Testimony Before the New Hampshire House Science, Technology, and Energy Committee in support of HB 1455
January 29, 2026
Chairman Vose, Members of the Committee:
Thank you for holding this hearing today on HB 1455 and thank you to Representative Notter for introducing this forward-looking, critical legislation.
This legislation comes at a critical time for the Granite State, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to appear today to support the bill.
My name is Samantha Fillmore Vick, and I am the Senior State Government Relations Manager at Heartland Impact. Heartland Impact is the advocacy and outreach arm of The Heartland Institute. Both are independent, national, nonprofit organizations working to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Heartland Impact specializes in providing state lawmakers with the policy and advocacy resources to advance free-market policies towards broad-based economic prosperity.
Energy is the “lifeblood of our economic system,” as the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman noted. It is the master resource. Affordable, reliable, and plentiful energy is the foundation of economic growth and prosperity. Energy is at the core of nearly everything we do, everything we use, everything we manufacture, everything we purchase, sell, eat; it’s how we heat and cool our homes, it is a part of how we educate, how we stay connected with our community, and how we care for our young, elderly, and sick. Therefore, the price of energy is a significant factor in our lives and a major contributor or detractor from our overall personal, state-based, and national prosperity.
Affordable and reliable energy, economic growth, and protecting the environment from degradation need not be at odds with one another. The energy sources that are most abundant and affordable are surprisingly environmentally friendly, when we look at the full-spectrum environmental impacts of the various energy sources. Often, the best way to be pro-environment is to be pro-energy.
To fully unleash economic opportunity in the Granite State, policymakers in New Hampshire must be deliberate in enacting policies that prioritize abundant, reliable energy.
Policymakers should reject trendy and uninformed policy pursuits that undermine the state’s capacity to efficiently power homes and businesses and grow and diversify its economy.
HB 1455 establishes a clear state policy prioritizing affordable, reliable, and clean energy – not as mutually exclusive goals, but as interdependent pillars of sound energy governance. By aligning state policy accordingly, the bill provides regulatory clarity and market certainty for investors, utilities, and consumers alike.
- Energy Security and Affordability
At the heart of HB 1455 is the recognition that energy security begins with domestic production. The bill directs the Department of Energy in consultation with the Public Utilities Commission to prioritize domestic energy sources, reducing New Hampshire’s exposure to geopolitical volatility and supply chain disruptions. It further minimizes our dependence on foreign adversaries for critical energy materials/rare earth materials, strengthening both national security and economic stability. The bill prioritizes the most affordable sources of energy based on a true assessment of costs, excluding government subsidies from the cost calculations and accounting for the full lifecycle cost of each generation source.
- Reliability and Dispatchability
HB 1455 promotes technologies that are dispatchable—available when needed—and resilient across seasons and peak demand periods. This is crucial in New Hampshire, where there are heat waves in the summer and long, cold winters. The legislation requires performance standards of 80% or higher, ensuring that only dependable energy sources support our infrastructure.
Importantly, the bill affirms the role of hydrocarbons and nuclear energy as part of a reliable, dispatchable energy mix – resources that continue to demonstrate unmatched grid stability, scalability, and affordability.
- Clean
It is paramount that we be good stewards of our environment. When we look at a full-spectrum analysis of the environmental impacts of the competing forms of energy, we see that wind and solar, while they produce zero CO2, are among the most harmful to our environment in terms of animal and plant deaths, and deforestation. A 2018 Harvard study found that to cover the energy demand for the United States in wind alone, one-third of the land mass of the continental U.S. would have to be used for wind turbines.
Furthermore, the rare earth elements (REE) required in wind and solar technology are mined using some of the most environmentally damaging mining practices in the world. This same mining is primarily done under the control of China, where they have cornered the market in REE. Most of these REE are mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, by forced child slave labor, or in the Xinjiang Region of China by religiously persecuted Uyghur Muslim populations. These unethically sourced REE, after being implemented into wind and solar technology, eventually leech into the ground, poisoning the soil and ground water.
When all of these environmental factors are considered, not just CO2 emissions, natural gas, nuclear, and coal can be less damaging to the environment than wind and solar. All while minimizing our reliance on slave labor, harmful mining practices, and foreign adversaries.
Additionally, the allure of “green” energy is passing. It is expensive, inefficient, and incapable of powering the growth of the states’ economies.
- Grid Resilience and Policy Leadership
By encouraging affordable, reliable, and clean energy sources, New Hampshire not only protects its consumers and industries from unreliable or costly alternatives but also sets a policy model for other states. HB 1455 charts a pragmatic energy path that promotes both innovation and dependability without sacrificing affordability or security.
The “business of energy” in America has long been shrouded in double-speak, subsidies, and buried costs. HB 1455 seeks to shed light and bring transparency to the true nature of energy.
As you all know, this committee meeting was rescheduled this week due to a large winter storm that hit the entire nation. During this winter storm, the Northeast was burning oil and coal to keep the lights on because there is not enough natural gas pipeline capacity due to a decade of poor politics blocking every proposal to expand pipeline capacity. Sufficient natural gas pipelines could have provided all of the Northeast with reliable and dispatchable energy during the winter storm. The aforementioned blocks were done in the name of the climate and environment. The irony is that ignoring the facts on energy sources and dependency, and rather relying on political hopeful ideals to fight climate change, resulted in an outcome that has produced higher emissions during peak demand, higher electricity prices, and grid strain.
By establishing and clearly stating a standard such as affordable, reliable, and clean, you can create a transparency that does not prohibit any form of energy; it merely allows choice based on facts rather than hope and false promises.
With this legislation, New Hampshire lawmakers, and all of you on this committee, can steward energy security for the present state of New Hampshire and secure economic prosperity for the future of New Hampshire. Again, thank you for the opportunity to voice unequivocal support for HB 1455 and urge your support for this critical legislation.
