That’s Lake Oroville, seen nearly dry on August 19, 2014 in Oroville, California. The world is changing… literally. In the last few months we have seen wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and earthquakes. In southern New Hampshire we were in a severe drought for most of the summer, and still are experiencing “dry and droughty conditions”.
New Hampshire is the only New England state without a mandate to reduce greenhouse gas across our economy. Our emissions target reductions are non-binding. Energy companies in New Hampshire rely more heavily on fossil fuels than any other New England state. Fossil fuels contribute significantly more to climate change than alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and tides. We need to start planning for the change to reliance on these green energy sources.
Planning for that event will take a long time, since the power grid will need to undergo major changes. The five other New England states are all taking action, while we are not. “Most New England states are taking action to increase the amount of renewable energy on our regional grid — Massachusetts and Connecticut are signing big contracts for offshore wind. Maine is looking to solar and onshore wind, while developing targets for offshore wind. Rhode Island is requiring utilities to get all of their energy directly from renewables, or use offsets to reach this goal, by 2033. And Vermont aims to get 90% of its power from renewables by 2050.” In addition to the impact on climate change, New Hampshire’s lack of investment in renewable energy sources makes our utility costs the highest in New England.
New Hampshire offers some benefits to homeowners for use of solar panels at home. We need to look at other green energy sources, such as wind mills and tidal energy as well.
New Hampshire is well behind the curve with regard to efforts to help keep our land, water, and air as safe as possible. We need to take action now so that future generations will have the same joy and prosperity here as we do now.
