Renewable energy advocates say they expect to be playing defense on perennial policy debates in next year’s Republican state Legislature.
Lawmakers of both parties have signaled they'll file bills for and against issues like net metering – which lets customers sell their own solar power back to the grid. Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed many attempts to expand that program. He's also criticized Democrats for blocking related compromise bills that he did support.
Madeleine Mineau of Clean Energy New Hampshire hopes lawmakers might make progress on that issue with Republicans in charge. But on other issues, she’s less hopeful.
“In the past, when there’s been Republican majorities, there’s attempts to repeal existing clean energy policy,” she said, “so we’re anticipating that that’s likely again this year.”
Those could include high-impact, climate-friendly policies, like requirements for utilities to sell certain amounts of renewables, or New Hampshire’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
