Interview

Commissioner Thomas Burack

Thomas Burack is the commissioner of New Hampshire’s Department of Environmental Services (DES).

What are the most urgent environmental challenges facing New Hampshire?

Climate change and growth in the Granite State are our biggest challenges. We are already feeling significant impacts, and these issues are likely to be overarching concerns for the foreseeable future.

The evidence of climate change is already visible: changes in average seasonal temperatures, precipitation levels, growing season, sea surface temperature and more severe weather events. New Hampshire recently experienced three “one-hundred-year” rainstorms within eighteen months of each other.

Growth is also a critical challenge for New Hampshire—we have been the fastest growing state in New England for the last 20 years—which has both positive and negative impacts. As our state continues to grow, DES will be a leader in promoting sustainable development, without compromising environmental protection.
 
How can New Hampshire help fight global warming?

New Hampshire citizens can help fight global warming by consuming less carbon-based energy. The burning of fossil fuels—in our cars and trucks, for heating and cooling, and to generate electricity—produces emissions that contribute to global warming, as well as other air pollution problems.

DES works to encourage the conservation of energy in New Hampshire by promoting renewable energy through the Renewable Energy Act and the governor’s initiative to obtain 25 percent of our energy from renewable sources by 2025, as well as energy efficiency.
 
Leading by example, we are working to meet the governor’s 10 percent challenge to reduce energy use in state buildings by 10 percent, as well as reduce school bus and heavy-duty truck idling. DES is promoting the use of alternative fuels in state agency fleets, regional and local government fleets, and private fleets through the Granite State Clean Cities Coalition.
 
What are your priorities for next year?

A high priority will be working over the next year or so to implement the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, in New Hampshire. RGGI is a regional cap and trade system for carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fueled power plants in ten eastern states (New England plus New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland). DES will be holding a series of stakeholder meetings in the fall on various aspects of the program and hopes to have a bill sponsored for consideration in the 2008 legislative session. We will also be focusing on solid waste issues, including ways to increase recycling rates in New Hampshire communities, and we will be looking at the assessment and conservation of our water resources.