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Outlines Of Plan For PSNH Power-Plants Begin To Emerge

New Hampshire lawmakers say new leadership at Public Service of New Hampshire has brought a change of tone. For policy-makers this as a welcome development as they seek a solution to the steady bleed of customers from the state’s largest utility.

The Electricity Restructuring Oversight Committee plans to draft a bill that would the Public Utilities Commission to determine if selling PSNH’s power plants would save customers money. That solution has long been anathema to the company but the committee’s chair David Borden says there has been a marked change in PSNH’s tenor on the issue, to “a willingness to really work with us on the legislation that could enable PUC to go forth.”

But Borden also says it’s too soon to tell if this is a change in content as well.

Indeed, in an e-mail, a spokesman says there has been no change in PSNH’s position, which would mean the company would resist any effort to require the sale of its power plants.

Lawmakers say they are likely to put forward a bill that will ask for advice from the PUC, but will let the legislature make the final decision on selling the power plants or not. The committee will meet next on Wednesday, and will hear more from PSNH on that day.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.
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