Clean energy doesn’t ‘hurt the economy’

To the editor:

As a business owner myself, I can sympathize with those that have commitments to pay their monthly bills. You don’t need to be an environmentalist to understand that we need to be moving toward renewable energy. These clean technologies are cheaper than fossil fuels and switching already means saving thousands every year.

My business is residential geothermal heating and cooling. In the past 20 years, we have made a huge impact on the Granite State. Our hundred-plus installations a year save homeowners an average of $3,000 annually. If we begin to seriously invest in incentives, we could do so much more!

Mine is only one small company. Imagine the impact thousands of geothermal installers would make on the planet and our wallets.

Meanwhile, presidential candidates visit our state, claiming they’re skeptical about acting to curb climate change with clean energy because it could “hurt the economy.” That’s simply untrue.

It’s time we embrace these resources, and NextGen Climate has already presented a bold but achievable plan for making it happen.

The organization is calling for presidential candidates to support having the United States run on 50 percent clean energy by 2030 and to be carbon-free by 2050. Any candidate who is serious about saving average Americans money and growing our national economy should be able to get behind this pledge—and I look forward to seeing what their plans are to meet these ambitious but necessary benchmarks.

Melissa Aho

Strafford