NH House Bill 1664, “gives the department of environmental services (NHDES) the authority to establish a climate action plan, an office of the environmental advocate, and an oversight commission on environmental services.”
A division of NHDES empowered (as necessary) to Tax Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
It creates a new department (at a cost of half-a-million a year for staff and benefits before the do anything destructive to the State economy) whose job it will be to determine, implement, and ultimately manage what amounts to a carbon tax. Why?
1 Findings. The general court finds:
I. Climate change has a demonstrated and researched-backed impact on human health and safety, including increased natural disasters and increased, intensifying extreme weather, causing damage to ecosystems, agriculture, forestry, social systems, and infrastructure; increased risks of waterborne and foodborne diseases, increased risks of vector-borne diseases, and increased range and distribution of disease-carrying insects.
Every finding listed there has been challenged and questioned and disproven by actual scientists. There is zero evidence that human beings are responsible for any of the things the Left attributes to them. In fact, most of these things are not happening at all.
This is about redirecting wealth into the hands of the government. So, the issue is what the Democrats want to create with this bill to address the non-problem. It looks like a bureaucracy whose role will be to identify emission sources for the purpose of creating a new revenue source for the State at your expense.
(emphasis, mine)
I. The department of environmental services shall adopt rules under RSA 541-A relative to the following:
(a) Requiring the reporting and verification of statewide greenhouse gas emissions and the source and categories of source of emissions.
(b) Establishing sources or categories of sources that emit greenhouse gas emissions that the department determines will achieve the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the aggregate, from those sources or categories of sources.
(c) The distribution of emissions allowances where appropriate, in a manner that is equitable, seeks to minimize costs and maximize the total benefits to New Hampshire, and encourages early action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
(d) Steps for the department to monitor and enforce compliance with this section.
II. In making such rules, the department shall evaluate the best available scientific, technological, and economic information on greenhouse gas emissions.
III. By July 1, 2021, the department shall, after a period of public comment:
(a) Determine what the statewide greenhouse gas emissions level was in calendar year 1990; and
(b) Make rules setting the maximum technologically feasible and cost-effective greenhouse gas emissions limits, at minimum achieving the following:
(1) A 2050 statewide greenhouse gas emissions limit that is at least 90 percent below the 1990 level;
(2) An interim 2040 emissions limit that shall maximize the ability of New Hampshire to meet the 2050 emissions limit; and
(3) A 2030 statewide emissions limit that is at least 50 percent below the 1990 level.
An emissions allowance is a tax. A tax determined, applied, and collected by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, through this “New!” Office of Environmental Advocacy. A regressive tax.
We have one already
Unless you forgot we already pay a carbon tax through unelected bureaucrats called RGGI. It is currently almost entirely rebated to ratepayers but it is still there and New Hampshire Democrats keep trying to undo the rebate process that nullifies its corrosive effect on prices, jobs, and the state Economy.
HB1664 would add another layer of carbon taxes, also unnecessary, administered by NHDES.
The hearing was in early January (we missed it, sorry), but the bill is not due out of the NH House Committee on Science, Technology, and Energy until 2/13/2020. It may not be too late to make a case against this awful and unnecessary idea.
Regardless of that, keep it in mind if it moves to the House Floor and the Senate, and possibly the governor’s desk.
Committee Members:
Jacqueline Cali-Pitts(D)
John Mann(D)
Peter Somssich(D)
Kenneth Vincent(D)
Chris Balch(D)
Kat McGhee(D)
Rebecca McWilliams(D)
George Saunderson(D)
Kenneth Wells(D)
Michael Harrington(R)
Jeanine Notter(R)
Michael Vose(R)
Glen Aldrich(R)
Douglas Thomas(R)
Troy Merner(R)
Russell Ober(R)
Fred Plett(R)
Sponsors:
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