Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Make a sustaining gift today to support local journalism!

Final Version of Obama's Carbon Rules Cut N.H. Some Slack

PSNH's Merrimack Station
Flkr Creative Commons / PSNH
PSNH's Merrimack Station

The final version of the Obama administration’s regulations on carbon emissions from power plants, which were released Monday, set a substantially softer goal for New Hampshire. State officials are confident they can achieve the reductions.

  While nation-wide the so-called Clean Power Plan calls for a 32 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, in New Hampshire is slightly less than 15 percent.

That’s quite a reversal from the draft rules released last year. “If you recall, in the original proposal, New Hampshire was the 5th most stringent in the country,” says Mike Fitzgerald from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.

But the EPA rejiggered that math, and is now giving states more flexibility in how to achieve their cuts. That said, Fitzgerald says New Hampshire’s easiest path to compliance still likely lies in remaining part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, a nine state carbon cap and trade program which began in 2009.

Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about “the natural world and how we use it.” His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter.

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.