HB1775

I oppose HB 1775 because allowing utilities to own natural gas or nuclear generation would undermine competitive markets and shift long-term financial risk onto ratepayers. New Hampshire’s deregulated structure protects consumers, and reintroducing utility-owned generation would raise costs without improving reliability.

On behalf of the Board of Directors and 335 members of Seacoast Anti-Pollution League throughout the Seacoast NH region, I would like to offer the following comments regarding HB 1775-FN. This legislation goes against the long-time state policy of a “technology neutral” and a market-based approach to energy, as well as previous policy of utility divestment from power generation. By favoring and providing rate recovery for nuclear and natural gas plants, you would be holding a thumb on the scale for weighing future energy choices by both consumers and utilities. More immediately, power source "disclosure labels" for most NH utilities show that they are in recent years purchasing practically ZERO nuclear energy from Seabrook or any other plant, while at the same time they are over-reliant on unsustainable and expensive natural gas, so would we want to encourage more unnecessary power from these sources? In the current world of energy development, there is no hard evidence that future nuclear plants will be cost-effective compared to other alternatives, even with existing generous subsidies and incentives on the federal level. In fact recent events such as the NuScale fiasco as well as the long-standing principle of economy of scale provide strong evidence that these new technologies will be more expensive per megawatt-hour than existing ones. So at the very least, it appears highly premature for the State to be providing further incentives when it comes to specific new or existing energy technologies. More importantly, allowing utilities to get rate recovery for nuclear investments will likely lead to higher electric rates, as it clearly has in other states pursuing new nuclear development. For these reasons, and in the interest of developing safe, affordable and sustainable future power sources for the Granite State, I urge you to vote Inexpedient to Legislate (ITL) on this bill.