Our state has been served by great Republicans like Norris Cotton, James Cleveland, Judd Gregg, Warren Rudman and David Souter to name but a few. All decent, honorable people of character, integrity, intelligence and deeply-ingrained independence. Kelly Ayotte, a bright and able U.S. Senator was, once, on that list.
Today, in New Hampshire and nationally, we have a Republican Party of boot lickers and toadies all bending the knee to a corrupt uninformed Mussolini wannabe. Gov. Ayotte unfortunately is now on that list.
As a moderate Republican who worked with administrations dating back decades, I was proud to see in 2015 then-Senator Ayotte emerge as one of a handful of national party leaders with the courage to stand up to fossil fuel companies and say climate change is real; it is damaging our planet, our economy and our health; and we need to act. Along with national leaders like Lamar Alexander and John McCain, Ayotte broke from the party’s addiction to oil, coal, gas and fossil fuel company campaign contributions. Sen. Ayotte was one of only five Republicans in 2015 to vote “yes” on a resolution that said human activity was causing the climate to change and that same year she became the first Republican to support President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan that set limits on carbon pollution. Even the Environmental Defense Fund was impressed, running ads in New Hampshire thanking Ayotte for her courage.
That was then. Now?
I was appalled to read this month that Ayotte had signed legislation making sure New Hampshire not only doesn’t pursue clean, cheap, reliable wind energy but that we take the very words “wind power” out of our state energy plans. The Office of Wind Industry Development and Energy Innovation is now the Office of Energy Innovation. And it gets worse. While members of Lee Zeldin’s own workforce in New England refused to meet with the Trump official who is taking apart our Environmental Protection Agency, Ayotte not only met with him but embraced expanding gas pipelines — something our region rejected five years ago. So no reliable free wind — just more costly, polluting gas.
If this version of Kelly Ayotte has said one single thing about climate change since getting elected governor, I haven’t heard it.
Ayotte clearly is afraid of Trump and afraid to stand up for what she used to believe in. That’s bad news for us. Her lack of courage is going to cost us jobs. It is going to mean soaring electric bills, more pollution and continued warming of our planet. And this winter, if we suffer blackouts, she may want to explain why she stands with Trump, and not with New Hampshire.
In a completely inexplicable move, the Trump administration has told an offshore wind project to shut down when it is nearly complete and will provide power to 350,000 homes. Shutting down the Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island will not only kill hundreds of jobs, drive up electric bills and increase pollution — it threatens New England with electricity shortages in the coming winter.
ISO New England, the authority that manages the electricity for the six state region, has said wind power is the best source of power during the coldest days of winter and solar power is best on the hottest days. In other words, wind and sun — both free — are what we need to survive the days that require the most electricity. And ISO has said without Revolution’s wind on cold days, we face blackouts. Nobody I know in New Hampshire is getting jobs fracking gas or drilling for oil or mining coal. But we could use a lot more solar on rooftops, and we could use a lot more wind turbines on hills and on the ocean — those jobs are local, and they pay well. Incentives to put up solar and wind are disappearing under Trump. Those jobs are going too, along with the lower electric bills. Not a peep from our governor.
It isn’t just the jobs and electric bills either.
New Hampshire is losing winter with higher temperatures that are costing us snow, skiing and snowmobiling. Warming means more cyanobacteria on our lakes, closing them to swimming and posing a health threat. The warmth is giving us more ticks, and more tick disease. Climate change is killing our moose, eroding our shores, warming our oceans and killing our fish.
Sen. Ayotte had the guts and the brains to say we needed to act. Gov. Ayotte is
doing nothing.
Tom Trimarco is a New Hampshire resident who ran as a Republican for Congress twice
in Massachusetts and worked in the administrations of Richard Nixon and for Gov. Mitt
Romney in Massachusetts. He is now a registered Independent.