Joyce Weston: Need to replace Sununu if we are taking climate change seriously

To The Daily Sun,

The Granite State is surrounded by Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Canada, all which have full-fledged climate action plans. Each of them is working toward reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050. But New Hampshire has no plan. The science shows that we can get there if we work together with our neighbors. But we have to get started.

If I am re-elected to the N.H. House of Representatives, I will sponsor a Climate Action Plan for New Hampshire, which requires the Department of Environmental Services to analyze greenhouse gas emissions on a five-year basis, and then to set up a plan to reduce those emissions with the final goal of NET ZERO by 2050. In addition, DES will have to report on their progress every two years, to add a layer of accountability.

This is not a new idea to New Hampshire. Governor Lynch set up a task force to study climate change back in 2008, and that commission published an excellent 78-page report that covered all aspects of the problem and how to fix it. (https://www.des.nh.gov/organization/divisions/air/tsb/tps/climate/action_plan/documents/nhcap_final.pdf)

But since then, Governor Sununu has failed to confront the climate crisis New Hampshire faces and has repeatedly vetoed bills to support clean solar energy and other beneficial environmental actions in our state. Why? Our governor and his family are tightly invested in the fossil fuel interests that benefit from old-fashioned, dirty energy.

If we are going to join our neighbors and protect our state from a harmful climate future, we need to elect Senator Dan Feltes as governor. Senator Feltes understands that the cost of doing nothing, as we are doing now, is too great.

Rep. Joyce Weston

NH House of Representatives, Grafton 8

Plymouth