A number of bills have been milling about the State legislature to address a problem that should have been addressed years ago. This is not an issue where being fashionably late is a good thing, but we’re here now. Our job, that’s you, me, the grassroots, and tips, is to push this over the top and get it fast-tracked.
What, exactly?
New Hampshire is trapped on the ISO New England Grid, surrounded by increasingly blue states working diligently to ensure supply cannot meet demand. If the grid can’t find the supply, New Hampshire, regardless of its own better judgment, will go down in the same clown car.
Yeah, I’ve talked about this a bit, and have applauded recent local legislative efforts to fix the issue alongside deriding attempts to follow the rest of New England down the third-world, energy dearth drain. But study committees and initiatives need to approach the same level of enthusiasm that New Hampshire has for its other unique “regional exports.”
Cheaper Gasoline, tobacco, liquor, fireworks, and all that tax-free everything else.
Become an off-grid regional exporter of cheaper electricity with (pardon me) perhaps a little transfer tax for the trouble.
Maybe even, instead, demand the sorts of inflated rates these states hand out to homeowners with solar on their rooftops.
It might be enough to pay for Kelly Ayott’s group II retirement fund fantasy. Not this year or any year soon, I suspect, but sooner is better, and we’ve had promising whispers. Small-Scale Modular Nuclear reactors have arrived on the cusp of a potential energy renaissance. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission certified a Small Modular Reactor design (SMR) in 2023, and America elected a pro-energy president in 2024. Governor Ayotte ran on SMRs, and the Republican majority legislature has expressed support.
Now all you need to do is think about it the way we do tax-free liquor sales and fireworks, and boom. We’re generating enough capacity to make NH so much more appealing to local businesses because our electric rates are low while having the option to sell excess capacity to self-starved neighbors in Vermont, Massachusetts, Maine, and the rest of the ISO family, we hope to leave behind.
But Wait, There’s More!
Were my own personal energy fantasy to approach reality (I have no clue if any of this is even possible), our greenwashing neighbors would have to explain to their constituents why they might pass bills prohibiting the purchase of power from New Hampshire. You don’t think those little green assholes would do it? These are the same jerks who create taxes on things people buy tax-free in New Hampshire.
There’s no reason we shouldn’t consider becoming a net exporter of electricity on our terms. Let’s face it, no other state in New England is going to do that.
