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NH values sound energy solutions

By Staff | Sep 16, 2015

With Labor Day behind us and summer taking its last bittersweet breaths, our Primary Season now moves from the beauty contest into the serious issues phase. In just five months, New Hampshire voters will once again bear the awesome responsibility of recommending our choices for president to the rest of our nation. And as candidates try to lock in our support and trust by engaging on the issues that matter to us, we citizen voters have an equally serious responsibility to let them know the values that we hold dear.

"New Hampshire values" cross party lines. Regardless of party affiliation, we fiercely value free, independent thinking and action, prudent fiscal responsibility, a powerful commitment to community service, and a deep reverence for the beauty and resources of our state’s natural environment. And all these values come together in one of our very most pressing concerns – whether in the Granite State, across our country, or throughout the world – how we will address human-made climate change.

When we started Stonyfield 32 years ago, those same New Hampshire values inspired our commitment to delivering healthy, locally sourced, organic products to our friends and neighbors. We wanted to make something that would not only celebrate our region’s natural bounty, but also that would honor the world in which our children would grow up.

Today, we live out those values on a daily basis. Conservation practices in our factory and on the farms that supply us help reduce our environmental impacts while saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

And in the decades since we started, clean technology has become more financially viable than ever.

I’m now a father of three, and it’s impossible to watch the news without thinking that their future is being ransomed by candidates who fail to recognize the clear scientific consensus favoring clean energy solutions, instead leaning on partisan talking points to justify apathy on this issue. And while this attitude may win them a few votes here and there, it won’t get them far with the people in this state.

There are candidates bucking this trend – both Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley have laid out plans that would achieve NextGen Climate’s goal of transitioning to 50 percent renewable energy by 2030 – but voters on both sides are hoping to see some Republicans matching their ambition.

Climate change is not a partisan issue, nor are the solutions: Renewable energy benefits Americans on both sides of the aisle. In fact, promoting an aggressive clean energy program doesn’t even require a philosophical, activist or scientific bias. All you have to care about is saving money.

The time for debate is over. Climate change is settled science, and our candidates need to act accordingly. It is no longer acceptable to use ignorance, rhetoric or cynicism as a crutch. It’s time for our leaders to aggressively promote a 21st-century clean and renewable energy program for our nation. New Hampshire voters will value candidates who offer serious solutions.

Gary Hirshberg is the co-founder of Stonyfield Organics in Londonderry.

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