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NH is in drought across the state, our utility bills are set to double this month, and primary elections are on September 13th. This month is crucial in our fight to stop the fossil fuel industry’s greed and win a just transition to renewable energy. We hope you will take action with us by showing up to an event, canvassing with us, or becoming a monthly donor. 

– Rebecca Beaulieu (she/her/hers), Communications Director

UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursdays in August, 2:00pm-5:00pm: Deep Canvass to Stop Coal

• We will knock doors in the Allenstown/Pembroke area on Thursdays in August to build community and educate people about coal. Sign up for a shift with us! If you want to canvass but can’t do Thursdays, fill out our form anyways and let us know so we can get you the materials you need to canvass on your own.

August 4, 12:00pm: Stop Big Oil’s Greed – Press Conference

• Big oil is profiteering from the war in Ukraine, driving up gas prices, and raking in record profits while we pay the price. Utility companies are raising rates because of their dependence on oil and gas. Join us for a press conference outside the State House in Concord to call out big oil’s greed! RSVP here.

August 4, 6:00pm: Salem/Nashua Chapter Meeting

• We will meet at Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem NH to chat about our plans for the end of summer and fall! Email Jennifer@350nh.org if you have any questions.

August 4, 7:00pm: No Coal No Gas Monthly Call (Virtual)

• Join our monthly call to talk strategy: how we will shut down the coal plant in Bow. RSVP here.

August 11, 6:00pm: Manchester Chapter LAUNCH

• That’s right! We’re launching a Manchester local chapter of 350NH. Come to Livingston Park at 6:00pm to build community and talk about the environmental issues facing the Manchester community. Email sarah@350nh.org to let us know you’re coming – there will be food and drinks!

August 13, 5:00pm: Get Out The Vote Rally 

• Join our summer interns at the State House, where we’ll showcase climate champions running in the upcoming election, and support people in navigating voter registration. It’s time to kick climate deniers out of office and hold our elected officials accountable.

August 18, 8:30pm: Bow Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Join our monthly meeting to discuss ending coal in Bow! Email wren@350nh.org for the zoom link. 

August 19-21: 350NH Annual Youth Leadership Retreat

• NH Youth are invited to our annual retreat at Camp Wilmot this August to build community and take action to stop the climate crisis! The retreat is open to students entering high school up through students who just graduated.

August 22, 6:00pm: Seacoast Chapter Meeting

• We will meet at Prescott Park, 105 Marcy St, Portsmouth NH to discuss our upcoming campaignsl! Email jennifer@350nh.org if you have any questions. 

TAKE ACTION

Now is a pivotal moment to push the President to take bold climate action. Thus far, Congress and the Administration have focused on ramping up renewable energy – which is good – but now it is time to start shutting down fossil fuels. We are glad that Senator Manchin finally reached a deal in Congress, but we also need President Biden to declare a climate emergency.

An emergency declaration would allow Biden to take drastic action to address the climate crisis. Send a letter to the White House now.

June flew by for us at 350NH! Our team is growing as we prepare for elections and continue our work to hold elected officials accountable for their action (or lack of action) on the climate crisis. There will be even more exciting ways to get involved with 350NH, so stay tuned – and let me know if you want to meet to talk more about our campaign plans!

– Rebecca Beaulieu (she/her/hers), Communications Director

TAKE ACTION

Eversource and Liberty Utilities plan to DOUBLE our utility bills in NH, thanks to the Sununu-appointed public utilities commission. Governor Sununu is more interested in protecting Eversource’s corporate profits than in expanding renewable energy and making our utilities more affordable.

Sign our petition today so we can tell Sununu these actions are unacceptable.

Happy June! We are preparing for a busy summer and welcoming new organizers and youth interns to our team. If you’d like to get more involved but don’t know where to start, please reach out. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

June 4, 9:00am: Chase Bank – Stop Funding Fossil Fuels

• XR NH is calling out JPMorgan Chase for financing coal, oil, gas, and companies like Granite Shore Power. Meet at 786 Elm St in Manchester to take action.

June 5, 8:00pm: 350NH Youth Team Game Night & Wrap Up (Virtual)

• Are you a high school student in NH? Come to the 350NH Youth Team’s last official meeting of the school year. We’ll wrap up official organizing plans and have fun playing virtual games! Email katherinelessard50@gmail.com to get the meeting link.

June 7, 2:00pm: Upper Valley Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Join the Upper Valley chapter. Email wren@350nh.org for the meeting link.

June 11, 1:00pm: March for Our Lives – Nashua

• Our student leaders from Nashua are having a March for Our Lives protest in response to the school shooting in Uvalde. Show up to support our youth and end gun violence – More details in their Facebook event.

June 13, 4:00pm: Seacoast Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Join the fight for renewable energy on the Seacoast! Email jennifer@350nh.org for the meeting link.

June 15, 6:00pm: Exeter Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Get involved in local organizing for community power. Email jennifer@350nh.org for the meeting link.

June 21, 6:00pm: Salem/Nashua Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Help us organize for climate justice. Email jennifer@350nh.org for the link.

June 23, 7:00pm-8:30pm: No Coal No Gas Monthly Call (Virtual)

• Check in with our campaign to end coal in New England! RSVP here.

June 23, 8:30pm: Bow Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

• Join the local campaign to shut down the coal plant in Bow. Email wren@350nh.org for the meeting link.

TAKE ACTION

Joe Biden’s “Justice 40” plan calls for 40% of climate investments to go to the communities most impacted by the climate crisis and pollution. There’s one glaring problem: Race isn’t being considered as a factor in which communities are most harmed. This must change.

If we’re finally getting tangible climate action for frontline communities, we need to do it right by incorporating racial justice into the plans. Send a letter to the White House today to call on Joe Biden to include racial justice in his Justice 40 plan.

Thank you for Your Support!

Climate change has arrived in NH. This week severe flooding on the Seacoast caused power outages and trapped residents inside their homes. The flooding from this one storm cost New Hampshire tax payers thousands of dollars in damages and immeasurable risks to our health and environment from the pollution of trash and debris swept up from the road.

(photo from Brianna OBrien taken in Hampton, NH)

As the climate crisis continues to get worse and the sea level rises, storms and floods increase in frequency and severity. High tides are creeping up higher and higher, causing more damage to the Seacoast during flooding events. Parts of Route 1A could be regularly under water at the rate that sea levels are rising. Businesses and residents near the ocean will have to decide whether to adapt to increased flooding or relocate to avoid further disasters. 

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(photo from Brianna OBrien, taken in Hampton, NH)

New Hampshire needs to take action now in order to mitigate the worst effects of the climate crisis. We need to transition away from the fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis and build renewable energy to power our communities. New Hampshire can save our coastal communities by investing in offshore wind, solar energy, heat pumps, increased energy efficiency and adaptation. We have the technology and policy solutions to make this happen but we’ll need to force our elected officials to act. It’s time to stop burning coal and kick climate denying legislators out of office. 

The climate crisis is fueling climate disasters here and around the world – it’s time to drastically change our energy systems before it is too late. 

The PUC’s recent decisions on Energy Efficiency programs and Liberty Utilities’ plan to expand fracked methane gas are a huge disappointment for the residents of NH. 

New Hampshire — Over the last week, the NH Public Utilities Commission has denied an important three-year energy efficiency program and approved a Firm Transportation Agreement with Tennessee Gas Pipeline, LLC and Liberty Utilities. Both of these moves are devastating for NH residents and prevent us from making essential moves towards renewable energy generation in NH.

“The decisions coming from the PUC this week are devastating for our state,” says Rebecca Beaulieu, Communications Director for 350 New Hampshire. “Cutting energy efficiency programs and allowing for fracked methane gas expansion is not going to move us towards the 100% renewable energy future we need to mitigate the worst of the climate crisis.”

New Hampshire lacks a solid plan to address the climate crisis and lags behind all other New England states in renewable energy production and energy efficiency. Rejecting this energy efficiency program will prevent progress we need to reduce our overall energy usage and cut energy costs – particularly for low-income Granite Staters. 

The approved Firm Transportation Agreement with Tennessee Gas Pipeline, LLC and Liberty Utilities is a 20-year contract to transport more fracked methane gas into New Hampshire and comes after 350 New Hampshire stopped Liberty from pursuing the Granite Bridge pipeline project in 2019.

“Granite Staters showed the PUC that we do not want more fracked methane gas in the state when we stopped the Granite Bridge pipeline,” says Jennifer Dube, Climate Organizer with 350 New Hampshire. “It is abysmal that the PUC is allowing Liberty Utilities to find another way to expand this dirty fossil fuel in our state.”

It is clear that the PUC does not consider the impacts of their decisions on our climate. They are perpetuating our reliance on fossil fuels instead of moving us towards a cleaner, renewable energy future. 

It’s past time to stop building new fossil fuel pipelines. They are costly, unsustainable, dangerous, and will lock us into further decades of leaked methane and carbon emissions – two major contributors to climate change. Just last year, 350 New Hampshire and our NH community defeated the Granite Bridge pipeline – another attempt to expand fossil fuels instead of investing in renewable energy. Now the attention is on Minnesota and the Line 3 tar sands pipeline. 

If completed, Line 3 would violate treaty rights of Indigenous people, threaten the headwaters of the Mississippi river, and commit us to fossil fuel dependency for years to come. As fuel sources, tar sands are vastly wasteful. Each barrel of crude oil extracted from tar sands uses 2-4 barrels of water and tremendous amounts of energy. An estimated one billion gallons of wastewater from this process leaks into surrounding natural habitats every year. Once crude oil is burned, it releases large amounts of carbon and sulfur dioxide, contributing to the greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. 

More than 10 New Hampshire activists joined in the Treaty People Gathering Over the weekend between June 5th and June 9th to join in efforts to stop a tar sands pipeline being built through Minnesota. Frontline groups have been fighting the pipeline for years and called for allies from across the country to join them for mass action to call attention to the injustices of the pipeline. 

“Biden promised us on the campaign trail that he would end fossil fuels,” says Lila Kohrman-Glaser, Co-Director of 350NH Action, “I am here taking a stand against Line 3 to make sure Biden keeps his promise.”

Lila was not the only New Hampshire resident who traveled to Minnesota – at least 10 others from across the state made the journey to support the efforts to stop Line 3, including Kai Parlett, from Manchester.

“The fossil fuel industry operating in a ‘status quo’ fashion and continuing their path of destruction is propped up by public consent,” Parlett said. “When masses of people withdraw their consent from the system, that’s when real change happens. The fossil fuel industry cannot continue to burn our future if we refuse to let it, if we put our bodies in the way and actively work to change the status quo.”

Over 2,000 people from across the country were gathered in Minnesota overall, and more than 150 people were arrested for trespassing on pipeline property. 

The more we allow pipeline projects like these to go ahead, the worse climate change will get. We will continue to see rising sea levels, oil spills from pipelines, changing weather patterns, natural disasters, destruction of natural landscapes, and disregard for the rights of Indigenous folks and of everyone along the path of these pipelines. A better choice is possible! We demand a renewable energy future, free from environmental injustice and climate catastrophe. It’s time to Stop Line 3, and keep new oil infrastructure away from communities all across this country. 

Check out the Giniw Collective for more updates on Line 3.