I spoke at the Climate Strike on Central Square in Keene Friday.

I told them that I was sad to report that the New Hampshire legislature failed in its attempt to override a veto of HB 365 by just six votes. The final vote was 248-132. The bill would have raised the net metering limit from 1 to 5 megawatts. Unfortunately, this result deprives flexibility to business owners & communities who sought to save on energy costs by generating their own solar power.

In the 2018 State of NH Energy Plan, it talks about cost-effective or practical solutions to replace current carbon-free nuclear power capacity with other zero-carbon assets. It says it would be too expensive to use residential roof-top solar – so it recommends keeping Seabrook Station on line – and to eventually replace coal-fired capacity with natural gas.

No one believes that residential roof-top solar is a viable solution to replacing all carbon fuel capacity, but it’s interesting that the report doesn’t recommend large-scale solar capacity. That is because Governor Sununu is beholden to Eversource, Liberty Gas, et al. and refuses to sign a net metering bill that would allow large-scale solar capacity. That is why, in Keene, we are faced with an expansion of propane gas use and eventual conversion to fracked gas.

Liberty Gas has won approval, and recently built a new gas pipeline under the Ashuelot River at Winchester St. Their rationale was that they needed redundancy to serve the western part of the city, and their first new customer is the new Burger King restaurant being constructed on West St. A real shot in the arm for economic development in the city! Hot Damn! We’re probably talking about 10-15 part time, minimum wage jobs here!

Liberty has proposed five phases of expansion, the first being Monadnock Marketplace – better known as the Home Depot plaza. Other targeted new customers include Keene State College, Keene Ice, Optical Avenue businesses, Cheshire Medical, the new Keene Public Library and customers on upper Washington St. Once they are ready to convert to fracked gas, they hope to have expanded their residential, commercial and industrial capacity three fold.

As you know, I’m involved in an effort to deny that expansion and conversion. I don’t believe it’s prudent to invest in old fossil fuel technology when our planet and local economy is dying.

A light at the end of the tunnel is the effort by the City of Keene’s Energy and Climate Committee, Climate Action Team and others to propose an energy plan for the city at-large to convert to sustainable energy sources. Already, we’ve identified major users who have converted old buildings in Keene and we’re publicizing those success stories in an effort to convince other commercial and industrial users to follow suit.

Right now, the single-most important thing that you and I can do is to promote a domino-effect of these conversions and deny Liberty the customers that they need to make their plan viable. In order to convert their system, they need to increase their customer-base to at least 50 percent of capacity – which is the milestone the PUC has set for any Liberty expansion project approval.

If we can convince businesses that energy sustainability is viable for their success, Liberty’s effort to convert Keene to fracked gas will be defeated.

Will you help us do that?