General: Eversource, CL&P, NSTAR Electric, PSNH and WMECO are subject to environmental laws and regulations intended to mitigate or remove the effect of past operations and improve or maintain the quality of the environment. These laws and regulations require the removal or the remedy of the effect on the environment of the disposal or release of certain specified hazardous substances at current and former operating sites. Eversource, CL&P, NSTAR Electric, PSNH and WMECO have an active environmental auditing and training program and believe that they are substantially in compliance with all enacted laws and regulations.

The number of environmental sites and reserves related to these sites for which remediation or long-term monitoring, preliminary site work or site assessment are being performed are as follows:

	As of March 31, 2015				As of December 31, 2014
			Reserve				Reserve
	Number of Sites		(in millions)		Number of Sites		(in millions)
ES		65	$	43.6		65	$	43.3
CL&P		16		5.0		16		3.8
NSTAR Electric		14		1.7		13		1.1
PSNH		12		3.4		13		5.2
WMECO		4		0.6		4		0.5

Included in the Eversource number of sites and reserve amounts above are former MGP sites that were operated several decades ago and manufactured gas from coal and other processes, which resulted in certain by-products remaining in the environment that may pose a potential risk to human health and the environment. The reserve balance related to these former MGP sites was $35.4 million and $38.8 million as of March 31, 2015 and December 31, 2014, respectively, and relates primarily to the natural gas business segment.

ES parent provides credit assurances on behalf of its subsidiaries, including CL&P, NSTAR Electric, PSNH and WMECO, in the form of guarantees in the normal course of business.

ES parent also issued a guaranty under which, beginning at the time the Northern Pass Transmission line goes into commercial operation, ES parent will guarantee the financial obligations of NPT under the TSA in an amount not to exceed $25 million. ES parent's obligations under the guaranty expire upon the full, final and indefeasible payment of the guaranteed obligations.

ES parent has also guaranteed certain indemnification and other obligations as a result of the sales of former unregulated subsidiaries and the termination of an unregulated business, with maximum exposures either not specified or not material.

Management does not anticipate a material impact to Net Income as a result of these various guarantees and indemnifications.

The following table summarizes ES parent's guarantees of its subsidiaries, including CL&P, NSTAR Electric, PSNH and WMECO, as of March 31, 2015:

			Maximum Exposure
Company		Description	(in millions)		Expiration Dates
	Various	Surety Bonds ⁽¹⁾	$	54.6	2015 - 2016

	Eversource Service and Rocky River Realty Company	Lease Payments for Vehicles and Real Estate	$	13.8	2019 and 2024

(1) Surety bond expiration dates reflect termination dates, the majority of which will be renewed or extended. Certain surety bonds contain credit ratings triggers that would require ES parent to post collateral in the event that the unsecured debt credit ratings of Eversource are downgraded.

Beginning in 2011, three separate complaints were filed at FERC by combinations of New England state attorneys general, state regulatory commissions, consumer advocates, consumer groups, municipal parties and other parties (the "Complainants"). In the first complaint, filed in 2011, the Complainants alleged that the NETOs' base ROE of 11.14 percent that was utilized since 2006 was unjust and unreasonable, asserted that the rate was excessive due to changes in the capital markets, and sought an order to reduce it prospectively from the date of the final FERC order and for the 15-month period beginning October 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012 (the "first complaint refund period"). In the second and third complaints, filed in 2012 and 2014, the Complainants challenged the NETOs' base ROE and sought refunds for the 15-month periods beginning December 27, 2012 and July 31, 2014.

In 2014, the FERC determined that the base ROE should be set at 10.57 percent for the first complaint refund period and that a utility's total or maximum ROE should not exceed the top of the new zone of reasonableness, which was set at 11.74 percent. The FERC ordered the NETOs to provide refunds to customers for the first complaint refund period and set the new base ROE of 10.57 percent prospectively from October 16, 2014. The NETOs and the Complainants sought rehearing from FERC. In late 2014, the NETOs made a compliance filing, which was challenged by the Complainants, and the Company began refunding amounts from the first complaint period.

On March 3, 2015, FERC issued an order denying all issues raised on rehearing by the NETOs and Complainants in the first base ROE complaint. The FERC order upheld the base ROE of 10.57 percent for the first complaint refund period and prospectively from October 16, 2014, and upheld that the utility's total ROE (the base ROE plus any incentive adders) for the transmission assets to which the adder applies is capped at the top of the zone of reasonableness, which is currently set at 11.74 percent. As a result of clarifying information related to how the ROE cap is applied, which is contained in the order, Eversource adjusted its reserve in the first quarter of 2015 and recognized a pre-tax charge to earnings (excluding interest) of $20 million, of which $12.5 million was recorded at CL&P, $2.4 million at NSTAR Electric, $1 million at PSNH, and $4.1 million at WMECO. The pre-tax charge was recorded as a regulatory liability and as a reduction of Operating Revenues.

On March 2, 2015, the DPU approved the comprehensive settlement agreement between NSTAR Electric, NSTAR Gas and the Massachusetts Attorney General (the "Settlement") as filed with the DPU on December 31, 2014. The Settlement resolved the outstanding NSTAR Electric CPSL program filings for 2006 through 2011, the NSTAR Electric and NSTAR Gas PAM and energy efficiency-related customer billing adjustments reported in 2012, and the recovery of LBR related to NSTAR Electric's energy efficiency programs for 2008 through 2011 (11 dockets in total). As a result, NSTAR Electric and NSTAR Gas will refund $42.5 million and $2.2 million, respectively, to customers. The refund was recorded as a regulatory liability as of March 31, 2015 and NSTAR Electric recognized a $21.7 million pre-tax benefit in the first quarter of 2015.

In accordance with a generic 2005 DPU order, electric utilities in Massachusetts recover the energy-related portion of bad debt costs in their Basic Service rates. In February 2007, NSTAR Electric filed its 2005 through 2006 Basic Service reconciliation with the DPU proposing an adjustment related to the increase of its Basic Service bad debt charge-offs. In June 2007, the DPU approved NSTAR Electric's proposed adjustment to the Basic Service Adder but instructed NSTAR Electric to reduce distribution rates by an equal and offsetting amount. This adjustment to NSTAR Electric's distribution rates would have eliminated the fully reconciling nature of the Basic Service bad debt adder.

In 2010, NSTAR Electric filed an appeal of the DPU's order with the SJC. NSTAR Electric took the position that it had fully removed the collection of energy-related bad debt costs from its base distribution rates effective January 1, 2006; therefore, no further adjustment to distribution rates was warranted. In 2012, the SJC vacated the DPU order and remanded the matter to the DPU for further review.

On January 7, 2015, the DPU issued an order concluding that NSTAR Electric had appropriately accounted for the removal of supply-related bad debt costs from base distribution rates effective January 1, 2006. The DPU ordered NSTAR Electric and the Massachusetts Attorney General to collaborate on the reconciliation of energy-related bad debt costs through 2014. During the second quarter of 2015, NSTAR Electric expects to file with the DPU to recover from customers approximately $43 million of supply-related bad debt costs. In the first quarter of 2015, as a result of the DPU order, NSTAR Electric increased its regulatory assets and reduced Operations and Maintenance expense by $24.2 million, resulting in an increase in after-tax earnings of $14.5 million.

On March 11, 2015, PSNH and key New Hampshire officials entered into an agreement in principle in a settlement Term Sheet. Under the Term Sheet, PSNH has agreed to pursue the divestiture of its generation assets upon NHPUC approval of a final Settlement Agreement reflecting the provisions of the Term Sheet, and PSNH will not seek a general distribution rate increase that would become effective before July 1, 2017. PSNH will contribute $5 million to create a clean energy fund, which will not be recoverable from its customers, and will record this liability and related charge upon completion of the Settlement Agreement.