Saturday, November 30, 2013

Moving Beyond Coal in NH

Note from susanthe: This is a special guest blog. 


New Hampshire has so much potential for greatness. We live in a democracy where our voices matter. We have 400 state representatives because the people of New Hampshire believe in citizen participation. Our political system is designed to help us build the clean, healthy and prosperous world we all envision. A world where we can open our doors every morning, step outside and breathe clean, crisp air. A world where our friends and family work in a local economy where everyone has jobs that support the natural beauty and uniqueness of New Hampshire. A world where we don’t have to choose between keeping the heat on in the winter and polluting our air and water with toxic chemicals. And right here in New Hampshire we can make that world a reality.

Citizens for Clean and Fair Power works to do just that. Over the past three months, we’ve been talking with elected officials, telling them our stories and enlisting their support to responsibly retire Merrimack Station in Bow, and work for a clean air and a sustainable energy future in New Hampshire. We’ve collected over 1,300 signatures from New Hampshire residents calling on our state legislators to take action. We’ve built a coalition of over 25 state-wide groups to join our call, and had 101 local business sign on their support. Just last week, we held public forums in Concord and Portsmouth where over 100 people, including U.S. Senate Candidate Jim Rubens and State Senator Martha Fuller-Clark, joined us to discuss New Hampshire’s future beyond coal. By having these conversations and enlisting the support of politicians, experts, small business owners and everyday people, we can create a clean, healthy and prosperous New Hampshire we all want and believe in.
New Hampshire yearns for a return to politics of togetherness and the realization of our mutual goals. It’s going to take more than what we’ve done over the past three months to achieve this vision, but with every new person that signs one of our petitions, with every elected official who becomes a champion for the people, with every person who stands up and says ‘I want to live in a healthy, clean and prosperous world,’ we bring that future closer. And that is what Citizens for Clean and Fair Power is all about. 

Zack Deutsch-Gross

Zack Deutsch-Gross is an organizer for Toxics Action Center, a New England non-profit that supports local community groups such as Citizens for Clean and Fair Power to clean up pollution in their communities.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:21 AM

    God knows how badly off we'd all be right now without brilliant and far sighted individuals such as the group you have mentioned. When I was still a young teenager I began "following" Greenpeace. Some of their leaders as well as many others voiced concern about all the things that have come to pass, including, world over population.

    Just how many jobs can there possibly be for billions of people? How much food, clean water? "Ten Billion" is a good book to gift for Xmas as well as so many others that deal with the realities of our human population growth.

    We continue to live individually dealing with our desires and wants rather than looking ahead. Unless we engage in catastrophic nuclear war there is no possibility of the human animal ever going extinct and the three Abrahamic belief systems are part of the problem not the solution ("go out and multiply". We got it). It's comes down to a question of viable resources and how many of us these resources are left to serve.

    Killing the planet designed to nurture us is a prime example of human stupidity.

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  2. "We live in a democracy where our voices matter. We have 400 state representatives because the people of New Hampshire believe in citizen participation."

    We do not live in a democracy we live in a constituational republic. We have 400 state representatives because the King of England decided this would be the best way to manage 'a woodlot for the timber for the British Navy.'
    Coal fired electric generation delivers the most reliable baseload power that is needed and know. Natural Gas can't even compete with this statement.
    To take coal away simply drives up costs for consumers that are least able to pay for these costs.
    Susan The Bruce prattles on about the environment and the plight of the worker and pushes garbage like this.
    They'res an agenda here, and it has nothing to do with the environment either.
    Nothing at all. Let me guess you and Bruce want to outsource all the jobs to India...

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  3. Steven J. Connelly - It's unfortunate that you're unable to present anything intelligent, interesting, or even reasonably well written.

    "They'res" an agenda here?

    Don't sit by the phone waiting for Mensa to call.

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  4. Anonymous2:41 PM

    The above comment regarding outsourcing jobs to India is an interesting one and I surmise one made by an individual of Republican leaning? Republicans are adept at repeating, ranting and raving about CAPITALISM. Let me remind the individual about capitalism and outsourcing. Outsourcing is a CHOICE by a corporation in a Capitalistic country. If you don't LIKE outsourcing, then you have to change your Constitution to accommodate a government that will not tolerate freedom of choice and outsourcing, thus limiting your love of capitalism to - uh let's see - National Socialism? Ah yes, our special breed of Republicans have a lot in common with the Nazi's.

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