Navigating New Hampshire’s new solid waste site evaluation committee
Anyone who has taken a transmission line or a wind farm through New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee knows the process is long, expensive and can be fraught with complication.
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The city of Claremont has received $800,000 in funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rehabilitate some brownfield sites.
The funding will be directed at city-owned sites on the north side of Sugar River, which were formerly the home of the Sullivan Machinery Company, a quarrying equipment manufacturer. Manufacturing debris and coal tars have left the land requiring environmental testing and pollution abatement.
Brownfield revitalization “can mean all kinds of things,” said Nancy Merrill, Claremont’s director of planning and development told the Valley News. The rehabilitated land could be used for anything from an outdoor amphitheater to a dog park, she said. “We’ll spend the rest of this year trying to put the meat to the bones on a real redevelopment implementation proposal.”
Claremont is among more than 250 communities across the country awarded federal money to “revitalize dangerous and polluted sites into more sustainable and environmentally-just places,” a press release from the city reads. The funding is made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
Anyone who has taken a transmission line or a wind farm through New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee knows the process is long, expensive and can be fraught with complication.
Evan Clements and Precia Harthcock of Jaffrey love their 1926 home, but they acknowledge the drawbacks of houses built in that era. The room that is now their sitting room, for example, was once a porch that had been enclosed and is noticeably colder than other parts of the house. The second floor was much hotter than the first floor, and their kitchen was drafty.
Energy reliability and affordability are of paramount importance in New Hampshire.
With gasoline near $4 a gallon and healing oil prices expected to jump this winter, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday said clean energy initiatives are partly to blame for high prices of energy. Wright, the founder and former chief-executive of a Denver-based oil-services and fracking company, spoke within eyesight of a small solar array at the Raymond district office of the New Hampshire Electric Co-op.
City officials are taking steps they hope will prevent data centers from locating in Rochester.
With a new state law set to go into effect with the dawn of a new year in 2027, Granite Staters will be able to install so-called “balcony solar” panels for home use.
House Bill 707, signed into law by NH Gov. Kelly Ayotte, promotes expanding existing landfills, rather than building new ones, and also establishes a seven-member committee to evaluate landfill sites.
The recently formed New Hampshire Forum has been whittling down — from 18 to four to one or two — important issues that will be addressed in the 2027 session of the state Legislature.
Upcoming legislation may provide (somewhat) smoother permitting process for developers