SB 543 - AS INTRODUCED
2024 SESSION
24-3077
08/10
SENATE BILL 543
AN ACT establishing the state environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation council.
SPONSORS: Sen. Watters, Dist 4; Sen. Rosenwald, Dist 13; Sen. Soucy, Dist 18; Sen. Perkins Kwoka, Dist 21; Sen. Whitley, Dist 15; Sen. Fenton, Dist 10; Sen. Prentiss, Dist 5; Sen. Altschiller, Dist 24; Sen. Chandley, Dist 11
COMMITTEE: Energy and Natural Resources
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ANALYSIS
This bill establishes the state environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation council.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
24-3077
08/10
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Four
AN ACT establishing the state environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation council.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Chapter; State Environmental Adaptation, Resilience, and Innovation Advisory Council. Amend RSA by inserting after chapter 4-H the following new chapter:
CHAPTER 4-I
STATE ENVIRONMENTAL ADAPTATION, RESILIENCE,
AND INNOVATION ADVISORY COUNCIL
4-I:1 Purpose. Based on events in recent years, as well as future projections of environmental changes in New Hampshire, adaptation, resilience and innovation leadership at the state level can help residents, communities, businesses, institutions and state government itself become more resilient and ready to adapt to these changes. Environmental change will increasingly impact all communities in New Hampshire, as well as state assets and infrastructure, resulting in new challenges to public health, infrastructure, tourism, natural resources, water and wastewater services, revenue sources, and the economy. These changes require comprehensive planning to enable creative adaptation, resilience, financing, and innovation across the state government to ensure a healthy and prosperous future for New Hampshire residents, businesses, and communities. Environmental change may disproportionately impact regions, populations, and natural resources in New Hampshire and stress existing services in health care, public health, education, transportation and other infrastructure. Adaptation, resilience, and innovation strategies can help to prioritize the allocation of investment of public resources to prevent negative impacts and ensure that investments are durable and equitable, especially to most at-risk populations and disproportionately impacted areas. Innovation through planning and financing can further the efficient and equitable use of public funds and serve to reduce potential burdens on taxpayers. Effective planning can facilitate more efficient functioning of state and local government, promote economic prosperity, workforce development, equitable opportunity, and public health in all policies, while protecting families, communities and the natural environment.
4-I:2 Definitions. In this chapter:
I. “Adaptation” means reducing vulnerability and advancing resilience through planned and implemented enhancements to, or avoiding degradation of, natural and built systems and structures.
II. “Resilience” means the capacity of individuals, communities, governmental bodies, and natural and built systems to withstand and recover from environmental events, trends, and disruptions.
4-I: 3 Council Created.
I. The state environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation advisory council is established.
II. Membership of the commission shall be as follows:
(a) The commissioner of the department of environmental services, or designee, who shall serve as chair.
(b) A representative of the governor, appointed by the governor.
(c) The commissioner of the department of transportation, or designee.
(d) The director of the division of homeland security and emergency management, or designee
(e) The commissioner of the department of health and human services, or designee.
(f) The commissioner of the department of agriculture, markets, and food, or designee
(g) The commissioner of the department of natural and cultural resources, or designee.
(h) The commissioner of the department of administrative services, or designee.
(i) The commissioner of the department of education, or designee.
(j) The attorney general, or designee.
(k) The executive director of the department of fish and game, or designee.
(l) The director of the floodplain management program, or designee.
(m) A representative of the New Hampshire Municipal Association, appointed by the association.
(n) A directors of a regional planning commission, appointed by the chair.
(o) Two members to represent environmental nonprofit organizations or private foundations, or both, with a focus on environmental issues, appointed by the chair.
(p) One member with expertise in environment or climate science, appointed by the president of the university of New Hampshire.
(q) A member of the Flood Ready Neighborhoods Program, appointed by that program.
III. The commissioner of the department of environmental services shall convene the council within 30 days of passage. The council may develop procedures necessary for its work. It shall meet at least 4 times annually. Ten members shall constitute a quorum. The chair shall serve in a coordinating capacity for meetings, and if resources are available, direct other coordinating activities. The department of environmental services may, if resources are available, be the location for staff to supervise council activities.
IV. The work of the council shall be guided by principles of seeking innovation in government operations, promoting effective approaches that build resilience against environmental changes to protect public health and foster business and workforce development, while protecting public investments and taxpayers, safety, and the responsible stewardship of the state’s natural resources. The council shall:
(a) Be guided by the recognition that environmental change will have differing effects across the state’s regions and rural and urban communities.
(b) Seek to leverage partnerships with New Hampshire communities, business and environmental organizations, health organizations, educational institutions, and other groups with expertise useful to the council and related to advancing the state’s resilience in the face of natural disasters.
(c) In cooperation with appropriate state agencies, consider the need for maps and data that indicate the areas of the state that may be most negatively impacted by environmental changes, and make any such maps publicly available on a website maintained by the department of environmental services or by a public institution of higher education.
(d) Consider the impact of environmental change on public health, including most at-risk populations, and on the public health system as a whole, from health effects such as from heat-related illness, allergies, asthmas, lower air quality, reduced water quality, environmentally-related infectious diseases, and injuries and other health impacts induced by extreme weather events.
(e) Consider strategies and costs of prudent adaptation efforts related to extreme heat, including but not limited to air conditioning installation and upgrades in state facilities and public colleges, universities, and schools, and planning for expansion of cooling centers, mitigation of urban heat islands, and other methods to address the health impacts related to the increase in days of extreme heat.
(f) Consider the impacts of and costs related to, and loss of revenue caused by extreme heat, increased precipitation and flooding, loss of snow cover, storm surge and sea level rise on state parks, state forests, other state managed lands, and other natural resource-based and tourism-related areas and activities.
(g) Consider strategies and costs to adapt and make more resilient state transportation infrastructure and consider future funding needs and sources for enhancements to storm drainage, roads, and bridges to better handle extreme precipitation, landslides, heat stress, storm surge, sea level rise, and coastal groundwater level impacts.
(h) Consider strategies to include environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation planning in agency budget development, state planning activities, including the ten year highway plan, the wildlife action plan, the homeland security hazard mitigation planning, the state health improvement plan, and other relevant plans, and in relevant state contracting.
(i) Consider adaptation and resilience strategies and funding needs for state, and state funded municipal facilities, for increased storm drainage capacity, wastewater treatment, water supply, and water treatment facilities.
(j) Consider projected needs for building coastal defenses, adaptation, resilience, and coastal retreat to protect infrastructure, state port facilities, water and wastewater infrastructure, and economic and cultural resources from storm surge and rising seas.
(k) Consider adaptation and resilience through planning, hazard mitigation, emergency preparedness, and other efforts to prepare for adverse impacts, including an increase in the severity and frequency of extreme weather events, storm surge, sea level rise, a rise in vector-borne diseases including Lyme disease, marine species diseases, more frequent cyanobacteria blooms, ocean acidification, adverse impacts to forest and agricultural soils, forest and crop damage, shorter and irregular sugaring seasons, a reduction in seasonal snow cover, both flooding and droughts, and variable and rising average temperatures that result in uncertain and lower snowfall.
(l) Consider adaptation and resilience strategies for natural resource agencies including the New Hampshire department of natural cultural resources, the department of environmental services, the division of homeland security and emergency management, the department of agriculture, markets, and food, and the fish and game department to adapt, conserve, and restore New Hampshire forests, floodplains, wetlands, coastal areas, and agricultural lands affected by environmental change.
(m) Consider policies related to land management to increase resilience, such as improving air and water quality, economic vitality, ecosystem functions, local food systems, sustainable land management practices, and creating more environmentally resilient communities and landscapes.
(n) Consider, with advice of the New Hampshire state treasurer, the effects of the credit rating industry analysis of the adaptation and resilience strategies of issuers of state and municipal bonds as a potential liability as a negative credit factor for issuers with insufficient strategies as it may impact New Hampshire and establishing robust adaptation and resilience strategies for New Hampshire and how to protect the state from a credit downgrade.
(o) Consider potential loss of property tax and other tax revenues due to environmental impacts and the potential effect on the state’s and municipalities’ ability to fund infrastructure and schools, including impacts on drinking water and wastewater funding sources.
(p) Review existing and with available resources undertake or request necessary economic studies related to health outcome burdens, impacts on tourism and recreation economy revenues; costs of transportation and other public infrastructure failures and disruptions; costs and potential losses to agricultural products and businesses; and cost impacts on municipal and public utility water supply and wastewater treatment infrastructure.
(q) Make recommendations on potential funding sources including, but not limited to avenues of cost recovery for adaptation and resilience expenditures from parties most responsible for environmental change in New Hampshire, to protect New Hampshire taxpayers from bearing the full burden of costs, and to explore innovative financing opportunities such as the creation of a state infrastructure financing authority, in consultation with entities including the community development finance authority and the business finance authority.
V. The council shall establish an environmental advisory working group to provide summaries of environmental change scenarios, drawing on existing national and regional reports, state plans and analysis related to temperature and precipitation, and the science and technical advisory panel reports on projected coastal extreme precipitation, storm surge, and sea level rise deemed reasonable and useful for planning purposes. The working group shall review and consider existing research on expected environmental changes to New Hampshire, including but not limited to effects on the state’s climate, public health, species, marine and coastal environments, forest and other inland ecosystems, and natural landscape and on the oceans and other bodies of water. It shall include the New Hampshire state climatologist, the head of the New Hampshire coastal program of the department of environmental services, a representative of the Nature Conservancy of New Hampshire, members of environmental sciences faculty of New Hampshire institutions of higher education with relevant expertise, and others selected by the chair of the council.
VI. The council may establish additional working groups composed of council members and non-members to assist in the work on the duties of the council.
VII. The council and its working groups established in paragraph V may solicit and receive financial support, including funding from state government agencies, nonprofit organizations, federal grants, foundations and other entities, to fulfill their responsibilities under this section. The council may encourage cooperative agreements with entities including the university system of New Hampshire to fulfill its duties.
4-I:4 Funding. The council shall determine the scope of its activities based on the availability of funds, from state funds not otherwise appropriated, from existing agency budgets, federal and other grant funding, and donations. It may prepare a budget projection for consideration in the state operating budget.
4-I:5 The New Hampshire Environmental Adaptation, Resilience, and Innovation Fund Created. There is hereby established in the state treasury the New Hampshire adaptation, resilience, and innovation fund supporting the work of the state environmental adaptation, resilience, and innovation advisory council. Such fund shall be non-lapsing. Such fund may be the depository of any federal and other grants and gifts for the purposes of supporting the work of the state environmental adaptation, resilience and innovation advisory council. Funds may be expended upon recommendation of the council, with approval of the joint fiscal committee or the executive council.
4-I:6 Report. The council shall report annually on December 1 on its activities and any recommendations for state agency actions, legislative proposals, and budgetary needs to the governor, the executive council, the president of the senate, and the speaker of the house of representatives.
2 New Subparagraph; Application of Receipts; Dedicated Fund. Amend RSA 6:12, I(b) by inserting after subparagraph (394) the following new subparagraph:
(395) Moneys deposited in the New Hampshire adaptation, resilience, and innovation fund established in RSA 4-I:5.
3 Effective date. This act shall take effect January 1, 2025.