Seacoast Online: Sen. Hassan vows to fight Clean Power Plan repeal

By Max Sullivan

HAMPTON -- U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan said Thursday she will fight President Donald Trump’s decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan.

Hassan, D-N.H., made the statement during a tour of Brayton Energy in Hampton. She spoke about how she and others in Washington, D.C., are working to prevent the repeal of the plan, implemented by President Barack Obama to reduce the country’s carbon emissions.

… “There are a lot of us in D.C. who are trying to push back at that,” said Hassan. “This is really about whether we’re going to continue to create standards that incentivize new technologies in the clean energy sector and create jobs in that sector, which means our planet will be more sustainable in the future.”

… The plan, she said, is important for New Hampshire because the Granite State is downwind from coal power plants in the Midwest. New Hampshire’s environment, she said, can be impacted by emissions traveling east.

“The Clean Power Plan is, among other things, a way of making sure that those entities that create a lot of carbon and pollution are held accountable for that and are held to a standard that allows us to address the impacts of the pollution in other parts of the country,” said Hassan.

Hassan was shown a number of the engineering projects underway in Brayton’s facility at 75 Lafayette Road, led by company president and founder Jim Kesseli and other company heads. Brayton is a research and development firm that works on creating alternative and environmentally responsible energy sources. Its work spans from projects like hybrid vehicle development to low emission, high-efficiency power for data centers at companies like Microsoft. It has also worked on designing and manufacturing ultra-low emission gas turbine combustors for China.

Hassan praised Brayton for its work in a meeting with the firm’s 40 employees, saying, “I’m so proud to be from a state that values its environment and values the innovation.”

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