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Arnie Alpert and Maggie Fogarty of the American Friends’ Service Committee – New Hampshire discuss the latest goings on at the State House with Rep. Bob Backus, Chairman of the House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee.
House & Senate Bills, post-crossover discussions: SB10/HB186 minimum wage (Vermont min wage); HB712 FML; HB397 driver’s licenses for undocumented residents, Transportation Committee; – excerpts of hearing – ; Budget is in Senate committee, hearings next week; private detention facility, Homestead, Florida ; – Vigilante Man, Woody Guthrie – ; Bob Backus: in the past it was thought energy came from coal and nuclear; cost-plus vs. capital investment allows nukes to be shut down; House and Senate trying to coordinate on passage of what are similar bills with regard to chances of Governor’s approval or veto overrides; net metering generates some bipartisanship, caps to be raised, can be wind or hydro as well as solar; HB466 for small customer-generators, others up to 5MW; Amory Lovins’ negawatts; NHSaves, utility program; efficiency underfunded in NH; RGGI cap and trade vs. carbon fee; ISO New England, electrons are fungible, efficiency counts toward capacity goals and as such has dollar value in grid management; bills in the House to enhance RGGI’s contribution to efficiency programs; – Old Time Religion, Pete Seeger – ; ISO NE’s capacity bid queue now includes wind; aspirational planning for distributed grid and grid scale storage by batteries instead of pumped storage; other issues of interest, death penalty repeal may survive expected veto; family medical leave; mental health; AFSC announcements, Dr. Stragelove, May Day, Move to Amend.
