Two multibillion dollar companies stand to benefit from legislation that is now before the New Hampshire House Science, Technology and Energy Committee.
SB 381, if passed, would open the door for Wheelabrator in Concord to incinerate processed construction and demolition debris (C&D).
Wheelabrator, the second largest waste-to-energy business in the United States, was acquired in 2014 by Energy Capital Partners, a private equity firm with over $13 billion in capital investments. ReEnergy in Epping would supply the C&D processed wood. ReEnergy is owned by Riverstone Holdings, a multi-national private equity firm founded by two former Goldman Sachs bankers and worth an estimated $33 billion.
Make no mistake, SB 381 is a sweetheart deal that would benefit two huge conglomerates at the expense of New Hampshire citizens.
In 2007, after careful study of the risk to public health and the environment, New Hampshire passed legislation banning the incineration of C&D.
SB 381 would exempt one private company from this ban and provides no funding to support independent state verification that incineration of this waste product poses no health or environmental risks.
It also is unlikely that corporate interests will be satisfied with limiting incineration of C&D to one facility. But as Sen. Jeb Bradley said in his testimony on this bill, “You have to start small.”
It turns out that risks to our public health and environment may not be the only problems associated with SB 381.
Cozying up with industry also has the potential for a negative impact on taxpayers. On April 16, the Maine legislature passed a $13.5 million bailout for four financially troubled biomass plants owned by ReEnergy. The taxpayers’ dollars for the bailout will come from the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
As reported by the Bangor Daily News, Republican Rep. Beth O’Connor called the bill “corporate welfare.”
Democratic Rep. Gay Grant agreed, saying she’d rather give the money behind the bill directly to workers affected by biomass layoffs than subsidize a polluting industry. “In the end, the deep pockets are the ones who will walk away happy,” Grant said.
New Hampshire legislators need to take a hard look at SB 381 and ask if this is really the direction they want to go.
(Janet Ward lives in Contoocook. Jacquelyn Elliot is a New Hampshire native who now lives in Waterboro, Maine.)