HB106

NH Sierra Club Chapter supports a Commission to examine the financial impacts from the climate crisis on the NH economy, transportation infrastructure, wildlife, technology networking, and public health to name only a few critical sectors. The more we understand the better.

To: Members of the NH House Science and Technology Committee. I strongly support the establishment of a Commission to investigate potential costs, risks and vulnerabilities posed by the impacts of climate change, and developing strategies for meeting those costs.

Those who have caused a problem for the public should bear the fiscal responsibility of correcting the problem. We need to know the scope of the problem before we can proceed.

Climate damages are going to be expensive to New Hampshire and this bill will help by making the fossil fuel industry, who is responsible for the damages, pay for them

I strongly support this bill.

Climate change is altering the economics of NH in a bad way. We depend on winter and snow and seasonally cold conditions along with the visitors and income thus generated. To ignore the impact climate change is having on NH would be to forsake the wellbeing of our wonderful state.

We must hold the energy industry accountable for the damages and costs we have incurred from the actions that have delayed addressing climate pollution. New York, Vermont, and Maine have already addressed this issue and it its time for New Hampshire to provide this support to its citizens. This study will help us prepare for holding energy providers accountable.

This is a baby step toward dealing with the critical issue of climate change. We can no longer stick our heads in the sand over the issue of our warming climate. The Los Angeles wildfires are a harbinger of the problems our planet is, and will be, facing.

Please support this bill, Thank You

As a former public school teacher, I know that snow days are an expected disruption in New Hampshire. Flood days, which are an increasing hazard, are an additional burden - there is a financial impact to parents who need child care when schools close, and school districts incur costs when cancelled days need to be rescheduled. Outside the public system, I teach knitting workshops and I rely on local farms for wool. Shepherds in NH have noted that the window for breeding season is tightening with climate change. Strawbery Banke is a destination for public school field trips and for people interested in traditional fiber skills. Flooding has added cost to maintaining historic buildings. HB 106 can help us understand the financial impacts of what is happening so we can preserve our history and continue to enjoy what NH has to offer.

Dear STE Committee, My name is Karishma Manzur, and I live in Exeter. I am a scientist with a PhD in biochemistry and support HB 106. Climate scientists have confirmed that the average temperature is rising at an alarming rate. Consequences of climatic variation include cold stress, heat stress, increased malnutrition, air pollution, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory tract infections, cancer, sexually transmitted infections, and mental stress. I want to highlight three negative consequences of climate change that are impacting NH: Case 1. Climate change is a significant direct and indirect cause of a global decline in male fertility arising from direct damage to testicular cells, sperm production, and poor sperm quality. Case 2. NH farmers are suffering the consequences of increasing climatic variations. People mistakenly think drought is a rare event in NH as we are water-rich compared to other regions of the US. In reality, NH has been experiencing increasing drought conditions. Between 2000 and 2024, a moderate or abnormally dry drought occurred in 13 of the last 24 years. Due to fluctuations of prolonged periods of drought, heat waves, and extremely high levels of rainfall, farmers in NH are losing about $3.4M per year, and the financial loss is expected to rise yearly. Case 3. The Seacoast region has experienced accelerating fluctuations in weather patterns over the last two decades. In January 2024, entire neighborhoods in Hampton were flooded after back-to-back storms, with water levels exceeding 13 feet. More than 3,000 Seacoast homes are now considered to be at risk of chronic floods. Many North Hampton and Rye residents have now filed for permits to raise their houses on stilts. Over the next 30 years, over 74,000 properties in NH will have a greater than 26% chance of being severely affected by flooding. So, whether climate change harms male reproductive health, causes losses to farmers, or floods neighborhoods, it has real, quantifiable implications. HB 106 can establish a way to review, analyze, and give us the tools to fight adverse outcomes. Anyone who doubts climate change should ask insurance companies. They don’t use out-of-date FEMA maps but instead rely on up-to-date scientific information to calculate premiums, such as a higher cost of flood insurance. Local and state governments must help neighborhoods, towns, and regions suffering from extreme weather patterns. Granite Staters need their elected officials to believe in the truth and work to help our communities.

Climate is already costing NH costing already whether it be warmer temps on our tiny coast, affecting sea-life (lobsters & other fish are migrating northward), warmer temps longer than usual droughts which is severely affecting our our agriculture and winter tourism (skiing- we had Spring in Feb last year & resorts had to close, cancelled ice hockey tournaments for 3 years, snow sledding last 6 years), ticks multiplying in winter affecting our health & that of wildlife. I am my town’s gardening chair & there are certain plants that now don’t survive given > 90 degree temps and expensive bushes that don’t survive the winter without snow insulation on roots. Algae’s & bacteria grow faster in our lakes… The list is long. Please vote to study this enormous concern that is only growing worse when we kick the can….

Dear Honorable House Science, Technology and Energy Committee Members: Unfortunately, I will not be able to make the House hearing today, January 14, 2025, on this matter, but please accept this in furtherance of my support for HB 106. Transitioning to clean, sustainable renewable energy within the time frame urged by the Paris Climate Accord is absolutely a must to properly mitigate the damage caused by fossil fuels. However, even then, there already is and will long continue to be damage caused by fossil fuels and their indisputable manmade impetus behind global warming. Fossil fuel use comes at enormous, largely hidden, costs not associated with renewable energy, including millions of premature deaths worldwide (caused by respiratory and other related health problems, weather events, drought and famine, etc.), losses suffered by our tourism, sugar, agriculture and dairy industries, as well as the predicted loss of thousands of seacoast homes and enormous damage to seacoast towns, increased health costs, and the rising remedial costs of addressing storms, droughts and other weather events associated with climate change. As projected by the 13-agency federal government report, "The Fourth National Climate Assessment," Vol. 2, issued by the first Trump Administration in November, 2018: “In the absence of significant global mitigation action and regional adaptation efforts, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and changes in extreme events are expected to increasingly disrupt and damage critical infrastructure and property, labor productivity, and the vitality of our communities ... With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century— more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states.” Id. at 25-26. Weather events since this report have proved that, if anything, its sobering prediction is likely understatement, not exaggeration. It is, indeed, appropriate and necessary, therefore, that the State address the issues raised by this bill as soon as possible. Thank you for your time and consideration, Richard Husband 10 Mallard Court Litchfield, NH 03052 (603)883-1218

As a retired cardiologist, I knew that on days of extreme heat that the ER would be very busy. Sadly the number of days with extreme heat are increasing due to the burning of fossil fuels (and rising CO2 levels). People with heart, lung and kidney diseases are at very high risk of heat related injury and death. The death rates due to extreme heat are rapidly increasing across the country. The cost associated with caring for these patients is very high. I support HB 106 because we need to get a handle on how much these climate related illnesses cost the state. I urge you to support this bill. Robert C. Dewey, MD

Upstate NY recently passed and the governor signed into law the Climate Superfund bill, making fossil fuel companies pay to help citizens cope with the damage caused by the fossil fuel industry's pollution. NH needs to act similarly. We must hold the fossil fuel industry liable for the damages and costs it knew we would incur from its actions to delay addressing its climate pollution - as New York, Vermont, and Maine have done. This study will help us prepare for that. We can also testify about the two-face game the fossil fuel industry has played on us for decades to delay addressing its pollution. The fossil fuel industry says it accepts the scientific consensus and economics of the problem, yet it also funnels billions of dollars into actions to delay the necessary legislation to address the pollution it causes.

It is necessary that New Hampshire prepare for the changes that climate change has already brought to our state. This commission would allow us not to be caught flat-footed in the coming months and years. We already see warmer winters with less snow as a result of climate change.

I operate/have operated several hydroelectric powerplants in NH for many years. It is clear flooding is becoming more common. Here in Keene, I believe we've had five 100-year flood events in the last decade. At our hydro dams, we are literally cutting the tops of the dams to make way for higher volumes (and velocities) of floodwater. This comes at great cost for the planning and demolition costs. We also lose revenue because the floodwaters are typically full of so much debris that our filter screens clog. I have been in this field since 1983, and it is clear flooding is becoming more frequent and more violent. I believe this is a direct result of climate warming and believe therefore that this bill is a crucial step towards maintaining energy infrastructure and sending economic signals regarding the cost of climate warming.

The Earth's climate is changing. Historical records, such as the increase in atmospheric CO2, confirm this is happening. It is important for the State to understand what is the impact to New Hampshire from the changing climate and to implement policies that help us mitigate the worst of these impacts. The Commission proposed in HB 106 will help to determine what those policies should be. We would urge the Committee to support HB 106. Thank you. Matt Leahy, Public Policy Director Society for the Protection of NH Forests

Climate change is a growing threat, which is influencing the well being of Granite Staters, indeed all Americans (as witnessed recently by havoc caused by Southern California's wildfires). Our State government should take this step of assessing the current level of damage to our State due to human-caused climate change. This will provide an important baseline, as well as a step towards holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for the harms accruing due to climate change.

I strongly support House Bill 106 as a means to assess the significant costs of climate change on the New Hampshire economy. Wildfires, flooding, coastal erosion, extreme weather leading to reduced snowpack, flash floods, and record-breaking heat have costly effects on our state, communities, and citizens. Establishing a commission to evlaluate the economic impacts of climate change and develop mitigation strategies meets a critical need in being prepared and taking action.. I urge your support of. HB 106.

Dear Science, Energy, and Technology Committee, Climate change is already imposing enormous costs on the United States and the rest of the world. While New Hampshire has so far been spared the severity of climate disasters suffered by California, Florida, and many other states, costs everywhere are only going to increase until we reduce CO2 emissions to net zero, a process that will at best take decades. It would be foolish to deny this reality and not begin trying to estimate these current and future costs. Gathering this information is a prerequisite to investigating whether there are any means to recover some or all of these expenses. It also should focus our collective energy on trying to reduce the future costs of climate change by reducing CO2 emissions as quickly as possible, ideally through implementing federal Carbon Fee and Dividend. Dr. James Hansen, whose warnings about climate change to Congress in 1988 have been borne out, explains this policy: https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/515624-a-socially-and-environmentally-just-way-to-fight-climate-change/ Thank you for your consideration, Walter Payne Exeter PS Athough it is not the subject of this bill, I hope you all begin to also consider the many hard to quantify, but no less significant, costs of climate change: shorter and worse ski seasons, longer and worse tick seasons, fewer cool summer evenings, loss of native vegetation and wildlife, ...

This bill proposes a minimum first step in establishing fair and equitable protections of the NH public regarding any costs to be be incurred from damages directly stemming from climate change. It is fundamentally unjust to expect the NH taxpayer to pay costs which could have been avoided by earlier and timely action, when such action was essentially slowed and prevented by industry decisions over several decades. Importantly, objective methods for estimating current and future costs are available today, and are improving year on year. NH should take advantage of this progress to establish a committee charged with estimating costs specific to NH. The committee can and should interact with stakeholders over a period of several years to reach an objective estimate..

The League of Conservation Voters strongly supports House Bill 106 as a strategy for the State of New Hampshire to help determine the very significant costs of the impacts of climate change on many aspects of the New Hampshire economy. It is well established that there is a cost borne by society for inaction to address the impacts of climate change - this research has been conducted by both academic institutions and well-known financial institutions. The establishment of a commission to examine the financial impacts of climate change and strategies to mitigate these costs is a prudent decision by the New Hampshire legislature.

Please support HB106 which seeks to estimate the economic damage to the State of New Hampshire due to extreme weather events caused by climate change and seek redress from the responsible parties. NH should join Vermont, New York, and Maine in holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for the catastrophes we face today because of their campaigns to confuse people about the science of pollution.