Gov. Chris Sununu and Democratic challenger Molly Kelly remained steadfast in their differences over energy policy as each addressed the annual New Hampshire Energy Summit on Monday.
Sununu stressed the importance of providing relief to the state’s electric customers who pay some of the highest rates in the country, while Kelly made the pitch for more clean, renewable energy.
Sununu criticized Kelly without mentioning her by name by illustrating his opposition to two renewable energy bills – propping up biomass and easing the sale of green energy back to the grid – that Kelly supports.
“Do not stand up here and tell me that you are for both of those bills and at the same time you’re going to fight tooth and nail for lower energy rates,” he said. “You cannot have it both ways. You just can’t.”
Sununu vetoed both bills saying they hurt customers. The biomass bill was overridden earlier this month by the Legislature.
“It’s okay to be for both of those bills. But you can’t say that lower energy rates are the top priority in this state. You just can’t do that,” Sununu argued. “I’m just asking for honest conversation.”
Kelly spoke after Sununu departed the ballroom at the Holiday Inn in Concord, but the target of her comments was clear.
“Our state’s approach to energy is not working for most Granite Staters,” she said. “Homeowners and renters are paying more to keep the lights on. Business owners are seeing their energy costs rise.”
Kelly hinted that Sununu cares more about Eversource than he does its customers.
“A big part of the problem is that ratepayers are not coming first,” she said. “Instead, the best interests of utilities and outside fossil fuel companies are coming first.”
Energy’s been a key issue in the gubernatorial campaign for months. Kelly and former Portsmouth mayor Steve Marchand highlighted the state’s high rates relentlessly during the summer as they touted their commitment to renewables and slammed Sununu’s vetoes of the two renewable energy bills. Kelly took out a TV ad last month targeting the governor’s vetoes.
Kelly, a Harrisville resident who served 10 years in the state Senate, trounced Marchand in the Sept. 11 primary. Two days later, one of Sununu’s vetoes was narrowly overridden in a bipartisan vote by the state Legislature.
The biomass bill, which is now law, requires Eversource – the state’s largest utility – and other utilities to purchase a portion of their electricity from the state’s wood-burning power plants. In his veto, Sununu argued that ratepayers couldn’t afford such an “immense subsidy.” The Legislature failed to override the governor’s veto of a bill to expand net metering – which provides small generators credits for the electricity they send to the power grid.
On Monday, Sununu elaborated on his biomass veto.
“It had very little to do with biomass and timber. It all came back to the ratepayer,” he said. “It’s a good example of saying ‘look, are we going to focus on the individual or are we going to focus on the special interests.’ I’m about the individual.”
He said he’s not against renewable energy, either.
“You want to do a good broad spectrum of renewable energy in the state? Absolutely. But let’s make sure we’re doing it in a way that’s lowering the rates for individuals,” Sununu said.
As he has in the past, Sununu highlighted that his top priority is New Hampshire’s 1.3 million people.
“That is all I care about,” he said. “One-point-three million people and how they’re going to pay the energy rates every day. You have to look at it through the ratepayers’ eyes. I just believe that. Now I’m not talking as a governor, but as a guy who pays his electric bill.”
Sununu also spotlighted his commitment to energy efficiency, saying he’s a “huge fan.” And he touted his 10-year energy strategy for the state – which was released in the spring – as a “practical, not political” plan.
Kelly, as expected, disagreed.
“The new state energy plan offers the wrong approach. It looks to the past. It relies on fossil fuels,” she charged.
She disputed the governor’s claims that the two renewable energy bills would raise rates for customers.
“They will lower rates and it will lower taxes for our communities and what’s really important as well is that it produces clean energy, which is the way that we need to go,” she said.
And Kelly argued that “the status quo today is only delivering higher electric bills for all of us.”
Speaking with reporters after her remarks to the audience, Kelly once again slammed Sununu for his acceptance of contributions from Eversource.
“We know that the governor has received over $50,000 from Eversource and I believe that that makes for his policies and agenda (being) the same as Eversource,” she charged. “My agenda is putting the people first.”