Energy
Calling B.S. on the Energy Conservation Code
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The bad news is that the trade group that represents the state’s building contractors does not want to give the buyers of new homes the energy efficiency they need.
InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/power-to-the-people/page/2/)
Power to the People is a new column by D. Maurice Kreis, New Hampshire’s Consumer Advocate. Kreis and his staff of four represent the interests of residential utility customers before the NH Public Utilities Commission and elsewhere.
The bad news is that the trade group that represents the state’s building contractors does not want to give the buyers of new homes the energy efficiency they need.
Now, Eversource wants to spend $400 million in Grafton and Coos Counties and seems to be hoping nobody, or almost nobody, will notice.
We who care about energy policy in New Hampshire – and, in particular, those of us who fight for the interests of ratepayers – owe a debt of gratitude to Rep. Michael Vose (R-Epping).
Neil Proudman, Tom Aspell, and Jeanie Forrester owe a letter of apology to every single one of Liberty Utilities’ 98,000 gas ratepayers in New Hampshire.
What’s more important to New Hampshire: An elite boarding school — or the nonprofit organization that runs all of New England’s high voltage transmission grid, oversees the buying and selling of electricity throughout the six-state region, and keeps our lights on?
The purpose of SB 307 is to cause the customers of New Hampshire’s electric distribution utilities – Eversource, Liberty, Unitil, and even the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative – to pay for the Twin States Clean Energy Link.
But if you think this means the PUC has seen the light about energy efficiency, and has abandoned its hostility, as evidenced by its order two years ago that sought to eviscerate NHSaves, you are mistaken.
“Electric customers should get used to rolling blackouts every now and again,” said no ratepayer advocate — ever. But if you are (as I am) New Hampshire’s ratepayer advocate, you might be tempted to make such a suggestion
My wife and I spent a lovely week in Paris back in July and, I regret to admit, you may have helped pay for it.
In fact, as the state’s ratepayer advocate I find it downright refreshing that our state’s chief executive is willing to state forthrightly that it is time to stop infinitely funding public policy initiatives, even virtuous ones, via the electric bills paid by Granite Staters.