Rep. Suzanne HARVEY Proud to serve Nashua's Ward 2

New Hampshire joined several other states in 2009 by requiring our electric utilities to offer customers a voluntary "green option." As the prime sponsor of this bill, Suzanne worked with other legislators and stakeholders, including the utilities and the Public Utilities Commission, to give electric customers a choice of paying a little more each month to have their utility purchase renewable energy on their behalf.

Solar panels on residential roof (click on photo to enlarge).One of the ways New Hampshire residents and businesses can have more control over the source and cost of their electricity is to net meter. This means that you invest in and install a renewable energy system (such as solar panels or a wind turbine, as permitted in your municipality), connect it to the electric grid, and generate your own power.

This is not living "off grid," where you generate all the energy you need. By connecting to the grid, you allow your unused energy to transfer to the electric grid, and you take energy from the grid when you need it.

Up until now, our statute only allowed systems up to 100 kilowatts (1000 watts X 100), which is a relatively small system and may not generate enough energy to meet an owner's electric use. Energy used first comes from the power the owner's system generates; any additional energy needed comes from the electric grid, and the customer gets billed for this in "kilowatt hours" by its utility. Any extra, unused energy generated is sent to the grid and the customer is credited toward the next month's bill.

With the belief that the more renewable sources of energy we use in the state, the less fossil-fuel-based energy we'll need, Suzanne filed a bill to help home owners, farmers, and other business owners find net metering more attractive.

In 2009 Suzanne served on a legislative study committee that looked at the benefits of electricity customers knowing the sources of the energy distributed by their utility and in what form(s) our state's electric utilities should make that information available.

In 2010 the members of that committee were successful in passing a bill that requires the utilities to make this information available to their customers, with final rules from the Public Utilities Commission.

Suzanne co-sponsored a bill that limits communication between a convicted sexual offender or offender against children and the criminal's victim. The new law has an exception for certain relationships, such as parents who need to discuss their children. In a world with new multiple ways people can contact one another, such as email and texting, it only makes sense to have this law on our books and protect victims from further harm. You can read the bill here.

Although most of Suzanne's work in the legislature concerns energy and the environment, she is proud of the successful bills she's sponsored during her terms that strengthen NH's criminal code. These include two methamphetamine laws and the 2009 law that makes trafficking humans for sex or labor a felony.

These products do not belong in our waste stream. Please recycle responsibly (click on photo to enlarge).In 2008, Suzanne chaired a legislative commission to consider how the state should deal with electronic waste (e-waste), and how it affects our environment. With the proliferation of electronic products (computers and cell phones, for example), the study committee decided to expand the list of electronic products that would be prohibited in our landfills. Toxic materials are often used in the production of these products, so having them disposed of in our landfills is not the best solution.

In 2009 Suzanne co-sponsored, with a group of other concerned legislators, a successful amendment to the statutes that defines electronic waste and prohibits dumping them in our landfills. The list inclues computer monitors containing a cathode ray tube, laptop computers, liquid crystal display (LCD) computer monitors, plasma and LCD televisions, printers, cell phones, copiers, fax machines, and video display media recorder/players. Local landfills in New Hampshire should have standards for collecting these products for recycling so they are not thrown in the waste stream.