Democrats have gotten another stick up their backsides. I have no idea how they found the room, but they did. And from an unusual, at least rhetorically speaking, source. They are upset that Republicans will not support an out-of-state corporate welfare scheme.
It’s not that there aren’t any Republicans in the New Hampshire legislature who support corporate welfare. We’ve got too many already. New Hampshire recently broke new ground on corporate welfare. But as Drew Cline points out here, this is different.
A handful of Democratic politicians on Wednesday stood in the snow outside an obsolete power plant and reversed their party’s customary line of attack when an industrial facility closes. Instead of blaming greed or billionaires or out-of-state corporations or winged monkeys for the recent closure of two N.H. biomass power plants, they blamed the government. …
Specifically, the vetoed legislation [that] would have created new ratepayer subsidies for biomass power plants. The vetoes caused two of the six plants (ones owned by a private New Jersey corporation) to close, they alleged.
New Hampshire Democrats have an election year manifesto in which they decry many things especially our high electric rates (without admitting they are to blame). One of their goals is to take a look at high electric rates. But based on their plan they mean for ways to make them more expensive which aligns nicely with this biomass scheme.
The state’s report concluded that biomass plants would continue to struggle because they inefficiently produce expensive electricity while most competitors, even other renewable power generators, more efficiently produce cheaper electricity.
It’s a management problem the solution for which is government interference and raising your electric rates, so two plants run by a company from New jersey can make money. That’s why NH Democrats are pissed off.
That pesky Chris “Veto” Sununu, who refused to sign off on a bailout plan the Feds said was illegal, is to blame for not sucking money out ratepayers pockets and sending it to the Garden State.
This is not the first time Democrats have tried to jack up your costs to send money to Jersey. Gov. John Lynch pursued wind power from Jersey to fulfill the state’s damaging Renewable portfolio mandate, passed by Democrats and signed by Lynch.
I guess we won’t be hearing any chatter from the left about New Hampshire first. Wasting your money on outdated technology as a sop to connected constituencies or third-party out-of-state interest, however, is still on the table.
Biomass power generation is dying a natural death. That’s why companies that own biomass plants are reluctant to sink any more money into them. Forcing ratepayers to make up the difference between what people are willing to pay for power and what biomass power costs is neither compassionate nor morally defensible. It is massively wasteful — of other people’s money.
We should not be surprised, that is what Democrats do best.
