Court rules for PSNH

David Brooks reports in the Nashua Telegraph on the Supreme Court's decision siding with PSNH and against those looking to block pollution controls in Bow.

The last-ditch effort to halt the construction of a $450 million scrubber system at New Hampshire's largest coal-fired power plant has been tossed out by the state Supreme Court.

In a ruling released Wednesday, the court said that opponents of the plan had no legal standing to block a Public Utilities Commission decision allowing the construction to go forward.

PSNH is building a huge "scrubber" and associated processing buildings at the 473-megawatt Merrimack Station plant in Bow, one the state's largest power plants. The scrubber will remove most mercury and sulfur – both serious pollutants – from the power plant's emissions. The scrubber was required by state law. (more)

Possible loss of state parks getting notice

David Brooks reports in the Nashua Telegraph on the possibiliy of selling off some state parks:

The state park system includes 73 properties ranging from large tracts of land to historic buildings. Its fiscal health came to public attention last month when a draft management plan said the state should consider unloading 27 parks, including Silver Lake, partly because they cost so much to operate and maintain.

Although park finances have been lamented for years and were the topic of public hearings earlier this year, the issue was overshadowed by the state's overall fiscal crisis.

As a result, the possibility of the state selling some parks, raised in a draft of a 10-year management plan, caught many people by surprise when it made the state's newspapers in June. The resulting furor led the state Division of Parks and Recreation to withdraw the draft and extend a public comment period through July 27. (more)

New Hampshire job losses less severe than neighbors

Nashua Telegraph staff writer David Brooks looks into the latest state by state employment figures. It's not good news for New Hampshire, but the Granite State took a smaller hit than its New England neighbors last month:

The size of New Hampshire's non-farm payroll shrank by 1.7 percent, from 647,000 to 636,500, during that period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

By comparison, Massachusetts payroll fell 3.2 percent, Maine's fell 2.8 percent and Vermont's fell 4 percent.

Nationally, payroll slipped 3.5 percent between last March and March of this year, twice the rate of New Hampshire. (more)

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.