Energy decision has long-term impact

Granite State’s choice: Coal or clean power?

Ask most New Hampshire residents, and you’ll get heads nodding: Our state needs to shift away from dirty sources of power and invest in clean, renewable energy, including wind, solar and green biomass.

But a recent proposal by PSNH to spend a half-billion dollars to retrofit a coal plant in Bow—one of New England’s dirtiest—would divert energy dollars away from green alternatives.

The Merrimack Station coal-fired power plant in Bow emits 3,726,216 tons of carbon pollution each year, making it the single biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in New Hampshire. Environment New Hampshire is working to convince state leaders to give priority to clean energy projects instead of an overhaul of the 40-year-old coal plant.

High cost, little payoff

To come into compliance with clean air standards, PSNH, the owners of the Merrimack Station plant, are required to install costly retrofits to the plant, which carry a price tag estimated at $500 million. But the retrofits won’t do anything to mitigate the amount of carbon pollution released into the atmosphere.

The proposal is out of step with our state’s recent commitments to boost clean energy and cut global warming emissions, including the recommendation by the governor’s Climate Change Task Force that New Hampshire take swift and comprehensive action to cut its carbon footprint.

Clean energy: A better return

In order to protect our environment and keep New Hampshire on track toward reducing its global warming emissions, we are advocating to responsibly replace the Merrimack Station power plant with cleaner alternatives, including renewables and energy efficiency. An added and timely benefit: stepped-up investment in clean energy and energy efficiency will create thousands of permanent jobs throughout the state.

This winter, we teamed up with business leaders, ratepayer and consumer groups, and other environmental organizations to advocate for a bill in the state Legislature that would begin the process of replacing the plant with cleaner alternatives.

Already, our work to build strong citizen support for the bill has helped to raise the visibility of the issue and activate our volunteers and members to call on state leaders to support more clean energy for New Hampshire.