All of us have to deal with higher oil heating prices, as well as high electrical delivery rates.

After looking at various technologies to shift some of my home's energy budget to alternative sources, I was disappointed to see NH does not have any programs in place to municipalities, towns, homeowners, small businesses and property owners to help with capital costs associated with buying the hardware needed to adopt alternative energy sources.

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Governor Lynch has started a process, and there is a Task Force.

And of course, many of us know the Governor has been active in the highly publicized
'Cap and Trade' of Greenhouse Gases. This is fine, to an extent, gently pushing markets towards adoption of more alternative energy. However, there are steps I feel that there are more robust steps the State could be taking to encourage a more rapid shift away from traditional networks of energy. These steps will make the State economy more independent of outside fluctuations in supply, pricing, and delivery. It could provide a huge boost in local jobs, as well.

Techonology exists and is in use in our State right now to use methane, more details here

This technology needs to be encouraged in the remaining landfills in the State, where appropriate; the price of natural gas is bound to go up, and the use of methane to create energy rather than allowing it to go into the atmosphere is a key way to reduce NH's GHG greenhouse gas emissions.

There is a program, highly touted and advertised about using wood chips to create energy, as well. While it is good to switch from coal to wood, this source is necessarily regional in nature and limited in scope.

http://www.psnh.com/Energy/EnergyProject/NWPP/print-faqs.html

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Yes, NH is moving towards some aspects of shifting it's energy budget, but I find that current programs seem to concentrate on corporate involvement, and focus upon using the existing distribution networks to effect change.

What appears to be lacking in our State is the ability of the end user to shift, by themselves off the grid.

Yes, we do have net metering in the State; it's one of the very few pluses for end consumers who want to adopt alternative energy, along with some limited rebates to end consumers.

There are some local city and town tax exemptions for use of solar, wind and geothermal energies.

But quite frankly, it's not enough. We can do better, a lot better as a State for our end consumers.

Existing programs offered by the State could be made much more robust and forward looking, by adopting an aggressive State loan program to allow end consumers and small businesses to adopt alternative energy sources.

State loans to citizens and small businesses to purchase alternative energy technologies would provide the impetus to help not only our citizens adopt these new technologies, it would help local employment in the alternative energy sector.

The State would need to 'front' the money, but these loans could recapture the principal and charge interest, helping to further fund the State's economy, and investment in future alternative technologies and infrastructure.

The working models to provide long term low cost loans for energy improvements are already in place in the non-profit arena, and in other States - in this case, Maine, right next door.

NH legislation could be written to favor in-State manufacturing of alternative energy companies, providing a boost to the State's economy, as well.

The existing net metering limit on overall enrollment, currently at 1.0% of a utility's peak demand needs to be re-assessed as well.

We now have a Democratic legislature in the State, along with a Democratic Governor. Perhaps it's time to revisit and ramp up our State's outlook towards how energy is used, and what we can do as a State to reduce GHGs, reduce use of coal, reduce use of imported oil and improve our energy independence.

It's time the State stepped up to the plate, and provided loans to our citizens to make changes in their energy profiles.

This requires a major shift in the way our State views it's financial obligations, shifting the emphasis away from corporations to consumers is something that will have a lot of opposition in the State.

The political will to do this needs to be expressed by our newly elected State government. It's time for them to take the lead, and take a stand on these issues.