Democratic gubernatorial candidate Joyce Craig is slated to announce her Energy Independence and Climate Protection Plan in Nashua on Thursday in which she is expected to propose phasing out the use of fossil fuels in the Granite State.
Energy policy is already a feature of the New Hampshire governor’s race, but Craig’s announcement is likely to get even more attention thanks to a new factor in the 2024 election cycle:
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Walz’s entrance as Harris’ running mate is a sign that the California Democrat is doubling down on her anti-fossil-fuel, “Green New Deal” energy policies. The Biden-Harris administration pushed through more than $1 trillion in taxpayer spending on clean energy infrastructure built into the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” and the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.
Harris infamously pledged to ban fracking (a pledge her campaign claims she now rejects), and she championed the Biden administration’s commitment to establishing a net-zero energy grid by 2035. Even advocates of this net-zero target acknowledge it will drive electricity costs higher.
And as a U.S. senator, Harris cosponsored legislation that would have outlawed vehicles with internal combustion engines.
Walz is already there. As governor, his first budget called for raising the gas tax by 70 percent. In his second term, he pushed through legislation to force power companies to provide 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040, a mandate critics say will cost Minnesota ratepayers $313 billion to achieve.
According to one analysis, “Minnesota electricity customers will see their electricity expenses increase by an average of nearly $3,888 per year, every year, through 2050.”
Walz also signed onto California vehicle emissions standards to require Minnesota to increase the share of electric cars to 20 percent by 2030, meaning one in five cars would have to be electric by the end of the decade.
If that sounds familiar, that’s because Walz’s policies are similar to the CLEAN Energy Economy plan released by Democrat candidate for governor Cinde Warmington. She’s pledged to “create standards that lead New Hampshire to net zero emissions by 2040.”
Warmington’s plan doesn’t specify if she means net zero emissions for electricity generation, as Walz did in Minnesota, or no emissions of any kind, including banning home heating oil and gas-powered cars. Asked for more details about the specifics of her plan, Warmington declined to respond.
Now Craig is going to join the push for energy policies that would reverse the Sununu administration’s “ratepayer-first” philosophy and prioritize carbon reduction.
In New Hampshire, where residents are currently on the hook for the fourth-highest electric rates in the nation, both Republican gubernatorial candidates have made it clear that they will continue the Sununu approach.
Former Senate President Chuck Morse called Warmington’s proposed net-zero emissions mandate an “unprecedented government intrusion on Granite Staters toward unsustainable green energy” that “sidesteps practical solutions to lower energy costs.”
“Granite Staters deserve a governor who will champion policies fostering individual and business success, not one entrenching government control through yet another taxpayer-funded boondoggle,” Morse added.
“Loony Cinde Warmington has a plan to literally ban the internal combustion engine,” said Kelly Ayotte’s campaign spokesman John Corbett. “Putting aside how absurd that is on its face, it tells you everything you need to know about what she’d do in the corner office. Cinde believes in top-down government mandates that tell you how to live your life. That’s not how we do things here in New Hampshire.”
With a consistent policy approach from Kamala Harris to Joyce Craig, New Hampshire voters should expect to hear more about energy policy, EV subsidies and utility costs from Republicans running for both state and federal office. Particularly with progressive organizations cheering on Democrats’ green-energy politics.
“I’m just totally so fired up,” said Aaron Regunberg, senior climate policy counsel at Public Citizen.
And Emma Fisher, deputy director of the leftwing political organization Climate Cabinet Action Fund summed up her view this way:
“Walz IS brat!”
