Covering Climate Change

Eversource is joining a group of utilities aiming to build a national network of high-speed electric vehicle chargers.

The company, which is New Hampshire’s largest electric provider, is the first in the Northeast to join the Electric Highway Coalition, launched last month by utilities in the Southeast, Gulf Coast and Midwest.

Some state weatherization contractors are warning that inaction by state regulators on New Hampshire’s energy efficiency plan could harm their business.  

Liberty Utilities has suspended a home weatherization program for its natural gas customers because of delays at the Public Utilities Commission in approving expanded energy efficiency goals for the state.

Other electric and gas utilities say they could soon face similar choices that will affect their customers if regulators continue to leave the issue undecided.

This week's ice-out on Lake Winnipesaukee is part of a trend toward earlier spring thaws in New Hampshire due to climate change.

The lake was declared ice-free and navigable by boat on Monday, April 5. It's about two weeks earlier than the average ice-out date over the past hundred-plus years.

Responders have put out at least two small brush fires in New Hampshire this week amid dry conditions and high winds.

One was in Cornish, near homes on Route 12-A. The other destroyed a barn in Hinsdale.

Fire danger has been rated at least moderate in the state this week. And there's little rain in the forecast in the coming days. The state is well below average on precipitation for the year, with another potential drought in the works this spring.

Combined with gusty winds, the state says it means any open burning can easily catch and spread uncontrolled.

Thirty percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to buildings and the indoor environments in which we live and work - that's more than the entire transportation sector.

This week, we're featuring an episode of Gimlet's How to Save a Planet. It's the story of Donnel Baird, a climate-activist-turned-start-up-founder with a plan to address building inefficiency at a massive scale.

New Hampshire is likely headed into an early spring drought despite recent rain and snow, according to the latest national forecast – and state officials are already warning of the potential drinking water impacts.

New Hampshire Sen. Maggie Hassan is re-introducing a bill to give more federal support to multi-state climate change programs like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Scientists at the University of New Hampshire are studying ways to tap trees and make syrup with species other than maples, in hopes of developing new niche markets for small producers as climate change reshapes the state’s current sugaring industry.

The researchers have been tapping and monitoring trees like beeches, birches, walnuts and sycamores this winter.

The New Hampshire state Senate on Thursday advanced a plan to require utility investment in large offshore wind energy projects and other renewable sources. The proposal for what’s known as a "procurement program" passed on a bipartisan 23 to 1 vote.

New federal research shows drought can increase the risk of unsafe arsenic levels in private drinking water wells -- especially in New Hampshire, Maine and the Midwest, where arsenic in wells is already a problem.

The study from the U.S. Geological Survey comes as forecasters predict the country's worst spring drought since 2013, affecting tens of millions of people, especially in the Western half of the country.

Managers in the White Mountain National Forest are planning a series of controlled burns aimed at protecting homes in Conway from the growing risk of climate-drive wildfires. 

The proposal aims to prevent fires in a developed area on the forest boundary, where the pine-driven ecosystem is prone to burning.

New Hampshire’s coal-fired power plant, the last of its kind in New England not set to retire, will now remain online through at least 2025, despite calls from climate change activists for it to close. 

The news comes from a federal filing in late February by the regional grid manager, ISO-New England.

A new report says New Hampshire’s state government has cut back its fossil fuel and energy use in the past 15 years, but still falls well short of the goals set by a 2016 executive order.

New Hampshire is facing a lawsuit for permitting landfill expansions without having an updated plan for reducing solid waste.

The suit, filed Thursday in Merrimack Superior Court, comes from the Conservation Law Foundation. 

A bill that would require New Hampshire to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 got a first hearing in a state legislative committee Friday, earning support from state officials and the public, but meeting with skepticism from some members of the Republican majority.

Hampton Beach officials will hear from a range of climate change scientists at a symposium next week as part of their work on a coastal resilience piece of a new town master plan.

Heavier rain, more storms and higher tides are already causing more frequent low-level flooding on the streets of the oceanfront community. Roads were closed due to standing tidewater as recently as last week, in the wake of a nor’easter.

The state Site Evaluation Committee will decide whether to hold a special approval process for a proposed solar farm in Milford, after receiving petitions from nearby residents.

The proposed array, from a local subsidiary of New York-based Olivewood Energy, would have a capacity of 16 megawatts – about half the size of the normal minimum for SEC consideration.

A community group called Brox Environmental Citizens – named for the piece of land where the solar farm would be built – wants the SEC to step in and decide whether to review the project anyway. 

Lebanon’s city council voted Wednesday evening to join a coalition of towns and cities that want to provide electricity to residents from renewable energy sources, at potentially lower costs than utilities can offer.

State officials say ice fishermen should use caution this weekend, with frozen conditions still touch-and-go on New Hampshire’s lakes and ponds despite bitter cold in the forecast.