Our Work in New Hampshire

New Hampshire’s majestic White Mountains, stunning lakes, rivers, and coastal waters, and its many historic urban and town centers add up to an unparalleled quality of life. However, unchecked climate change and a business-as-usual approach to development jeopardize the many assets that make New Hampshire so special.

Already, New Hampshire has begun to feel the economic and environmental impacts of climate change, including more frequent and severe storms and warming temperatures. We also have lost forests, fields, wetlands, and even a sense of community to low-density sprawl development. And, as in the case of Seacoast region – where sprawl has led to a near doubling of paved areas since 1990 – intense, poorly planned growth is degrading critically important water bodies. Fortunately, CLF is tackling the hard issues necessary to protect New Hampshire’s people and places.

To advance a clean energy economy for New Hampshire, we’re working to shut down costly, highly polluting coal power plants such as Merrimack Station in Bow, the Granite State’s single largest source of greenhouse gas pollution. At the same time we are promoting greater investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

To protect our critical coastal resources from the mounting threats of nutrient pollution, CLF successfully forced regulators to acknowledge the growing problem of nitrogen pollution in the highly sensitive Great Bay estuary. We are now invoking the Clean Water Act to ensure cleanup by major polluters, including outdated sewage treatment plants and heavily polluting industrial activities, and are pleased to have launched the Great Bay-Piscataqua WATERKEEPER program.

CLF is also advocating for policies and investments that support energy-efficient transportation, such as rail. This type of investment supports vibrant, walkable communities, rather than car-driven sprawl. CLF has protected communities and valuable wetlands from destructive and unnecessary highway projects and is working to steer the status quo from proposing such projects in the first place toward strategies that reduce the significant greenhouse gas pollution caused by our current transportation system.

We feel lucky to live, work, and play in the Granite State, as we work to solve the significant challenges facing New Hampshire’s communities and natural environment.

Northern Pass information and resources >>

Great Bay-Piscataqua WATERKEEPER information and resources >>