Nearly half of New England’s electricity is now generated by natural gas, compared with just 15 percent in 2000. But officials say the region doesn’t have the pipeline infrastructure to match the need. The problems arise during the winter, when electric power generators and home heating companies are both vying for natural gas, which is funneled to the region through pipelines coming from the Pennsylvania area. 

Impact on Economy Energy Policy New Hampshire

“The states and NESCOE are deliberately working out the details of this plan in secret, consistent with the view of one of NESCOE’s staffers that the plan should be ‘formulated behind closed doors’ because the ‘court of public opinion can be fickle and recalcitrant,’ ” Courchesne wrote, quoting an email from a NESCOE staff member to Executive Director Heather Hunt.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont

What's the real cost of wind power? For New Hampshire, it’s nearly $10 million in handouts to big business. They paid that much money in 2012 so that multi-national corporations could experiment with wind power on the taxpayer dime — and yet more than $4 million of that money wound up going to companies in other states.

Impact on Economy Taxes & Subsidies USA New Hampshire

In two years, PSNH could not get even 150 customers to pay more each month to buy electricity from "green" sources. These programs raise utility bills by an average of 30 percent, according to NHPR. That is a steep premium to pay so your house can be powered by wind or solar instead of coal or nuclear power. That is why activists try to get governments to force people to go "green."

Energy Policy Impact on Economy New Hampshire

A new group trying to rally opposition to Cape Wind is being run by the owner of an ice cream shop located on a quiet back road in Kingston, N.H., several towns over from the Massachusetts border

Impact on Economy Massachusetts New Hampshire

Recently the New Hampshire Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources amended Senate bill 99, placing a moratorium on new wind electricity generation projects for one year. That's a nice start, but it doesn't go quite far enough. What's needed is a repeal of the New Hampshire renewable portfolio standard mandate. Why? Because ratepayers are being forced to buy extremely expensive electricity when cheaper alternatives are available.

Energy Policy Impact on Economy New Hampshire

As I reported in Saturday's paper, New England is experiencing a remarkable spike in electricity prices brought on by high heating demand and rising natural gas prices for electric generators.

Impact on Economy Connecticut Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont

Woody Miller, a realtor at Coldwell Bank and Old Mill Properties in Bristol, said the Groton wind farm has likely already slowed the sale of one of his properties in neighboring Rumney. "I would argue that wind farms here will have a substantial effect on fair-market property values. If you eliminate even a few of the pool of potential buyers for a particular property, it hurts property sales and therefore values."

Property Values Impact on Economy New Hampshire

We are presently at a critical point in New Hampshire. Foreign wind farm companies are rushing to construct huge wind turbine projects along NH's ridgelines, in ways that will forever change the landscape of our state, unless we act now. We need to institute an immediate state-wide moratorium on such projects, before we reach the point of no return.

Impact on Landscape Impact on Economy Tourism New Hampshire

Dalton selectmen were told by a Public Service of N.H. official that the utility feels it has a favorable legislature and court system and most communities are too financially stressed to be able to put up a credible defense. The message being put out by utilities is the communities do not have the resources to withstand the "onslaught and should settle for whatever terms are offered".

Taxes & Subsidies Impact on Economy New Hampshire

In 2008 three Coos County Commissioners approved a deal under which - instead of taxes - the county expected to get payments of about $495,000 each year for a decade. But now Brookfield says it only owes the county half of that, says Jennifer Fish, the Coos County Administrator.

Taxes & Subsidies Impact on Economy New Hampshire

An oversupply of natural gas and steep drop in natural gas prices are the primary driver behind the Merrimack Station going off-line, PSNH spokesman Martin Murray said. Weather and stagnant growth in energy demand due to an economy still flagging from the recession are other factors, he added.

Impact on Economy New Hampshire

Both companies had previously signed contracts to take power from the Granite Reliable project; in Thursday's announcement, they said would increase those amounts so that CVPS will take 50.3 percent of the 99-megawatt project, while GMP will take 32 percent. ...Wherever the projects have been proposed, local groups have sprung up to oppose them.

Impact on Economy New Hampshire Vermont

"We warned everybody two years ago that this is a big pot of money that is ripe for the plucking, and that's exactly what happened," said David Juvet, the organization's vice president. Indeed, the raid happened without any real debate at all. In fact, the only other RGGI-related proposal - backed by Republicans - was to take even more money from the fund.

Energy Policy Impact on Economy New Hampshire

Executives from Noble Environmental Power said that they can raise the $275 million the project costs but that they have been hampered by tumultuous financial markets, according to testimony filed Tuesday. The company asked the state Site Evaluation Committee to allow it to proceed on the condition it proves its financing plan before construction begins. ...An investment banker testifying for the state Tuesday wrote that he did not believe Granite Reliable nor Noble have a plan to finance the park. The company has not shown how it will find lenders and investors.

General Impact on Economy New Hampshire

Hearings set for next month on a $275 million wind project for the North Country could be halted under a request filed by the counsel for the public. Peter C.L. Roth, a senior assistant attorney general for the state, filed the request to suspend the hearings, set to begin March 9, saying there was inadequate financial information to determine whether the Granite Reliable Power's proposed wind electric generation park will be viable.

General Impact on Economy New Hampshire

Public Service of New Hampshire may not be happy with Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative legislation that’s making its way through the Legislature, but the utility won’t actively oppose it, says Gary Long, president and chief operating officer. In an interview with New Hampshire Business Review, Long said PSNH “didn’t oppose what went through the House,” even though the company had major concerns with the bill that would set a regional cap on carbon emissions and force utilities to bid in an open auction to obtain allowances to emit carbons. Long said he was concerned that the free-market model proposed for the carbon allowances might drive up electric rates.

Taxes & Subsidies Impact on Economy New Hampshire

A portion of the wind energy generated from newly installed wind turbines located in PEI was wheeled through PEI and New Brunswick and sold to the New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) via the international interconnection node in Keswick, N.B. The renewable energy certificates (RECs) that were generated from this transmission were sold separately to independent buyers located in the NEPOOL.

General Impact on Economy Canada Connecticut Massachusetts Maine New Hampshire Rhode Island Vermont