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How New Hampshire’s candidates for governor would lead on energy, climate change • New Hampshire Bulletin

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How New Hampshire’s candidates for governor would lead on energy, climate change • New Hampshire Bulletin


This story is the second in a series examining how the top four gubernatorial candidates, as determined by polling data, would lead on energy and the environment. Read the first one here. The third installment, coming soon, will focus on the candidates’ positions on offshore wind.

New Hampshire’s natural beauty is undeniable. But its environment – and the people and the economy that depend on it – faces mounting threats due to climate change. 

You can see and feel the changes for yourself: It’s hotter than it used to be. It snows less. Water is creeping in from the coast. 

The next governor of New Hampshire will set the tone for how the state addresses climate change. So far, the state has been out of step with its New England neighbors. It lags in renewable energy adoption and is the only state in the region without a statutory requirement to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

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Whoever replaces Gov. Chris Sununu, who is not seeking reelection after four terms in office, will also have to tackle energy affordability in a state and region with some of the highest electricity rates in the country. The next governor will also make key appointments to the Public Utilities Commission and the Department of Energy.

The four top candidates for governor expressed distinct visions in these areas in interviews with the Bulletin. Asked how they see climate change impacting the state in the coming years and decades, and what they would do to mitigate those impacts, the candidates described the problem in different terms.

NH gubernatorial candidates say no to Dalton landfill but split on other development

Kelly Ayotte, the Republican former U.S. senator and state attorney general, said she would take a “bipartisan, balanced approach to protecting our environment, but we have to do so without increasing energy costs, because people can’t afford how much energy costs right now in New Hampshire.”

She said she would focus on preserving natural spaces and was concerned by what was happening at the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Forest in northern New Hampshire. A company that owns the land sought to reduce the tree harvest there and sell carbon credits, but the state rejected the plan

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“Someone from out of state bought it and is trying to reduce the use of that land,” she said. “So, to me, as we think about conserving our land, it’s about conserving everything for the use of people and the enjoyment of the people of New Hampshire, and then protecting our environment.” 

Joyce Craig, the Democratic former Manchester mayor, said climate change “is coming up with residents in every conversation.” She said she would focus on lowering costs, increasing renewable energy, and protecting the environment.

“We are seeing how we’ve had a mild winter, impacting our outdoor recreation and tourism,” she said. “We’ve seen how climate change has affected our Seacoast, with Route 1 being washed out by storms this winter. And just recently, the effects of the storm, the flooding that we had this past week (in July). We need to take action on addressing climate change.”

Chuck Morse, the Republican who served for years as president of the state Senate, said he passed legislation that allows people to choose what forms of energy they want to use. He sponsored a bill in 2021 that banned municipalities from enacting mandates on how people heat their homes. 

“I’ve always been one that likes to deal with facts,” he said. “And I think, when it comes to climate change, or anything to do with energy, the people should be given the facts from the government, and they should be able to make that decision.”

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Pressed on what effect he sees climate change having on the state, he said: “I’m a believer that we go through evolution and things are going to change, and that’s gonna happen. But I’ve worked pretty hard to make sure we protect New Hampshire, and most of my work has been in water, to be honest with you, but that’s where I’ve spent a lot of time.” 

Morse helped establish and previously led the state’s Drinking Water and Groundwater Trust Fund.

Cinde Warmington, the lone Democrat on the Executive Council, said the impacts of climate change are “visible everywhere in our state.”

She listed them: more frequent, severe floods; crop losses, especially apples last year; cyanobacteria blooms driven in part by lack of ice cover in the winter; economic impacts to the ski industry; and risks to “the health and well-being of Granite Staters and of our planet.”

She called climate change “a truly serious threat to our state” and said New Hampshire needs “a governor who will recognize that we’re in the middle of a climate crisis.”

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“We start from the premise that climate change presents a real and imminent threat to our state,” she said, “and that we need to take really bold action to protect our future.”

Here’s more on how each candidate would lead on energy and climate.

Kelly Ayotte files as a candidate for governor at the Secretary of State’s Office in Concord on June 13, 2024. (Claire Sullivan | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Kelly Ayotte (R)

Ayotte, who Sununu endorsed this month, has a similar message on energy as the incumbent governor.

“I would take an all-of-the-above approach for New Hampshire,” she said. “And that means that we would look to make sure that whatever we do, that we aren’t adding additional costs to the people of New Hampshire that increase their energy bills.”

She said that “literally means all of the above.” (Though, she said later, not the offshore wind projects being proposed in the Gulf of Maine.) She said she is particularly interested in small modular nuclear reactors, because they’re “carbon neutral, but they also allow us to produce our own energy.’’

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While in the U.S. Senate, Ayotte stood at odds with the vast majority of her party on climate change. She was one of only five Republican senators in 2015 to support an amendment that said humans contribute significantly to climate change. She was also the first Republican in Congress to openly back President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions. 

After losing reelection to the Senate, Ayotte sat on the board of Bloom Energy, a fuel cell company, from 2017 to 2019, according to HuffPost. A 2019 Axios investigation found the company had a “history of playing fast and loose with its numbers.” A 2020 Forbes report boiled down the technology’s limited reach to it being “too dirty and too costly.”

Campaign spokesman John Corbett called a recent HuffPost article detailing the issues with the company, and Ayotte’s connections to it, a “partisan hack job report.” “​​While partisan hacks write BS reports,” he said, “Kelly will continue to lay out her positive vision for our state,” pointing out her record crossing party lines in favor of environmental protection.

Ayotte said she would be “open to looking at” legislation to expand net metering but wants to “make sure that we don’t pass additional costs on to ratepayers.”

“I think responsible expansion of net metering, we would balance the benefits of clean energy that can flow to communities,” she said, “and really make sure, though, that we’re protecting ratepayers.”

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Sununu frustrated clean energy advocates by vetoing legislation that would’ve expanded net metering to projects up to 5 megawatts. Currently, net metering is capped at 1 megawatt, except for “political subdivisions” like municipalities, for which Sununu approved a net metering expansion up to 5 megawatts in 2021. 

She said “reduced energy costs for everyone” would be the No. 1 focus of the Department of Energy, which was established in 2021, under her governorship.

Asked if it would be important to her that picks for the DOE and Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, have past experience in energy, she said, “I think in appointing anyone to any position in state government, I would want to look at their whole breadth of experience.”

“For me, obviously, I think experience in the field … that is very good to have,” she said. “… But I would need to look at everyone’s resume. I would have to consider their background, and also their prior experience and their performance.”

Transportation is the state’s “single largest source” of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the state’s Priority Climate Action Plan from March. Electric vehicles present an opportunity to cut that impact.

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The nearby states of Maine, Massachusetts, and New York offer rebates for EVs. 

“I don’t think that we should offer rebates for electric vehicles,” Ayotte said, pointing to the fact that the Biden administration “has massively subsidized” EVs. “And if people want to own an electric vehicle, you know, certainly that’s their choice.”

Joyce Craig files to run for governor on June 14, 2024. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Joyce Craig (D)

Craig said the state is “overly reliant on fossil fuels.” She connects addressing affordability to her push for green energy.

“We need to look at ways to decrease costs for our residents,” she said. “That includes expanding net metering, allowing families, businesses, schools, nonprofits that can’t meet their current needs on site to join shared generation projects, such as community solar farms or small hydro, to support New Hampshire’s growing community power movement, allowing customer generators to offset their remaining energy needs with community power, expand low and moderate income solar programs throughout our state, and develop offshore wind.”

She said she would sign the net metering expansion that Sununu vetoed. 

In terms of providing rebates for EVs, she said, “We would absolutely look into something like that.”

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She said it was important to her that her appointees to the DOE and the PUC have past experience in the energy field – “and that they understand and believe climate change is real.”

“It is absolutely something that we need to make sure that these individuals have background in,” she said, “and believe in the value of energy efficiency programs, and making sure they are funded to save our residents money.”

As for the priorities for a Craig DOE, she said they would be “to lower costs for our residents, to diversify our energy, and to reduce our carbon footprint.”

Chuck Morse (seated) files to run for governor on June 5, 2024. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Chuck Morse (R)

Morse thinks the key to lowering energy costs is getting more energy in the region.

“I believe the only way New Hampshire drives down electric costs is to have more energy come into the Northeast, whether that’s gas or oil, we just need to get more energy up here,” he said, “and that’s a big part of a governor solving the problem.”

He added: “Gov. Sununu has done a great job of not letting any costs hit on the energy side to the consumer, but that’s just playing defense, and that’s what we’ve been doing is playing defense.”

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Asked if he would support legislation to expand net metering, Morse said: “I would do the same thing, though, that Gov. Sununu has paid attention to – I would do nothing that brings up the cost for someone else. And that’s why Gov. Sununu has vetoed all those projects.”

Like his Republican competitor, he said he wouldn’t support the state investing in EV rebates, pointing to other priorities. 

“I’ve always been one that has been, you know, more worried about the things that we have to do, whether it’s mental illness, disabled children, things like that,” he said. “… We’re a small state, and we have to be careful with our budgets.”

As for his DOE, he said, “it’d be a lot like Gov. Sununu.” In fact, he said, Joshua Elliott, who Sununu tapped as the department’s director of policy and programs, used to work for him in the Senate. 

On whether it was important his energy appointees have past experience in the field, he said, “I think any pick that I’m going to do in any field will have to deal with the fact that they have experience and they can move New Hampshire forward.”

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Like Ayotte, he opposes offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.

Cinde Warmington files for governor on June 12, 2024. Her mother, Jean McCaffrey, is at right. (Annmarie Timmins | New Hampshire Bulletin)

Cinde Warmington (D)

While Morse embraced Sununu’s energy record, Warmington cast herself in stark contrast to it.

Asked about how she would help residents struggling to pay their electric bills, she said, “this is in large part due to the … current governor’s philosophy of really being opposed – hostile – towards both energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy and of leaving us behind in terms of the electrification of our transportation sector.”

She said her plan for energy focuses on combating climate change, electrifying the transportation sector, adding jobs and growing the economy, and nurturing innovation in the state. Having a diversified energy portfolio, she said, “is what it’s going to take to ultimately lower the cost of energy in our state.”

She also slammed the governor’s “hostility toward solar energy,” saying, “we have to make sure we’ve worked through the details, but, yes, I mean, I want that piece of legislation” to expand net metering.

“That is really what our businesses and our municipalities are calling for,” she said. “And it is Sununu who is stopping that from happening in our state.”

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As for EV rebates on the state level, she said, “we’re gonna look at all the options to increase and … truly lead in the electrification of our transportation sector” and that looking at federal funding would be “a priority.”

A Warmington DOE, she said, would focus on her plan for a clean energy economy, “all of that done with an eye to the ratepayer and making sure that the investments we’re making are going to benefit Granite Staters and Granite State businesses going forward.”

She said it would be important to her that her energy appointees have past experience in the field. She pointed to the fact that she was the lone vote against Sununu’s energy commissioner, Jared Chicoine.

That was, she said, “due in large part because of the lack of experience, but also because of his thoughts with respect to climate change, or rather that he doesn’t see government having a role in addressing climate change. I think government does have a role – an important role – in making sure that we’re addressing climate change.”

She was also the only vote against the chair of the PUC, Daniel C. Goldner. She said this was because, on climate change, he “doesn’t necessarily believe that it is a creation of man’s activities.”

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Warmington, like Craig, supports offshore wind in the Gulf of Maine.



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‘Not cosmetic’: NH lawmaker wants state to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss – Concord Monitor

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‘Not cosmetic’: NH lawmaker wants state to cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss – Concord Monitor


Two years ago, Sue Prentiss got a sobering reality check at her doctor’s office. The news was blunt: She qualified for bariatric surgery, a procedure for patients whose weight poses life-threatening risks.

She was aware of her weight and had tried everything from high-intensity workouts to weight loss programs and diets. Nothing seemed to help until she started taking GLP-1 medications.

Prentiss said between then and now, she had lost almost 80 pounds. 

But at a $500 out-of-pocket monthly fee, every refill is a financial pinch.

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“I’m just getting by, but I’m so much healthier, and if this can work for me, think about everybody else’s life where this would impact,” said Prentiss, a state senator.

To keep up with the cost, she’s made hard choices like cutting back on retirement contributions and squeezing her budget wherever possible.

Sen. Sue Prentiss Credit: Courtesy

Now, Prentiss is sponsoring Senate Bill 455, which would require the state to provide GLP-1 medications under the state Medicaid plan as a treatment for people with obesity.

As of January, New Hampshire’s Medicaid program has ended coverage for GLP-1 drugs like Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound for weight loss. The state still covers the medications when they’re part of a treatment plan for other chronic conditions, such as type 2 diabetes, certain cardiovascular diseases, severe sleep apnea and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatohepatitis (MASH).

According to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, the state paid managed care organizations $49.5 million to cover GLP-1 medications between July 1, 2025, and June 30, 2026. The policy change in January reduced that cost to $41 million.

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With these drugs gaining popularity, the state estimated that if were to resume covering GLP-1s for weight loss, it would need to spend an additional $24.2 million on top of the $41 million per fiscal year.

Jonathan Ballard, chief medical officer at DHHS, said the agency opposes the bill, which would require Medicaid coverage for anyone with a body mass index above 30 seeking GLP-1 medications specifically for weight loss.

Ballard said the state cannot afford such an expansion when budgets are already tight.

“The department does not have this money today,” he said. “So, living within the realities of our current budget, there will be significant trade-offs. We will have to cut other things that are very important to the health and well-being of New Hampshire to pay for this unless there’s some change.”

GLP-1 drugs carry a steep price tag that puts significant pressure on state budgets, particularly within Medicaid programs. Several states, including California, Pennsylvania and South Carolina, have moved to drop coverage of these medications for weight loss.

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Prentiss initially drafted her legislation with private insurers in mind, but later pivoted to focus on Medicaid to serve more vulnerable populations. She is covered by commercial insurance and said the outcome of the bill will not personally affect her.

Lost coverage

GLP-1 medications mimic a natural hormone in the gut that helps regulate blood sugar, digestion and appetite.

Sarah Finn, section chief for obesity medicine at Dartmouth Health, said she has seen firsthand the impact on her patients after the state dropped Medicaid coverage for weight-loss GLP-1 drugs. 

Without access to these medications, patients experience increased hunger, cravings and persistent “food noise,” as their bodies attempt to return to a higher fat percentage, a process known as metabolic adaptation, she said.

“This is the reality of the state I’m in right now, where I don’t have options except bariatric surgery for my Medicaid patients and a lot of times patients don’t want to do a surgery,” said Finn, at a hearing for the bill on Wednesday. “What I have to tell that patient is there’s nothing I could do to advocate.”

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The Department of Health and Human Services faced a $51 million budget cut when the New Hampshire Legislature passed its biennial budget last year, forcing the department to reduce several services.

While Prentiss acknowledges the financial strain on the department, she wants the state to consider the long-term impact of using GLP-1s to prevent chronic conditions like diabetes, which is largely linked to weight gain and can drive up costs for the state over time.

“By driving down obesity, we can drive down the costs that are related to it,” she said. 

Prentiss remains on GLP-1 medications and said she feels much healthier than before.

She said that after a few months on the drugs, her blood sugar levels and kidney function began trending toward more normal ranges.

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“It’s not cosmetic,” she said. “Obesity is a medical condition.”



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New Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News

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New Hampshire grapples with nuclear waste storage – Valley News


In New Hampshire and across New England, nuclear energy is in the spotlight. But as plans for the region’s nuclear future are charted, some of the big questions that stirred New Hampshire in the 1980s remain unanswered.

Gov. Kelly Ayotte has called for New Hampshire to embrace new nuclear technology, while state legislators have introduced multiple bills to promote its development. Then, last week, Ayotte joined the rest of New England’s governors in a bipartisan joint statement calling for the region to pursue advanced nuclear technologies while championing its two existing nuclear power plants.

There are timeline and economic questions about the implementation of emerging nuclear technologies. But front-end logistics aside, some say there’s a bigger and enduring problem: How will we safely handle nuclear waste, in New Hampshire and nationwide?

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A caution sign is shown on a road on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation on June 2, 2022, in Richland, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)

The spent fuel that nuclear reactors spit out is hot and remains dangerously radioactive for thousands of years. The U.S. Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 requires it be safeguarded and separate from nearby populations for at least 10,000 years. The law also requires the United States to come up with a national system to facilitate that at a centralized location, but no plan has yet emerged.

The matter is close at hand in New Hampshire, from the hilly west of the state, where a federal proposal for a deep nuclear waste storage site once threatened to displace residents, to the Seacoast, where spent fuel from the Seabrook Station power plant is generated and stored. To activists, just how we will handle the hazardous material is a hanging question that challenges the wisdom of embarking on a new nuclear era.

“There have been efforts over several decades here in New Hampshire to raise attention to this issue, but, obviously, we haven’t seen much real movement,” said Doug Bogen, executive director of the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League.

No stranger to nuclear waste

Three hundred or so million years ago, the long, fiery process that turned New Hampshire into the Granite State began. As magma seeped up into the crust from below and began to cool, seams of grainy, crystalline granite slowly formed.

The immense pockets of stone formed through this process are called plutons. When erosion washes away the sediments and soils around them, plutons can form mountains like the 3,155-foot Mount Cardigan. That peak is the crest of New Hampshire’s largest pluton: an approximately 60-mile long and 12-mile wide stretch of granite running through western New Hampshire.

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In the 1980s, this swath of stone attracted an unexpected visitor: the United States Department of Energy, searching for a site to excavate a long-term storage facility for the nation’s nuclear waste.

Spent fuel remains radioactive for several million years, but its radioactivity decreases with time. The period of “greatest concern,” where levels of radiation are more dangerous to humans, lasts about 10,000 years, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

So, to keep the waste contained over that period, the U.S. government plans to rely on a combination of engineering and favorable geology, according to Scott Burnell, senior public affairs officer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A long-term storage site is envisioned underground, because certain minerals can help shield radiation.

Granite is one such mineral. That’s what drew the department to western New Hampshire in the ’80s, Bogen recalled.

In 1986, the department announced that a 78-square-mile area on the pluton, centered around the town of Hillsborough, was one of a dozen sites across the country under consideration for a potential deep storage facility. Residents understood then that a number of surrounding towns would have been partially or entirely seized by the federal government through eminent domain to make way for the facility. Many were distraught.

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“There weren’t any Yankees that were going to take that,” said Paul Gunter, a founding member of the anti-nuclear Clamshell Alliance.

The “Clams,” as well as the New Hampshire Radioactive Waste Information Network, which Gunter also co-founded; the Seacoast Anti-Pollution League; and other environmental groups, towns, and individuals mobilized quickly. In addition to organizing demonstrations, activists also circulated a warrant article opposing the generation and dumping of nuclear waste in New Hampshire. One hundred and thirty-seven towns ultimately voted to pass it, according to the New Hampshire Municipal Association.

Their opposition was multi-pronged, Gunter said. Organizers had health and safety concerns about the management of nuclear power and highly radioactive waste, including a lack of faith that the radiation would be safely isolated from human populations. They were also concerned about the proliferation of nuclear technology and the security risks that would come along with the transport of highly enriched nuclear fuel through their region. With some pacifist Quaker roots, the Clamshell Alliance also was, and remains, deeply opposed to nuclear weapons, Gunter said. They consider the matters of nuclear power and nuclear weapons inextricable.

News that New Hampshire was under consideration for a possible dump broke in January 1986. Later that year, the New Hampshire Legislature passed a law opposing the siting of such a dump in the state. When the Department of Energy dropped New Hampshire from its list, the storm seemed to have passed.

But while the Clams and others celebrated that, they continued to oppose the issue around which they had first come together: Seabrook Station nuclear power plant. At the time, then-Gov. John H. Sununu said he believed the two matters had to be considered separately. But Gunter said opposing the generation of nuclear waste went hand-in-hand with opposing its storage.

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To this day, he said, the issues are often discussed separately, allowing the threat of nuclear waste to take a backseat in discussions and planning around nuclear energy.

New Hampshire’s high-level radioactive waste act was quietly repealed in 2011, and a subsequent attempt by the late former Rep. Renny Cushing to reintroduce legislation on the topic, opposing the siting of a high-level waste facility in New Hampshire, was defeated in 2020.

Where we are now

Hillsborough’s story has echoes elsewhere across the country. The most progress toward a potential deep storage site occurred at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, where excavation took place, but the site was abandoned amid opposition from the state.

In broad strokes, a similar story has repeated in other instances where a site was proposed, Burnell said. But a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, the agency charged with finding a location, said their search continues nonetheless.

President Donald Trump’s administration has taken a new tack, framing the search for a waste facility along with potential new development as a search for a “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus.” The move comes as Trump has attempted to bolster the U.S. nuclear industry, calling for a surge in nuclear generation and development with multiple executive orders.

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“The Nuclear Lifecycle Innovation Campuses Initiative is a new effort to modernize the nation’s full nuclear fuel cycle,” a spokesperson for the department’s Office of Nuclear Energy said in an email. That would involve a federal-state partnership with funding for a nuclear technology facility where many stages of the process could be colocated, they said, naming fuel fabrication, enrichment, reprocessing, and “disposition of waste” as some of what would occur at such a site.

The deadline for states to submit “statements of interest” for hosting sites was April 1, and the spokesperson said “dozens” of responses had been filed. But they declined to say whether New Hampshire was among those, and the New Hampshire Department of Energy did not immediately respond to the same question.

In the meantime

Spent fuel generated at Seabrook Station is initially stored in 40-plus-foot-deep pools of water for preliminary cooling, then moved to steel-and-concrete casks, according to Burnell and NextEra spokesperson Lindsay Robertson. The concrete casks remain on-site on a concrete pad, Burnell said. Until another plan is developed, this is the case for spent fuel generated at reactors across the nation.

The storage facilities in use at Seabrook were tested and built to government standards, intended to withstand “extreme weather,” Robertson said. She declined to say how much spent fuel was generated or stored at Seabrook Station.

Since coming online in 1990, Seabrook Station has generated a significant portion of New England’s power without generating much news. Yet Gunter said his concerns about the station and storage of its spent fuel have not been ameliorated with the passage of time.

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“They’ve been affirmed,” he said.

Gunter has concerns about concrete degradation and wiring at Seabrook Station and other power plants nationwide. Regarding waste, Gunter and Bogen said they worry about sea level rise affecting the storage area; Seabrook Station is located adjacent to tidal marshland. And, lacking a national plan for more long-term storage of nuclear waste, they wonder what will happen to the material currently stored on a temporary basis at Seabrook if no such plan emerges.

Gunter said his concerns about nuclear waste are part and parcel to his overall opposition to nuclear power, including those generators already in use.

“The new reactors are still on paper. The real threat is really in the day-to-day operation of aging nuclear power plants that are way past their shelf life,” he said.

Nuclear power plants are expensive to construct, creating what Bogen called the “opportunity cost” of embracing them at the expense of other sources of power generation. He and Gunter see renewable energy, principally through offshore wind, as safer and faster to deploy, and were disappointed to see politicians renew their focus on nuclear energy.

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“It is coming back in a rebranding, which this industry is very well versed in,” Gunter said. “… Nuclear waste is going to be a persistent hazard over geological spans of time, while the electricity is going to be a fleeting benefit.”

Bogen said he wanted to see more reinforcement of the waste stored at Seabrook in a model called hardened on-site storage. But in terms of dealing with future waste, he and Gunter believe the best solution would be to stop generating it altogether.

“If you find yourself in a hole,” Bogen said, “the first thing you do is stop digging.”

Conversely, the New Hampshire Department of Energy does not see the question of nuclear waste as a barrier to further development in the state, according to an email from department Legislative Liaison Megan Stone. The nuclear roadmap that Ayotte’s March executive order directed the department to craft would include consideration of the “nuclear lifecycle,” including storage and “disposition” of waste, Stone said.

Then, she alluded to the expectation that a federal plan would emerge. “Dry cask storage is a safe and effective method of storing spent nuclear fuel until it is collected by the federal government,” she said.

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Teen motorcyclist from Douglas killed in NH crash

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Teen motorcyclist from Douglas killed in NH crash


A motorcyclist from Douglas was killed in a crash on Friday, April 17 in Campton, New Hampshire.

Police in Campton identified the victim as Elias Alexandro Ramos, 18, of Douglas. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.

The crash occurred shortly before 11 a.m. on Route 3. The initial investigation indicates Ramos was traveling north on a Honda motorcycle when it went off the road and into a guardrail, police said. He was thrown from the motorcycle.

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It appears speed or alcohol were not factors in the crash, according to police. Ramos wore a helmet, although it may not have been properly worn, police said.

The crash remains under investigation.

Ramos was due to graduate from high school in the spring. He had dreams of becoming a mechanic, according to his older brother, Alexander.

“He was so mature for his age, already having the next couple of years planned out,” said Alexander in an email to the Telegram & Gazette.

On a GoFundMe page he created to help with family expenses after his brother’s death, Alexander wrote of the way Elias would bring joy and laughter to those around him.

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“Elias had a gift for making people smile, and he was always there to help anyone in need,” he wrote.



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