Last week, Gov. Kelly Ayotte posted on social media, “New Hampshire’s natural beauty is the bedrock of our quality of life. We shouldn’t let beautiful places like Forest Lake become a dumping ground for out-of-state trash. I’ll keep pushing for a moratorium on new landfills and a regulatory process that includes community input.”

Frankly, those words ring hollow given her failure to deliver on key promises this session.

For years, communities across New Hampshire have been asking for real protections from giant, out-of-state trash companies looking to turn rural towns into their next dumping ground.

This year, it finally looked like lawmakers were coming together to do something about it.

A proposal was on the table to create a Solid Waste Site Evaluation Committee modeled after the process for major energy projects to ensure that any proposed new landfill undergoes real scrutiny and that local communities have a strong voice in the decision. The plan also included a genuine moratorium on new landfill approvals so the state could get its rules in place first.

The House strengthened that idea by adding tough “net public benefit” standards. That meant any proposed landfill would have to prove it truly served the public interest, not just boost corporate profits. It ensured local towns had the power to protect their drinking water, health and quality of life, and it made community input central to the entire process.

But when the bill reached the Senate, everything changed.

Instead of protecting New Hampshire’s communities, Senate Republicans rewrote the plan to tilt the playing field back toward big landfill operators like Casella, the same company that has been pushing the divisive Dalton landfill for years and trying to expand an old, problem-plagued site in Bethlehem.

The Senate version stripped local towns like Bethlehem of their authority to block unwanted expansions. It carved out loopholes for so-called “remedial landfill expansions,” like the one being proposed in Berlin, and certain other facilities, automatically rubber-stamping them as “public benefit.”

These carveouts would deny the Department of Environmental Services an opportunity for substantive analysis of such proposals, even if they pose real risks to people and the environment. Worst of all, it weakened the House’s tough “net benefit” standard and sidelined meaningful community input, giving everyday Granite Staters far less say over what happens in their own backyards.

In the end, the massive gap between the House and Senate versions sank the entire proposal, with no help or offer of mediation from Gov. Ayotte to bridge the divide. What could have been a landmark compromise to protect our natural resources and give communities a fair voice instead fell apart, because the final version favored corporate landfill operators over local people who would be forced to live with the consequences.

Meanwhile, Casella’s lobbyists were there every step of the way, helping to write carveouts and push for weaker rules. It is no wonder the final deal looked like it was written for them.

When Gov. Ayotte posts about protecting Forest Lake and the North Country, I have to ask: Where was she in the discussion about how to ensure a moratorium on landfills? Nowhere.

Just when legislators were close to a plan that could have delivered real oversight, real protection and a real moratorium on new dumps in our towns, the deal died because powerful trash interests got what they wanted under her watch. Local people’s voices were silenced, and it all crumbled.

Feel-good tweets are a poor substitute for action. Granite Staters deserve leaders who will do the work to bring legislators from both parties and both chambers together to protect public health and our extraordinary natural beauty, not just talk about it.

Rep. Nick Germana (D-Keene) serves as the Deputy Ranking Member of the House Environment and Agriculture Committee and the Deputy House Democratic Floor Leader.