Legislative Outlook 2022

The New Hampshire Legislature convenes on January 5, 2022 for the start of its 168th Session. As is the case with every session, the Legislature faces a heavy workload of bills they will need to consider. For the 2022 Session, they will need to work through almost 900 bills. Unlike in the U.S. Congress, each one of those bills will receive a committee hearing and a vote before the House of Representatives or the Senate. 

Here is a list of Legislative Service Request (“LSRs” for short), that maybe of interest to the environmental and conservation communities.

LSRs are simply a bare-bones description of the sponsor’s intent for the bill. Although they do not provide the bill language or even the committee to which the bill will be referred, reviewing them will gives the reader a good sense of which topics will be priorities for the Legislature in the coming session. 

All LSRs are finalized with the bill language by early to mid-January. You will be able to read the actual bill language for those bills on the General Court’s website when they are available in January.

Listed below are the issue areas we believe will be of interest to environmental protection and conservation stakeholders in New Hampshire.

• FORESTRY: LSR 2022-2282 proposes to create a New Hampshire low-grade timber and wood emerging market commission. 
• SOLID WASTE: The Legislature will consider 10 bills that focus on solid waste disposal policy including LSR 2022-2022, which would establish a committee to study landfill siting criteria and methods for reducing pressure on landfill capacity.
• ENERGY: 24 bills will be heard in 2022 including several that deal with New Hampshire’s renewable energy policy. 
• NEW HAMPSHIRE SITE EVALUATION COMMITTEE: LSR 2022-2349 will address the rules of the NH Site Evaluation Committee, the regulatory body that approves permits for large-scale energy facility. 
• CLIMATE CHANGE: Two bills focus climate change including 2022-2264 which would require the public utilities commission to consider climate change in making rate-setting decisions.
• OHRVs: The Legislature will continue to tackle issues related to OHRV use including 2022-2015 which would establish a commission to study OHRV use in the state.
• DRINKING WATER AND WATER RESOURCES: Perfluorinated chemicals in water resources continues to be a concern for legislators.  They will consider five different bills regarding this issue.