205 New Hampshire Small Businesses Call for Action on Global Warming

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Madeline Page

Environment New Hampshire Delivers Small Business Letter and 2,975 Signed Petitions to U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte

Environment New Hampshire

PORTSMOUTH, NHToday, Environment New Hampshire delivered overwhelming public support for stopping global warming — including a letter signed by 205 small businesses in New Hampshire — to U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH). 

In a single day, Environment New Hampshire staff garnered massive small business support in Portsmouth, Dover, Nashua, Manchester, Concord, Newmarket, Durham, and Exeter, while also collecting 2,975 signed petitions from citizens calling for limits on carbon pollution from power plants.

Environment New Hampshire’s Madeline Page said, “After talking with owners across the state about global warming, Main Street’s message to Senator Ayotte is clear: it’s time to take care of business.”

The letter states that small business owners support the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standards limiting carbon emissions from power plants and that they believe clean energy standards are good for their businesses and the economy. The letter also urged lawmakers to help create opportunities and financial incentives for small businesses to implement cost-saving energy efficiency measures.

Environment New Hampshire handed the letter and signed petitions to Senator Ayotte’s staff at a critical time. As extreme weather continues to threaten communities around the globe, the Obama administration has proposed limits on carbon pollution from power plants, the largest contributor to global warming in the nation.

“Senator Ayotte could be the deciding vote if polluters’ political allies attack these commonsense pollution limits,” said Page. “Today, we’re hoping that Senator Ayotte remembers her family’s small business roots and chooses New Hampshire’s prosperity over that of major polluters.”

In a speech at Georgetown University in June, President Obama pledged to confront global warming by building upon the successes of state and regional-level pollution reduction programs like northeastern states’ Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). 

Granite State businesses are already reaping the benefits of measures like RGGI.  In its first two and a half years of operation, RGGI boosted net economic output by $1.6 billion and created 16,000 jobs, including $17 million in economic benefits and 450 jobs in New Hampshire. 

“Carbon curbing policy like RGGI is a success story for the books and should be a blueprint for the nation,” said Page. “While global warming pollution in New Hampshire fell by nearly 38% in the last eight years, New Hampshire’s GDP has grown by 18% over the same period.”

But at present, New England’s pollution reductions are the anomaly. Just this year NOAA announced that the planet’s carbon parts per million in the atmosphere had passed the 400 mark, a measure long believed to be a tipping point in terms of global warming impacts.

“There is no time to waste, I urge Senator Ayotte to support limits on carbon pollution from new and existing power plants,” said Page.

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Environment New Hampshire’s Madeline Page delivering letters and petitions to U.S. Senator Ayotte’s staff:

Environment New Hampshire staff speaking with business owners and Granite Staters!
 

 

 

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