Also on today’s menu:
Supreme Court Takes Over Congressional Redistricting
Relaxing Ethanol Standards
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on House Bill 1165 on April 12, which the House had passed last month on a 172-164 vote. The bill would repeal the Granite State paid family leave plan, which has had a rocky path toward implementation. The House had removed the plan in its budget, but the Senate prevailed during the budget committee of conference to keep it as part of the funding package.
Proponents of bill repealing the measure called the plan a new social entitlement and said it would create a monopoly for the winning insurance bidder while harming the health and disability insurance market.
The program has been a priority for Governor Chris Sununu, and the state would have insurance companies bidding on a plan to cover the 10,000 state employees as the initial base group with premiums paid by the state. Under the bill, large companies would receive a 50 percent tax credit if they paid the full premiums for their employees, and individuals in smaller companies could join the program with their premiums capped at $5 a week if their companies do not join the family leave program.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Andrew Prout (R-Hudson) predicted that, once the program begins, it will quickly expand to municipal, school, and county employees who will want a similar benefit to what their state counterparts have. Insurance Commissioner Chris Nicolopoulos called the program a good New Hampshire solution, saying it does not involve a tax on income, as previous proposals have done.
Supreme Court Takes Over Congressional Redistricting
With the candidate filing period coming up on June 1-10, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has assumed jurisdiction over a lawsuit filed over the redrawing of the state’s congressional map. The court intends to appoint a special master to oversee the redrawing of maps for the state’s two congressional districts.
The lawsuit, filed in Hillsborough County Superior Court South, argued that the legislature is at an impasse, with the governor threatening to veto the plan ultimately approved by the House and Senate. The new map made major changes in the two congressional districts that were almost universally opposed during public hearings. The final plan moves 35 percent of residents from one district to the other.
The order by Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald and the four associate justices states that the issue needs to be resolved quickly in order to avoid having to change the dates of the filing period.
Relaxing Ethanol Standards
As part of his efforts to ease gasoline price increases, President Joe Biden Jr. announced that the Environmental Protection Agency will issue an emergency waiver to rules that currently ban the use of E15 gasoline — gasoline with a 15 percent ethanol blend — during the summer months.
Describing it as “the latest step in expanding Americans’ access to affordable fuel supply and bringing relief to Americans suffering from Putin’s Price Hike at the pump,” the White House said, “E15 is currently offered at 2,300 gas stations in the country, where it can serve as an important — and more affordable — source of fuel. … At current prices, E15 can save a family 10 cents per gallon of gas on average, and many stores sell E15 at an even greater discount. For working families — families eager to travel and visit their loved ones — that will add up to real savings. Allowing higher levels of blending will also reduce our dependency on foreign fuels as we rely more heavily on home-grown biofuels. This will help us bridge towards real energy independence.”
Analysts say the move will have only a small effect on gasoline prices, but it can have large effects on the environment. The supposed environmental benefit of biofuel is that, although it still releases carbon dioxide when it burns, that carbon was drawn down from the atmosphere by the plants that make up the fuel rather than being released from oil that was once underground. But growing fuel creates emissions too. When land that used to be a carbon sink is plowed up to plant crops, and manufactured fertilizer is applied, it also releases greenhouse gas in the form of nitrous oxide emissions. Furthermore it pushes up the price of corn. More land is diverted from food production, which means higher food prices.
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