In the last legisaltive session the New Hampshire (Republican Majority™) legislature overrode Governor Sununu’s veto of the Biomass bailout Bill. SB365 forces electricity providers like Eversource to pay above market rates for power from wood-burning plants. That increase is passed on to consumers.
Related: Jeb Bradley is Prepared to Screw New Hampshire Ratepayers No Matter What the Cost
The money comes out of your pocket, or your employers, so that the inefficient wood-burning plants don’t have to close. Your reward for this sacrifice of resources is the employment of approximately 1000 workers who would not have jobs if the state didn’t force you to pay more for something for which you could spend less.
The State AG is planning to defend this arrangement against a legal challenge by the New England Ratepayers Association. They are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to invalidate the measure. “Federal law protects retail electricity customers from subsidizing non-competitive power plants through higher-than-market prices.”
The entire arrangement is progressive redistribution by a command and control economy. Republicans should have had nothing to do with it. But they did. Both chambers passed it. They then overrode the governor’s veto. If we add in votes like approval of bathroom bills and no one should be surprised that they got wiped out in November.
Why have the knockoff when you can have the real thing?
Who Has Authority?
Whether FERC even has authority is in question. Proponents of using power companies to redistribute wealth say no. Let it go into effect. Then let the State Public Utilities Commission (PUC) make a ruling. This would be the commission that approved a 19.1 percent rate hike just a few months back. The hike went straight through to ratepayers. The increase was needed to offset costs forced on utilities by legislators.
Energy costs hit you everywhere. You pay them. Your employer pays them. The town, city, and state pay them. Ratepayers (see also, voters) are paying them four times. In higher taxes, impacts on wages and benefits cost of goods, and directly out of their pocketbooks at home. It is one of the most regressive “taxes” imaginable.
Is it a Consumer Protection Issue?
The New England Ratepayers Association claims they are trying to protect consumers. According to reporting in today’s Union Leader,
“SB 365 is an unabashed frontal assault on this consumer protection,” according to Kreis. ..
To make his case, Kreis points out that the current retail rate for Eversource customers is 9.4 cents per kilowatt-hour or $94.12 per megawatt-hour. The market-based wholesale rate for New Hampshire was $30.51 per megawatt hour as of Sept. 25.
It sounds like a consumer protection issue, but New Hampshire electricity consumers have been getting screwed by RGGI and the RPS for over a decade. I’m not sure how the New England Ratepayers Association thinks this one will be different. But I hope it is, and I hope they win.
But I don’t beleive they will.
Related: Brookstone’s Failure Should Send a Message to the NH Legislature About Biomass Bailouts
