Bruce ClendenningBruce has been doing policy work in NH for the past 15 years for organizations including the Appalachian Mountain Club, the Northern Forest Alliance, Granite State Conservation Voters, the New England Forest Policy Group, the Mahoosuc Initiative, and others on a range of conservation, funding, forestry, and other policy matters. Past energy policy work has included lobbying to strengthen NH’s three pollutant air quality legislation, advocating for NH’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, responding to proposals for siting of wind turbines, and working to engage candidates in the 2007 NH Presidential Primary on clean energy and climate issues. I’m excited that I get to focus now on NH energy issues as the Energy Policy Manager at The Nature Conservancy.
Find out more about Bruce as he answers some questions below: |
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What does TNC do to support local energy action in NH? Many people think of TNC as a land-based organization that’s entirely focused on easements, preserves, and habitats. Those things are all important to us, but TNC has recognized the overarching importance of climate and energy work to that long-standing core work and is now working in all 50 states and around the world on energy and climate issues.
In NH, we are working with the Local Energy Solutions Workgroup, the NH Sustainable Energy Association, the NH Clean Tech Council, the NH Consumer Development Finance Authority, the Environmental Defense Fund, and others to encourage NH to strengthen policies that will increase energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable energy technologies, lower overall expenditures for energy, and reduce NH’s climate emissions. We have a presence at the Legislature and intervene, when appropriate, at the Public Utilities Commission.
We are working very hard to help illustrate that all across NH, there are already a great many examples of how we can reduce energy use, increase efficiency, utilize more local renewable power sources, and reduce energy expenditures, freeing up resources for other uses. Many in NH, in all sectors and at all levels of wealth, are already experiencing NH’s energy future. We are working to help make that easier for everyone in NH.
Helping create more visibility for municipalities and businesses that are doing creative work on energy efficiency and renewable energy is among our priorities. Sponsoring meetings and events that highlight and bring together interested parties, sectors, leaders, etc. and expanding communications about the good work going on are part of how we approach this work. If anyone reading this has projects, approaches, ideas that they think we might want to know about and highlight or be involved with, they should feel free to contact me. I want to do more to help build and facilitate relationships where helpful.
As a new member of the LES Workgroup I’m trying to find the best ways to support communities’ efforts to lower energy costs and use more climate friendly energy options. Knowing that TNC can’t do everything ourselves, we are working to foster connections, provide resources where we can to support existing good work (such as providing funding to NEGEF to support the Regional Energy Hubs program), and otherwise leverage the good work that is occurring every day. In addition, we are supporting research at UNH examining the economics of EE/RE in NH in new ways. You’ll likely hear more about this in coming months.
What makes you passionate about this work? Like many others, I feel like this is my state; I was born here, I grew up here, I chose to return here, I’m raising a family here. As a parent, there’s no set of issues that I could put my time into that I believe are more important for our future than energy issues. If we can’t find agreement on workable, durable, approaches to improve energy use in NH, in the USA, across the World, then we are setting ourselves up for failure in ways that are unacceptable. How could I not be passionate about work that, if looked at realistically, simply has no room for failure.
What is your pie-in-the-sky sky vision for NH’s energy future (if anything were possible!)? I don’t think there’s anything pie-in-the-sky about my vision for NH’s energy future. I see a future where we don’t talk about “clean energy,” because the predominantly used sources of energy are clean and renewable. I think it’s completely reasonable to imagine a future where efficiency measures have been incentivized and standardized so we take it for granted that every household, every business, every government or municipal facility is significantly more energy efficient than they are now. I see a future where energy costs and price/kilowatt hour are not a driving factor to how we do business and function, because everybody uses so much less energy that the price of a unit of energy has little importance. We see examples of how to do this in municipalities, in businesses and manufacturing facilities, in non-profits, in homes, in government buildings and facilities across NH today. In many ways, NH’s Energy Future is now. We “simply” have to build a broad commitment to do the work to make systematic and standard, to make normal, the good practices and actions that are already moving forward and proven in NH.
I see a future where we don’t have to work hard on Local Energy Solutions, because the solutions are normal, commonplace, taken for granted. I see a future where people like us are working on new things we haven’t even thought of yet.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not busy working to support clean energy in NH? Walking in the woods with my kids, dog, and wife. Walking around downtown Concord, which is becoming a better city every day. Listening to great music, preferably live and local. Trying to make sense of the world around me. Eating and/or cooking and eating great food (preferably made with local ingredients). Going to the Concord Farmers Market and Concord Arts Market. Listening to the Red Sox on the radio (I’m too cheap to pay big money for cable). Working in our garden or hanging out in the hammock and reading. Paddling on the Merrimack River, local ponds, or elsewhere. Watching and listening to my kids play, learn about the world around them, and have fun. And, to be honest, I enjoy poking around Twitter & Facebook to see what my friends (or other interesting and/or important people) are thinking about, wasting a little time on fantasy sports, and otherwise being a reasonably modern high-functioning Luddite.
In NH, we are working with the Local Energy Solutions Workgroup, the NH Sustainable Energy Association, the NH Clean Tech Council, the NH Consumer Development Finance Authority, the Environmental Defense Fund, and others to encourage NH to strengthen policies that will increase energy efficiency and the uptake of renewable energy technologies, lower overall expenditures for energy, and reduce NH’s climate emissions. We have a presence at the Legislature and intervene, when appropriate, at the Public Utilities Commission.
We are working very hard to help illustrate that all across NH, there are already a great many examples of how we can reduce energy use, increase efficiency, utilize more local renewable power sources, and reduce energy expenditures, freeing up resources for other uses. Many in NH, in all sectors and at all levels of wealth, are already experiencing NH’s energy future. We are working to help make that easier for everyone in NH.
Helping create more visibility for municipalities and businesses that are doing creative work on energy efficiency and renewable energy is among our priorities. Sponsoring meetings and events that highlight and bring together interested parties, sectors, leaders, etc. and expanding communications about the good work going on are part of how we approach this work. If anyone reading this has projects, approaches, ideas that they think we might want to know about and highlight or be involved with, they should feel free to contact me. I want to do more to help build and facilitate relationships where helpful.
As a new member of the LES Workgroup I’m trying to find the best ways to support communities’ efforts to lower energy costs and use more climate friendly energy options. Knowing that TNC can’t do everything ourselves, we are working to foster connections, provide resources where we can to support existing good work (such as providing funding to NEGEF to support the Regional Energy Hubs program), and otherwise leverage the good work that is occurring every day. In addition, we are supporting research at UNH examining the economics of EE/RE in NH in new ways. You’ll likely hear more about this in coming months.
What makes you passionate about this work? Like many others, I feel like this is my state; I was born here, I grew up here, I chose to return here, I’m raising a family here. As a parent, there’s no set of issues that I could put my time into that I believe are more important for our future than energy issues. If we can’t find agreement on workable, durable, approaches to improve energy use in NH, in the USA, across the World, then we are setting ourselves up for failure in ways that are unacceptable. How could I not be passionate about work that, if looked at realistically, simply has no room for failure.
What is your pie-in-the-sky sky vision for NH’s energy future (if anything were possible!)? I don’t think there’s anything pie-in-the-sky about my vision for NH’s energy future. I see a future where we don’t talk about “clean energy,” because the predominantly used sources of energy are clean and renewable. I think it’s completely reasonable to imagine a future where efficiency measures have been incentivized and standardized so we take it for granted that every household, every business, every government or municipal facility is significantly more energy efficient than they are now. I see a future where energy costs and price/kilowatt hour are not a driving factor to how we do business and function, because everybody uses so much less energy that the price of a unit of energy has little importance. We see examples of how to do this in municipalities, in businesses and manufacturing facilities, in non-profits, in homes, in government buildings and facilities across NH today. In many ways, NH’s Energy Future is now. We “simply” have to build a broad commitment to do the work to make systematic and standard, to make normal, the good practices and actions that are already moving forward and proven in NH.
I see a future where we don’t have to work hard on Local Energy Solutions, because the solutions are normal, commonplace, taken for granted. I see a future where people like us are working on new things we haven’t even thought of yet.
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not busy working to support clean energy in NH? Walking in the woods with my kids, dog, and wife. Walking around downtown Concord, which is becoming a better city every day. Listening to great music, preferably live and local. Trying to make sense of the world around me. Eating and/or cooking and eating great food (preferably made with local ingredients). Going to the Concord Farmers Market and Concord Arts Market. Listening to the Red Sox on the radio (I’m too cheap to pay big money for cable). Working in our garden or hanging out in the hammock and reading. Paddling on the Merrimack River, local ponds, or elsewhere. Watching and listening to my kids play, learn about the world around them, and have fun. And, to be honest, I enjoy poking around Twitter & Facebook to see what my friends (or other interesting and/or important people) are thinking about, wasting a little time on fantasy sports, and otherwise being a reasonably modern high-functioning Luddite.
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Local Energy Solutions Work Group
We are here to provide guidance and resources to help local energy groups implement successful energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to make their communities more sustainable. NHEnergy.org and Local Energy Solutions are coordinated by Clean Energy NH. 
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