circle, Lois Gagnon provided one-on-one testimony to FERC. She said she was escorted to a room that had commission officials and court reporters to hear her testimony, which she then shared with the group. In coming to the event, she said she was expecting the public comment session to be a forum similar to previous public engagements, like one that was held by the state Department of Environmental Protection in February that allowed for public comment on FirstLight’s draft Water Quality Certification. MassDEP granted the certification in April.

“My expectations were that we were going to have a public forum in this room where we would get to hear everybody’s comments,” Gagnon said, adding how this format was “completely different.”

While the public comment session did not meet her expectations, Gagnon said she was happy to still have a chance to discuss each other’s testimony and thoughts.

“I’m so glad that we pushed back against this process, because it’s not really, truly a public process,” she said. “It’s a managed process.”

Gordon-Kirsch said she could understand why attendees would be confused, based on the language FERC had used to describe the format of the public comment session and the lived experience of attendees who had previously shared their concerns with MassDEP officials in a more open setting.

“I think no matter what this was publicized as, our lived experience has been that we get to attend the public hearing, and I understand why people would be confused and upset to show up and not have the same experience that we had with DEP in the spring,” she said. “But I’m glad we still got to hear each other.”

After the commission finished taking testimony from attendees at 11 a.m., Carter said she couldn’t comment on whether the pushback would influence how future FERC public comment sessions would operate. She noted the evening session at GCC would work the same way.

FirstLight Communications Manager Claire Belanger was present at the morning public comment session, and said in a statement later that, “FirstLight is grateful for the many towns, organizations, agencies and community members who have participated in this relicensing process to date and offered their perspective for the benefit of the Connecticut River and the future of FirstLight’s critical clean energy and energy storage projects.”

Belanger noted FirstLight will provide its own written comments to FERC.

Next steps

FERC’s public comment period has been extended to Aug. 28. The commission will read all the comments and attach them to a final Environmental Impact Statement, Carter explained Wednesday. She expects a final statement will be available by January 2026. Once the impact statement is complete, the commission has the green light to issue a license order, which would formalize all staff recommendations pertaining to FirstLight’s operations.

The draft impact statement has an overview of the contents, which states, “Based on our analysis, we recommend licensing the projects as proposed by the applicant, with some staff modifications and additional measures.”

Erin-Leigh Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.