There are plenty of ways to lower carbon dioxide emissions if that’s your thing. It’s Jeanne Shaheen’s thing. But what has she done to help New Hampshire? When it comes to cleaner-burning natural gas, little to nothing.
Related: Without Fossil Fuels Millions of Americans Could Freeze to Death
Thanks to obstruction and laws that Shaheen has not fought to change, New Hampshire has limited access to domestic natural gas, when just a few states away, in Pennsylvania, there is a giant domestic shale field. Ohio too.
Natural gas is cheap, clean, backs up wind and solar, but Environmentalists block every infrastructure project to get it here without trains, or trucks.
Try as We Might
The latest effort, Granite Bridge, is the most recent targeted by far-left and socialist groups who want you to freeze to death. And Granite Bridge probably won’t even move domestic gas. Granite Bridge would take imports of LNG and make it easier to move north. A problem even Democrats like Shaheen understand. Sen. Jeanne supported a 25-million-dollar grant to prop up biomass. Why? There’s inadequate natural gas infrastructure in New Hampshire.
But biomass is more expensive than gas without the infrastructure or multi-million-dollar taxpayer prop-ups they love unless it is energy they don’t. Senators Shaheen and Hassan sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to block testimony by Commissioner Bernard McNamee regarding any future business at FERC involving the potential subsidization of coal and nuclear plants. New Hampshire has and needs both Coal and Nuclear power, especially in the heart of winter. And Nuclear is considered Green for its nearly nonexistent carbon footprint.
So, no to propping up “green” or “affordable” energy we will need, but yes to biomass, the Sierra Club says isn’t green at all. Shaheen has always been a fan of biomass. Does the timber industry own her too?
Rolling Blackouts Predicted by 2020
Research by ISO New England paints a foreboding picture.
The… region could face a regular risk of rolling winter blackouts by 2024 and would have to rely on more expensive fuel and overseas LNG to meet peak demand.
Worse, the problem is so severe that emergency measures will likely be necessary almost every winter by the mid-2020s, with the grid operator estimating that rolling blackouts would be necessary in 19 out of the 23 scenarios they studied.
In one recent winter, the lack of infrastructure resulted in shortages and a 44-62% spike in the cost of energy to address increased demand during cold New England weather. Energy demand that had to be met by LNG shipments from foreign suppliers. Gas shipped across the ocean, loaded on trains or trucks, and moved to where it was needed.
What’s so green about that? And what’s green about thousands of New Englanders running gas-powered generators during these increasing blackouts?
Ask Jeanne Shaheen. She’s taken campaign donations from Ukrainian gas interests. To what, keep us reliant on foreign suppliers?
“…both Markey and Shaheen were among four senators who wrote a letter to President Obama that said, “We should leverage the full resources and expertise of the U.S. government to assist Ukraine in improving its energy efficiency, increasing its domestic production and reforming its energy markets.”
Our Legislators in Concord or DC need to be focused on getting domestic production to New Hampshire, not gas from Russian and Ukraine.
Instead, we get legislation to drive electric rates up and far-left protests to block any new infrastructure, even the sort that keeps us reliant on foreign sources instead of supporting US jobs and families. Hey, at least keeps us from freezing to death, right?
