The New Hampshire House and Senate will conclude their legislative sessions Thursday. Lawmakers will vote on final versions of several high-profile bills.
One measure would bar someone accused of murder from using a victim’s gender identity or expression or their sexual orientation as a criminal defense. New Hampshire would join a growing number of states in outlawing the so-called “gay panic defense.”
Another piece of legislation up for consideration tomorrow is a compromise bill full of wide-ranging energy policy changes. HB 281 started as an effort to eliminate one of the main ways New Hampshire regulates utility companies, a process they go through to make sure their plans come at the least cost to ratepayers.
In a Senate amendment, lawmakers added a buffet of other energy policy priorities from either side of the aisle.
One change would remove the requirement that small-scale energy generators – like solar farms that serve cities, towns, or entities like schools – be located in the same municipality as their customers. Local officials and clean energy advocates say that could help get renewable energy projects started more easily.
Another change would require that, once a year, the Department of Energy shows ratepayers the estimated cost of complying with the state’s renewable energy standard.
Other additions include getting rid of a board focused on energy efficiency and sustainable energy and making changes to the committee in charge of determining where energy projects should be located. That committee has come under scrutiny in past years.
A bill that would start a process to change the way New Hampshire regulates landfills is also on Thursday’s agenda.
The state currently requires landfills be located a minimum of 200 feet from a body of water. Gov. Chris Sununu vetoed a previous effort to make that law more restrictive.
This time around, the House and Senate have agreed on a bill, SB 61, that would direct state regulators to develop new rules specific to the site where a landfill is proposed.
When the bill was moving through the legislature, state officials indicated Sununu would sign it, but said amendments could compromise his support. Some lawmakers hoped to make it more protective of the environment, but their amendment was passed over in favor of another that made fewer changes.
The bill would pause landfill application approvals until new rules are made, but if it takes regulators more than two years, the rules would revert back to current law.
Thursday’s sessions are the last chance for the legislature to either vote down these bills, or send them to Gov. Sununu’s desk.
