How New Hampshire’s candidates for governor would lead on energy, climate change

Power lines cross the Androscoggin River in Milan. (Cappi Thompson | Getty Images)

This story is the second in a series examining how the top four gubernatorial candidates, as determined by polling data, would lead on energy and the environment. Read the first one here . The third installment, coming soon, will focus on the candidates’ positions on offshore wind.

New Hampshire’s natural beauty is undeniable. But its environment – and the people and the economy that depend on it – faces mounting threats due to climate change.

You can see and feel the changes for yourself: It’s hotter than it used to be. It snows less . Water is creeping in from the coast.

The next governor of New Hampshire will set the tone for how the state addresses climate change. So far, the state has been out of step with its New England neighbors. It lags in renewable energy adoption and is the only state in the region without a statutory requirement to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Whoever replaces Gov. Chris Sununu, who is not seeking reelection after four terms in office, will also have to tackle energy affordability in a state and region with some of the highest electricity rates in the country. The next governor will also make key appointments to the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Energy.

The four top candidates for governor expressed distinct visions in these areas in interviews with the Bulletin. Asked how they see climate change impacting the state in the coming years and decades, and what they would do to mitigate those impacts, the candidates described the problem in different terms.

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Kelly Ayotte , the Republican former U.S. senator and state attorney general, said she would take a “bipartisan, balanced approach to protecting our environment, but we have to do so without increasing energy costs, because people can’t afford how much energy costs right now in New Hampshire.”

She said she would focus on preserving natural spaces and was concerned by what was happening at the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Forest in northern New Hampshire. A company that owns the land sought to reduce the tree harvest there and sell carbon credits, but the state rejected the plan .

“Someone from out of state bought it and is trying to reduce the use of that land,” she said. “So, to me, as we think about conserving our land, it’s about conserving everything for the use of people and the enjoyment of the people of New Hampshire, and then protecting our environment.”

Joyce Craig , the Democratic former Manchester mayor, said climate change “is coming up with residents in every conversation.” She said she would focus on lowering costs, increasing renewable energy, and protecting the environment.

“We are seeing how we’ve had a mild winter, impacting our outdoor recreation and tourism,” she said. “We’ve seen how climate change has affected our Seacoast, with Route 1 being washed out by storms this winter. And just recently, the effects of the storm, the flooding that we had this past week (in July). We need to take action on addressing climate change.”

Chuck Morse , the Republican who served for years as president of the state Senate, said he passed legislation that allows people to choose what forms of energy they want to use. He sponsored a bill in 2021 that banned municipalities from enacting mandates on how people heat their homes.

“I’ve always been one that likes to deal with facts,” he said. “And I think, when it comes to climate change, or anything to do with energy, the people should be given the facts from the government, and they should be able to make that decision.”

Pressed on what effect he sees climate change having on the state, he said: “I’m a believer that we go through evolution and things are going to change, and that’s gonna happen. But I’ve worked pretty hard to make sure we protect New Hampshire, and most of my work has been in water, to be honest with you, but that’s where I’ve spent a lot of time.”

Morse helped establish and previously led the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund .

Cinde Warmington , the lone Democrat on the Executive Council, said the impacts of climate change are “visible everywhere in our state.”

She listed them: more frequent, severe floods; crop losses, especially apples last year; cyanobacteria blooms driven in part by lack of ice cover in the winter; economic impacts to the ski industry; and risks to “the health and well-being of Granite Staters and of our planet.”

She called climate change “a truly serious threat to our state” and said New Hampshire needs “a governor who will recognize that we’re in the middle of a climate crisis.”

“We start from the premise that climate change presents a real and imminent threat to our state,” she said, “and that we need to take really bold action to protect our future.”

Here’s more on how each candidate would lead on energy and climate.

Kelly Ayotte (R)

Ayotte, who Sununu endorsed this month, has a similar message on energy as the incumbent governor.

“I would take an all-of-the-above approach for New Hampshire,” she said. “And that means that we would look to make sure that whatever we do, that we aren’t adding additional costs to the people of New Hampshire that increase their energy bills.”

She said that “literally means all of the above.” (Though, she said later, not the offshore wind projects being proposed in the Gulf of Maine.) She said she is particularly interested in small modular nuclear reactors, because they’re “carbon neutral, but they also allow us to produce our own energy.’’

While in the U.S. Senate, Ayotte stood at odds with the vast majority of her party on climate change. She was one of only five Republican senators in 2015 to support an amendment that said humans contribute significantly to climate change. She was also the first Republican in Congress to openly back President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions.

After losing reelection to the Senate, Ayotte sat on the board of Bloom Energy, a fuel cell company, from 2017 to 2019, according to HuffPost. A 2019 Axios investigation found the company had a “history of playing fast and loose with its numbers.” A 2020 Forbes report boiled down the technology’s limited reach to it being “too dirty and too costly.”

Campaign spokesman John Corbett called a recent HuffPost article detailing the issues with the company, and Ayotte’s connections to it, a “partisan hack job report.” “​​While partisan hacks write BS reports,” he said, “Kelly will continue to lay out her positive vision for our state,” pointing out her record crossing party lines in favor of environmental protection.

Ayotte said she would be “open to looking at” legislation to expand net metering but wants to “make sure that we don’t pass additional costs on to ratepayers.”

“I think responsible expansion of net metering, we would balance the benefits of clean energy that can flow to communities,” she said, “and really make sure, though, that we’re protecting ratepayers.”

Sununu frustrated clean energy advocates by vetoing legislation that would’ve expanded net metering to projects up to 5 megawatts. Currently, net metering is capped at 1 megawatt, except for “political subdivisions” like municipalities, for which Sununu approved a net metering expansion up to 5 megawatts in 2021.

She said “reduced energy costs for everyone” would be the No. 1 focus of the Department of Energy, which was established in 2021 , under her governorship.

Asked if it would be important to her that picks for the DOE and Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, have past experience in energy, she said, “I think in appointing anyone to any position in state government, I would want to look at their whole breadth of experience.”

“For me, obviously, I think experience in the field … that is very good to have,” she said. “… But I would need to look at everyone’s resume. I would have to consider their background, and also their prior experience and their performance.”

Transportation is the state’s “single largest source” of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the state’s Priority Climate Action Plan from March. Electric vehicles present an opportunity to cut that impact.

The nearby states of Maine, Massachusetts, and New York offer rebates for EVs.

“I don’t think that we should offer rebates for electric vehicles,” Ayotte said, pointing to the fact that the Biden administration “has massively subsidized” EVs. “And if people want to own an electric vehicle, you know, certainly that’s their choice.”

Joyce Craig (D)

Craig said the state is “overly reliant on fossil fuels.” She connects addressing affordability to her push for green energy.

“We need to look at ways to decrease costs for our residents,” she said. “That includes expanding net metering, allowing families, businesses, schools, nonprofits that can’t meet their current needs on site to join shared generation projects, such as community solar farms or small hydro, to support New Hampshire’s growing community power movement, allowing customer generators to offset their remaining energy needs with community power, expand low and moderate income solar programs throughout our state, and develop offshore wind.”

She said she would sign the net metering expansion that Sununu vetoed.

In terms of providing rebates for EVs, she said, “We would absolutely look into something like that.”

She said it was important to her that her appointees to the DOE and the PUC have past experience in the energy field – “and that they understand and believe climate change is real.”

“It is absolutely something that we need to make sure that these individuals have background in,” she said, “and believe in the value of energy efficiency programs, and making sure they are funded to save our residents money.”

As for the priorities for a Craig DOE, she said they would be “to lower costs for our residents, to diversify our energy, and to reduce our carbon footprint.”

Chuck Morse (R)

Morse thinks the key to lowering energy costs is getting more energy in the region.

“I believe the only way New Hampshire drives down electric costs is to have more energy come into the Northeast, whether that’s gas or oil, we just need to get more energy up here,” he said, “and that’s a big part of a governor solving the problem.”

He added: “Gov. Sununu has done a great job of not letting any costs hit on the energy side to the consumer, but that’s just playing defense, and that’s what we’ve been doing is playing defense.”

Asked if he would support legislation to expand net metering, Morse said: “I would do the same thing, though, that Gov. Sununu has paid attention to – I would do nothing that brings up the cost for someone else. And that’s why Gov. Sununu has vetoed all those projects.”

Like his Republican competitor, he said he wouldn’t support the state investing in EV rebates, pointing to other priorities.

“I’ve always been one that has been, you know, more worried about the things that we have to do, whether it’s mental illness, disabled children, things like that,” he said. “… We’re a small state, and we have to be careful with our budgets.”

As for his DOE, he said, “it’d be a lot like Gov. Sununu.” In fact, he said, Joshua Elliott, who Sununu tapped as the department’s director of policy and programs , used to work for him in the Senate.

On whether it was important his energy appointees have past experience in the field, he said, “I think any pick that I’m going to do in any field will have to deal with the fact that they have experience and they can move New Hampshire forward.”

Like Ayotte, he opposes offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.

Cinde Warmington (D)

While Morse embraced Sununu’s energy record, Warmington cast herself in stark contrast to it.

Asked about how she would help residents struggling to pay their electric bills, she said, “this is in large part due to the … current governor’s philosophy of really being opposed – hostile – towards both energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy and of leaving us behind in terms of the electrification of our transportation sector.”

She said her plan for energy focuses on combating climate change, electrifying the transportation sector, adding jobs and growing the economy, and nurturing innovation in the state. Having a diversified energy portfolio, she said, “is what it’s going to take to ultimately lower the cost of energy in our state.”

She also slammed the governor’s “hostility toward solar energy,” saying, “we have to make sure we’ve worked through the details, but, yes, I mean, I want that piece of legislation” to expand net metering.

“That is really what our businesses and our municipalities are calling for,” she said. “And it is Sununu who is stopping that from happening in our state.”

As for EV rebates on the state level, she said, “we’re gonna look at all the options to increase and … truly lead in the electrification of our transportation sector” and that looking at federal funding would be “a priority.”

A Warmington DOE, she said, would focus on her plan for a clean energy economy, “all of that done with an eye to the ratepayer and making sure that the investments we’re making are going to benefit Granite Staters and Granite State businesses going forward.”

She said it would be important to her that her energy appointees have past experience in the field. She pointed to the fact that she was the lone vote against Sununu’s energy commissioner, Jared Chicoine .

That was, she said, “due in large part because of the lack of experience, but also because of his thoughts with respect to climate change, or rather that he doesn’t see government having a role in addressing climate change. I think government does have a role – an important role – in making sure that we’re addressing climate change.”

She was also the only vote against the chair of the PUC, Daniel C. Goldner. She said this was because, on climate change, he “doesn’t necessarily believe that it is a creation of man’s activities.”

Warmington, like Craig, supports offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.