“While other states have let politics drive policy, New Hampshire has always put the ratepayer’s bottom line first,” he said. “We’ve let markets, not government, drive innovation.”
Sununu said costs had increased much more over the past seven years in other New England states than they had in New Hampshire. He shared a chart showing electricity rates for residential customers had risen 70 percent more in Maine than in New Hampshire, 83 percent more in Massachusetts, 94 percent more in Connecticut, and 127 percent more in Rhode Island.
The actual differences documented in the underlying data, however, aren’t nearly as stark as Sununu’s statement would suggest. His statement also had a glaring omission.
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Other states let politics drive policy. NH has always put the ratepayer’s bottom line first.
We let markets, not government, drive innovation.
We take a technology neutral approach that doesn’t pick winners and losers. Because of it, our residential customers have benefitted! pic.twitter.com/8cF7jwbicq
Although the statement quotes New Hampshire Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Republican, as saying New Hampshire’s approach is “unlike the policies of our neighboring states in the region,” it fails to mention one of those neighbors: Vermont.
Including the Green Mountain State would have painted a different picture: Vermont’s electricity rates have risen more slowly and remain lower than New Hampshire’s rates, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration, the same source Sununu’s office cited for data on electricity rates in the other states.
Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Clean Energy New Hampshire, said Vermont has been aggressive in promoting renewable energy policies.
“If energy and climate goals were driving this trend, why is Vermont so affordable?” he said.
Consumer Advocate Donald M. Kreis said Vermont has pursued aggressive decarbonization policies but hasn’t restructured its electric utilities the way other New England states have.
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“Vermont’s electric utilities are still vertically integrated monopolies, whereas in New Hampshire customers can buy electricity from competitive suppliers or community power aggregation programs,” Kreis said. “It would be interesting to figure out whether the EIA data suggests that one of those approaches is superior to the other. I haven’t done the necessary analysis.”
The governor’s office referred questions about Sununu’s statement to New Hampshire Department of Energy Deputy Commissioner Christopher J. Ellms Jr., who did not answer when asked why Vermont had been excluded.
Sununu’s statement lists clean energy mandates in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut as policies that have been blamed for driving prices higher, and it presupposes that lower electricity rates in New Hampshire would be attributable to the state’s market-driven strategy.
“If anything is clear,” Energy Commissioner Jared Chicoine said, “it is that New England as a whole would benefit from adopting our approach.”
Officials didn’t just cherry-pick data by excluding Vermont. They also muddled data for the states they included by using a calculation that exaggerated differences between the states.
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When asked how the percentages from Sununu’s statement were calculated, Ellms outlined an unusual methodology. He didn’t calculate the percentage by which each state’s rate increased. Instead, he calculated each state’s increase in terms of cents per kilowatt hour, then directly compared those price increases across state lines.
For example, residential electricity rates rose 5.28 cents in New Hampshire and 9.66 cents in Massachusetts during the relevant timeframe, according to the EIA data Ellms cited. Based on those numbers alone, his methodology concluded the increase in Massachusetts was 83 percent more than the increase in New Hampshire.
But that methodology failed to account for differences in each state’s baseline. In New Hampshire, the 5.28-cent increase represented a rise of 28.6 percent. In Massachusetts, the 9.66-cent increase represented a rise of 49.3 percent.
That means electricity rates actually increased 20.7 percentage points more in Massachusetts than in New Hampshire.
That difference is notable, but it’s based on snapshots taken from just two months. Ellms said the starting data came from the month Sununu took office, January 2017, and the ending data was from February 2024, the most recent available. None of the ups and downs in between were factored into the analysis.
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Evans-Brown said state officials portrayed New Hampshire price trends as if they are meaningfully different from other New England states, but that’s an artifact of a cherry-picked timeframe.
“Comparing two points in time in this way just invites spurious conclusions,” he said, adding that the monthly data is noisy and New Hampshire is “right in the middle of the pack.”
Ellms said his methodology worked just fine and the press release accurately reflected how rates have increased in other states relative to New Hampshire.
“No matter how you present it, the underlying data clearly show that New Hampshire’s electric rates have increased substantially less than the other states’ rates,” he said in an email. “Your implication otherwise might be meant to undermine New Hampshire’s relative success compared to the other states but the fact remains that New Hampshire’s ratepayer focus has significantly contributed to these positive outcomes and will continue to do so.”
Recent history suggests, however, that relatively low rates are far from inevitable in New Hampshire. There is a lot of volatility in the monthly EIA data, and New Hampshire’s rates aren’t always lower than its neighbors — in fact, New Hampshire had the highest rate of any New England state twice in 2023 and five times in 2022, according to EIA data.
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Electric rates in New Hampshire skyrocketed in summer 2022, driven by the high cost of natural gas amid Russia’s war on Ukraine. New Hampshire had the highest rate in New England from August 2022 to January 2023, according to EIA data. As natural gas prices fell, the electricity rate in New Hampshire began to plummet.
Sununu blamed President Biden’s administration for high energy costs in 2022, citing Biden’s decision in 2021 to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline. Clean energy advocates contended the underlying problem is New England states are overly dependent on natural gas to produce electricity.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter. Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
WILTON, N.H. (WHDH) – A woman died in a Wilton, New Hampshire, house fire Wednesday morning, according to the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal’s Office.
At 9:08 a.m., Wilton firefighters responded to Burns Hill Road after a caller said their home was filling up with smoke. When they arrived, a single-family home was on fire and they found out two people were still inside on the second floor.
A man and a woman were both taken out of the house by firefighters and taken to Elliott Hospital. The woman was pronounced dead and the man is in serious condition.
Officials have not released the name of the victim at this time.
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At this time, investigators are looking into the cause of the fire and are trying to determine if a power outage in the area played a factor. The fire is not currently considered suspicious.
(Copyright (c) 2025 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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Diane Durgin, 67, is accused of shooting at a Black man who inadvertently drove to her property after a prearranged truck part sale, prosecutors said.
A New Hampshire woman is accused of violating the state’s Civil Rights Act four times after she allegedly shot at a man because he was Black, prosecutors said.
Diane Durgin, 67, of Weare, N.H. could face up to a $5,000 fine for each violation she is found to have committed, the office of New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella said in a press release Tuesday.
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Durgin is also charged with criminal threatening against a person with a deadly weapon and attempted first degree assault with a deadly weapon, Michael Garrity, a media representative for the New Hampshire Attorney General, said in an emailed statement to Boston.com.
Durgin had a final pre-trial conference last week, Garrity said.
In a civil complaint filed Tuesday, Durgin is accused of threatening physical force against the victim, the AG said. Prosecutors asked the court to issue a preliminary injunction barring Durgin from repeating her alleged behavior and from contacting the victim and his family.
During the morning hours of Oct. 20, 2024, the victim claims, he “mistakenly” drove to Durgin’s home after a prearranged purchase of a truck part with a seller online, prosecutors wrote as part of their request for an injunction.
When the man — whom prosecutors identified in court documents as X.G. — arrived, Durgin allegedly stepped out of her home and approached his car with a gun “holstered by her waist,” prosecutors wrote.
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Upon noticing that X.G. was Black, Durgin allegedly “removed her gun and pointed it at X.G.,” prosecutors said in the injunction request.
While X.G. explained that he was lost, Durgin called the victim a “Black mother[expletive],” and threatened to “kill him,” prosecutors allege.
As the victim attempted to drive away, Durgin allegedly took her gun and fired two shots at the fleeing man’s car, missing both times, the AG’s office said.
While on the phone with a dispatcher, Durgin allegedly said she shot the man’s car because the victim is Black, the AG said.
“The guy is Black. And he, he…he says he’s meeting someone here and I think he’s coming here to steal,” Durgin allegedly said.
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Police located X.G. and brought him to the Weare Police Department, stopping along the way at the correct seller’s home to complete the truck part purchase, prosecutors wrote in court documents.
To prove a violation of the New Hampshire Civil Rights Act, the AG must show that Durgin “interfered or attempted to interfere with the rights of the victim to engage in lawful activities by threatening to engage in or actually engage in physical force or violence, when such actual or threatening conduct was motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, or disability,” prosecutors said.
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