Energy bill proposed in Concord

Welcome to New Hampshire Business. I’m Fred Coker. Energy Price and Supply is on the table at the State House in Concord. Right now, *** bill in the Senate State Senate would boost New Hampshire’s reliable energy supplies and also stabilize rate to pay our energy prices. That’s Senate bill 54 in the legislature to allow electric distribution utilities which are closely mostly utilities in New Hampshire. Most of them to issue request for proposals to provide more diverse and long term options for providing energy services to customers. That language is right out of the bill and so is this, it fosters price stability and helps reduce exposure to market volatility. Why Senate Bill 54 why is that proposed? Well, here’s the average New Hampshire residential electricity rate which is and 18 004 cents per kilowatt hour. That’s 41% higher than the national average. And then the average New Hampshire commercial electricity rate 23.57 cents per kilowatt hour, 52% higher than the national average. I used those last week, but I’m using again this week because my guests and I are gonna talk energy with me. Is somebody who helped write Senate Bill 54 Sam Evans Brown, Director of Clean Energy, New Hampshire. Welcome. Nice to have you here. Thanks for having me, Fred in essence, what are we talking about here? Well, so this really is *** compromise bill at this point and it’s one that cleaned New Hampshire. You know, if I were king of the world, maybe wouldn’t have written this exact language myself. But I was very happy to be part of the negotiations that led us this far. And, and really what it comes down to is the fact that New England is going to need *** lot more electricity generation going forward. And let me give you an example of why I say that. Let’s talk about electric vehicles right now. There’s about 100,000 on the road throughout New England by 2030. It’s forecast that there’s gonna be more like two million. So we’re talking about 20 times increase in the number of electric vehicles. So we’re gonna need *** lot more supply and, and this is *** mechanism to get that. So this opens up the option for providers, both traditional and new providers. Yeah, it’s all about new generations. So you and, and this is part of why clean energy, New Hampshire is willing to support this because we’re talking about new generation. 98% of the projects that are under development in New England right now are either wind solar or battery storage And so by talking about new generation, we’re almost de facto talking about renewable generation because the prices have come, come down so dramatically over the past decade. And of course, important to everybody that’s listening, it stabilizes prices. Well, that’s exactly right. And, and you know, when we talk about why your electricity rate went crazy this winter, it’s because New England is overwhelmingly powered by natural gas, which is *** global commodity. It is subject to global commodity price spikes. Whereas renewable energy, once you build that, that power plant, you know, Vladimir Putin can’t stop the sunshine from raining down on New Hampshire and Senate Bill 54 looks like it’s going to pass with the governors involved. Uh That, that certainly seems to be the case, but let’s not count our chickens. You know, it’s never too late for things to fall apart at the last minute. Right. Right. And there’s some opposition out there. In fact, the Business Industry Association of New Hampshire supports it as does your group. Uh There’s some opposition from the Nature Conservancy and the New England Power Generators Association. Uh Just to make *** point about the opposition. Now, let’s switch gears and talk hydrogen. This is an interesting story. Um, New Hampshire’s missing from the northeast and I’m gonna put that graphic up *** northeast state clean energy hub proposal to the federal government by Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Hydrogen businesses. It’s *** federal initiative to establish up to 10 clean hydrogen hubs across the US. Governor has said, I love the idea of hydrogen, but the state doesn’t build hydrogen plants. Well, it so happens. *** former paper mill in Groveton is being converted to hydrogen power plant. Sam, you was surprised at the fact, New Hampshire is not part of this. Yes. So it’s an $8 billion program. It is *** once in *** generation investment in this new technology that we foresee will be an important part of *** clean energy economy. And why is that? You know, hydrogen is sort of the Swiss army knife of the clean energy future. You can use that molecule for *** lot of things. You can run it through *** fuel cell to generate clean electricity with only water as the byproduct, you can synthesize it into renewable fuels such as renewable methane or, or uh renewable ammonia which you can use as *** fertilizer to clean up the agricultural sector. Uh And you can also, you can also just burn it directly if in *** pinch if that’s what’s needed. So it’s really gonna have to leave it there, Sam. But also I just want to put up on the screen quickly. This week is New Hampshire Energy Week. May 1st to the fifth. The details on many cool activities can be found at N H Energy Future dot org. Thanks to Sam Evans Brown who is the executive director of the clean energy in New Hampshire. Thanks *** lot, Sam. Thank you, Fred. And if you missed part of this uh energy briefing, you can go to W W dot com where it will be posted all this week. Energy week.

NH Business: NH energy supply and price stability proposal

Host Fred Kocher is joined by Sam Evans-Brown to discuss the potential impact of a proposed energy bill and the new opportunities it could create

Updated: 9:45 AM EDT Apr 30, 2023

Fred Kocher, NH Business host

Energy bills have been sky-high this year, and some Granite Staters have been struggling to keep up with the costs. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, New Hampshire’s average residential electric rate is 42% higher compared to the national average, and the state’s commercial electric rate is 52% higher than the national average. Right now, there is a bill being discussed in Concord, Senate Bill 54, that could boost New Hampshire’s reliable energy supplies.On the latest installment of NH Business, host Fred Kocher is joined by Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire, to discuss the potential impact of the proposed bill and the new opportunities it could create.

MANCHESTER, N.H. —

Energy bills have been sky-high this year, and some Granite Staters have been struggling to keep up with the costs. According to the U.S. Energy Administration, New Hampshire’s average residential electric rate is 42% higher compared to the national average, and the state’s commercial electric rate is 52% higher than the national average. Right now, there is a bill being discussed in Concord, Senate Bill 54, that could boost New Hampshire’s reliable energy supplies.

On the latest installment of NH Business, host Fred Kocher is joined by Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy New Hampshire, to discuss the potential impact of the proposed bill and the new opportunities it could create.