UPDATED LINK: https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/committees/remotetestimony/default.aspx

Who Will Decide Where NH’s Future Energy Facilities are Located?

Your voice can make a difference!

At 9am today (Tuesday, March 7) the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee will hold a public hearing on HB609. This bill proposes to eliminate the Site Evaluation Committee (SEC), the body that decides where to allow energy facilities like large transmission lines or wind farms to be built. The SEC includes four members of the public, four state agencies, and the three commissioners of the Public Utilities Commissioners. HB609 would transfer responsibility for energy facility siting decisions to only the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), greatly curtailing public involvement and leaving to just three people decisions that impact thousands of acres across New Hampshire.The current structure was created with input from many stakeholders, including those with an interest in protecting natural resources, and public involvement has been critical in some of the SEC’s well-known decisions. If you agree that the SEC is a more appropriate body to make siting decisions for energy facilities than the PUC, please join us and use this link to sign in as OPPOSED to this bill. You will need the following information:

• Date of Hearing: 3/07/2023
• Committee: Science, Technology and Energy
• Bill number: HB609.

You can sign in anytime from now until midnight on March 7 (today). Sign ins really do make a difference! The number of people that have signed in on the website in support and in opposition are read into the record at the end of the hearing.Please sign in and be counted!