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NH House and Senate Prepare to Gut Citizen Involvement in Siting Large Power Facilities
HB 609 Will eliminate the Site Evaluation Committee and Create a Bureaucratic Freeway for Everything from Nukes to Kooks, just bring money.
It may be that I am just nostalgic for a time when State Representatives and Senators were responsive to constituents. That’s not a partisan statement, when I was first elected to the NH House and later the Senate both houses were firmly in the hands of the Republican Party. It wasn’t my party, but irrespective of whether they were to my left or right they had integrity and they were fair in their treatment of the public.
No self-respecting Chair of a committee would even think of taking testimony without alternating between those in favor and those in opposition to a bill. Furthermore a Chair would NEVER preside over a hearing in which he or she was the sponsor of the legislation. It’s bad form, it’s unethical, and it’s just plain wrong to allow a bill’s sponsor to use the power of the chair to conduct a running commentary and debate with members of the public seeking to simply have their voices heard.
But that is just what Rep. Michael Vose (R-Epping), Sponsor of HB 609 and Chairman of the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee, the Committee hearing the bill, is doing.
The public hearings on this bill features a parade of suits, vested business and bureaucratic interests, testifying at length and only when the public finally gets its opportunity - two hours into the meeting - Rep Vose announces that they will be limited to 2 minutes in their testimony.
It seems if you came to the public hearing wearing a suit and tie you could speak as long as you cared to; but if you came looking like you left the dairy farm, the garage or the woodlot hastily, sorry, you have two minutes to make your case.
While introducing the bill back in March, Vose said the “SEC has a lack of institutional knowledge, sparse technical expertise, turnover, and a dearth of funding and dedicated support staff.” That’s political speak for “we know better than you” and, just to add insult to injury, “we will reward ourselves with more money and personnel that we could have just given to the SEC.”
“Moving jurisdiction to the PUC,” he said, “would professionalize the site evaluation process, making it more timely and efficient with increased resources and staffing.” No one thought to just suggest that we give the SEC those same resources and we get the staffing we need but maintain citizen involvement?
The bottom line is this: There is NO need to eliminate the SEC. It has served us well over the years but it has one problem: It’s too damn responsive to those pesky citizens. This is a solution in search of a problem. There is no problem, except that the vested energy interests might have to work harder to build consensus and that is just too inconvenient for bureaucrats who are dependent upon the politicians and the business interests who would rather not be bothered with justifying their projects. After all, they know better than all those hayseeds filling the public benches and asking to be included in the process.
Less than a decade ago the law creating the Site Evaluation Committee was reformed to improve its function and the public’s access to the process. The reforms - brilliantly crafted by Senator Bradley and former aid to Governor Judd Gregg and Forest Society Representative Will Abbott, among others, have worked. Some projects have been approved and some have not. But there is one project that really sticks in the craw of the politicians and the energy interests: The Northern Pass debacle that led to the thumping that Eversource received - a unanimous and well-deserved thumping by the way from both the SEC and the State Supreme Court.
We should be asking that our government be MORE responsive to the needs of citizens, not less. If energy interests and bureaucrats and politicians figure out how to work for consensus, so much the better.
If you ever wondered whether “agency capture” was a problem at the State level in addition to the Federal level, wonder no more.
Notes & Links
The “final” public hearing on HB 609 is scheduled for November 6, 2023 at 9:30am in the Legislative office building.
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About Wayne D. King: Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, "New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel "Sacred Trust" a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.
Podcasts are produced at Anamaki Studios in Bath, NH.
This land lies in N’dakinna, the traditional ancestral homeland of the Abenaki, Sokoki, Koasek, Pemigewasset, Pennacook and Wabanaki Peoples past and present. We acknowledge and honor with gratitude those who have stewarded N’dakinna throughout the generations.
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