Vote big boost for PSNH scrubbers

David Brooks and Kevin Landrigan report in the Nashua Telegraph about a key Senate committee voting down a move against the Bow power plant:

hursday's unanimous ruling by the Senate Energy, Environment and Economic Development Committee doesn't end the complicated debate, since the legislation must still be taken up by the entire Senate, and a legal fight is waiting to be heard by the state Supreme Court.

But the vote was a big win for Public Service of New Hampshire as well as for the unions that had rallied against the bill, which would have required the Public Utilities Commission to oversee a study about whether the scrubbers were still in the public interest.

Union officials, who packed an earlier hearing on the bill, SB 152, said the legislation might threaten at least 200 construction jobs over the next three years at the plant.