Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Joyce Craig dove deep into Green New Deal territory last week, releasing her “Energy Independence and Climate Plan” and vowing to fix what she described as “one of the worst energy efficiency programs in the Northeast.”
Among her proposals:
- Taxpayer subsidies for electric vehicles, heat pumps and appliances;
- Investing in offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine;
- Money for a passenger rail line connecting Nashua, Manchester and Boston.
Not mentioned anywhere in the former Manchester mayor’s plan? A price tag.
Craig did not reveal how much her energy and climate plan will cost Granite State taxpayers or utility ratepayers. When NHJournal asked for an estimated cost, Craig declined to answer.
Craig’s main competitor in the primary, Cinde Warmington, released her CLEAN Energy Economy Plan back in April. While it’s far more ambitious than Craig’s — Warmington calls for “net zero emissions by 2040” — both plans have something in common.
Democratic candidate for governor Joyce Craig announces her energy policy in Nashua on August 8, 2024. (via Twitter)
Like Craig, Warmington left out any cost estimates, and she’s also declining to answer when asked by reporters. While polls show Granite State voters consider climate action a low priority compared to concerns about inflation, illegal immigration, and abortion (just three percent of independent voters named it their top concern), Granite State Democrats have embraced green energy politics.
Announcing her proposal at Nashua’s Pennichuck Solar Farm, Craig said she was “thrilled” and added that her proposal “demonstrates our commitment to investing in renewable and clean energy, lowering costs, and protecting our environment.”
In her plan, Craig called for taking a “proactive role in offshore wind development” so New Hampshire won’t “miss the boat on a multi-billion dollar industry off our coast.”
State Sen. David Watters (D-Dover) praised Craig’s offshore wind proposal and described the sweeping initiative as a “smart, practical plan.”
“Taking advantage of these offshore wind opportunities will ease the current financial burden on our residents and create thousands of family sustaining jobs,” Watters predicted in a statement circulated by Craig. “Joyce’s Energy Independence and Climate Protection Plan will strengthen our standing in the region and set us up for a healthier more sustainable future.”
Craig’s list of proposals also includes expanding net metering and establishing the state’s first “Cleantech Innovation Council.”
Thomas J. Pyle, President of the American Energy Alliance (AEA), studies energy proposals across the U.S. He told NHJournal there is only one possible outcome from Craig’s approach: Higher utility bills.
“New Hampshire already has the fourth-highest average electricity rates in the country,” Pyle noted. “Joyce Craig’s plan will intentionally and unambiguously make prices even more expensive in New Hampshire.
“This plan is modeled on the failed energy policies of places like California and Massachusetts. These are the types of energy policies that have made Massachusetts’s electricity rates 25 percent higher than in New Hampshire and California’s 49 percent higher.”
How much higher? NHJournal asked Rep. Michael Harrington (R-Strafford), who served as both a commissioner and senior regional advisor to the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, to estimate the cost.
“The short answer is it will cost a lot,” he told NHJournal. “It may also leave us with an unreliable electric grid.
“When the government uses billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize offshore wind, for example, it will lower the cost paid by ratepayers for offshore wind but it does not lower the overall costs.” Harrington added.
“Whatever is saved in rates is paid for in taxes.”
Both Craig and Warmington’s plans call for expanding “net metering,” which allows customers with on-site power generating systems like solar panels to pump excess energy back into the statewide electrical grid in exchange for credit on a monthly electric bill. The program is currently capped at 100 kilowatts for residential customers, and up to 1 megawatt for larger generation facilities.
(Cities and towns that generate electricity can sell up to five megawatts.)
Under Craig’s proposal, the current one-megawatt net metering cap would be expanded to five megawatts, aligning New Hampshire’s cap with Maine, which raised its cap to five megawatts in 2021.
Critics point out net metering expansion is projected to cost Maine ratepayers $220 million a year by 2025, according to that state’s Office of the Public Advocate.
And Pyle reports the Berkeley Energy Institute at HAAS calculates California’s net metering program “will transfer $4 billion from people who can’t afford solar panels on their homes to those who can. No one who cares about equity and affordable energy should support California style energy policies.”
Marc Brown, vice president of state affairs for ratepayer advocate Consumer Energy Alliance, dismisses Craig’s proposal as “yet another pie-in-the-sky ‘energy’ plan that is heaving on government spending and mandates.”
“Her plan is chock full of subsidies for favored green energy supporters, limits the ability to deploy clean-burning natural gas for reliable electricity generation and home heating, and pledges support for taxpayer-draining initiatives like passenger rail,” Brown said.
Both Craig and Warmington claim their energy plans will save Granite Staters money.
But like the climate programs in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” the savings are actually taxpayer subsidies for increased spending. Granite Staters who don’t spend the money to replace their oil furnace with a heat pump won’t get any “savings,” though their tax dollars helped pay for the subsidies.
“Craig’s plan asserts that the way to bring down costs is to spend more money, which sounds a lot like Vietnam-era claims that one must destroy a village to save it,” said Rep. Michael Vose (R-Epping), chairman of the House Science, Technology and Energy Committee.
Vose also criticized a section of Craig’s plan that includes adding more forestry regulations, injecting more public funds into the state’s maple syrup industry, and enacting sweeping “climate resiliency initiatives” in the name of “saving” New Hampshire’s winter recreation and outdoor tourism market.
Those policies “have less to do with energy than with government control over people’s economic lives,” Vose said. “That is not the New Hampshire way.”
If Craig is counting on her plan to push her past Warmington during next month’s Democratic primary election, she may receive pushback from a broader swath of the electorate in November.
A 2019 NHJournal/Praecones Analytica poll of Granite State voters found nearly half (46 percent) were not willing to spend even a single dollar more per month on their utility bills in support of Green New Deal climate policies. Another 29 percent said they were only willing to spend up to $10 more per month.
“Democrats like Craig do not seem to understand that ratepayers are taxpayers and taxpayers are ratepayers,” said Harrington.
