Growth Projections in doubt. On July 26, 2019, Eversource Energy announced that it was giving up Northern Pass after the New Hampshire Supreme Court rejected its appeal and sided with the SEC. Transmission controversy (FERC Complaint) While Eversource reported that its electric transmission earnings were up 80 percent in Q2 2015, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is now investigating the utility for having transmission rates that appear to be “unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory or preferential”. Meanwhile, the potential for rooftop solar to prevent the need for new transmission lines is growing and Eversource wants to cap rooftop solar growth in the state. Political connections In 2015, Eversource fought the rooftop solar industry and supported anti-solar policies. In Massachusetts, they staffed the State House with lobbyists in order to end legislation promoting growth of the solar industry. During the 2015 legislative session in New Hampshire, Eversource opposed an increase to the state's solar net metering cap. New Hampshire's cap is lower than all neighboring states. Eversource disclosed on its website politically related organization expenditures of $110,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in 2016, and payments made to trade associations that were used for lobbying or other political activities in excess of $135,000. Rate hikes and solar charges In Massachusetts, Attorney General Maura Healey testified in March, 2017 before the DPU urging it to deny Eversource's proposed $300 million rate increase. In her testimony, she challenged the need for Eversource's rate increase, noting NSTAR's and WMECo's high returns over the last few years. Referencing NSTAR's 2015 return of more than 13 percent, Attorney General Healey told the DPU that “[l]ast year, no state public utility commission in the country allowed a return that high.” Between 2010 and 2015, Eversource's shareholders of common stock received a cumulative total return (including quarterly dividends and the change in the market price per share) of 89 percent. On November 30, 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities on Thursday approved a much-reduced rate hike for Eversource Energy that will allow it to charge its Massachusetts electric customers tens of millions of dollars more a year. On December 20, 2017, Attorney General Maura Healey appealed the DPU ruling in the Eversource rate case, specifically the DPU's approval of a costly 10 percent shareholder return, one of the highest rates allowed by an electric distribution company regulator in the last five years. On January 30, 2018,