More Natural Gas, Lower Electric Bills? 'Net Zero' Gubernatorial Candidate Warmington Is Still A 'No'

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Democratic candidate for governor Cinde Warmington is doubling down on her opposition to an “all-of-the-above” energy policy, making clear she has not abandoned the net-zero emissions goal that defined her 2024 platform—even as she centers her second campaign on the state’s affordability crisis.

In an interview with WMUR’s Adam Sexton that aired Sunday, Warmington was asked about Trump administration efforts, supported by Gov. Kelly Ayotte, to increase the supply of natural gas reaching New England to lower electric bills.

“Are you opposed to those efforts on principle, given your prior support for getting to net zero?”

“I believe that we need to stop the addiction to fossil fuel,” Warmington answered. “We need a clean energy economy in this state, an investment in energy efficiency, in renewable energy.”

Warmington’s stance echoes her “CLEAN Energy Economy Future,” which would “create standards that lead New Hampshire to net zero emissions by 2040,” according to a news release from Warmington’s 2024 campaign. That’s a more aggressive timetable than even progressive Govs. Maura Healey of Massachusetts and Kathy Hochul of New York have set in their deep-blue states.

It also stands in stark contrast to Ayotte, who has embraced the same “all-of-the-above” policy as her predecessor, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.

“New Hampshire will not go the way of Massachusetts and their energy mandates that are driving costs even higher. We need to bring more energy to New Hampshire, including natural gas, to grow our energy supply and get bills down,” Ayotte told NHJournal.

She recently joined other New England governors in seeking the return of more than $1.5 billion to regional ratepayers, including about $150 million for New Hampshire.

Warmington ran as the progressive alternative to Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig in the 2024 gubernatorial primary, and her net-zero energy proposal, including taxpayer-funded subsidies for electric vehicles and more tax money for buses and trains, was part of her pitch.

However, in her race against Ayotte, Warmington has avoided specifics in public while reassuring Democrats in private that she’s still pushing for a progressive approach.

NHJournal obtained audio of her comments to a group of Pelham Democrats in June, telling them, “We put out a whole green energy economy plan in my last election. We’re tweaking that now, updated, and we’ll be putting that out.”

In July, she told another group of supporters that New Hampshire is “facing an economic crisis” that requires rebuilding the economy “from the ground up. We’re going to do that by building a clean energy economy in our state.”

Warmington argues that more solar power, subsidized by state funding and changes to net-metering laws that would put more of it on the grid, is the way to go.

“We have so many solar projects around the state that are ready to go, and we just need Concord to get their foot off the necks of businesses and communities that are ready to invest in renewable energy sources,” she told WMUR. “That’s what we’re going to do in this administration. It will bring great jobs into our state, and help clean up our environmental issues; the economy that is out there is a great opportunity for New Hampshire.”

Pressed on whether families struggling with high costs can wait years for a renewable-energy buildout when natural gas could deliver faster relief, Warmington argued that solar is both the cheapest and quickest option available.

“Solar energy is actually the lowest cost of energy available right now,” she said. Renewables, she added, would shield the state from global price shocks: “The wind blows, and the sun shines whether or not the Strait of Hormuz is closed.”

Except the sun doesn’t shine about half the time, and the wind doesn’t always blow, either. Natural gas and nuclear power provide the vast majority of the baseload power that keeps New Hampshire’s lights on.

Algonquin Citygate, the natural gas hub that serves New England, posts some of the world’s highest spot prices in winter because pipeline capacity can’t meet the combined demand for home heating and electric power generation. That’s also when solar output is at its annual low — with short days, a low sun angle, and sometimes snow on the panels. “More solar” does not relieve the binding constraint, and “solar is the fastest relief” doesn’t match the data.

How much more does New England currently pay for natural gas?

During a typical winter cold snap, the region’s hub price routinely spikes into the high teens or low $20s per million British thermal units. It reached $18.30 during a February 2025 cold wave, for example.

But at the Dominion South regional hub, which gets its natural gas from the same Appalachian shale fields in Pennsylvania as New England, the price is often around $2 to $3 per million British thermal units — about one-tenth as much.

At the extreme, the price gap can be staggering. During Winter Storm Fern in late January, New England’s hub price briefly hit $122.57, while the national price was just over $30.

The gap is not a matter of distance or scarcity. The cheaper gas is just a few hours’ drive south. It is a matter of pipeline capacity, which maxes out when winter demand peaks and leaves low-cost supplies out of reach of local markets.

This is the same pipeline expansion Warmington opposes.

“Opioid Lobbyist Warmington has still failed to produce a price tag for her Massachusetts-style energy plan that would ban gas-powered engines and drive energy costs through the roof,” said Ayotte spokesman John Corbett. “New Hampshire can’t afford Cinde Warmington.”

The Warmington campaign declined to respond to multiple requests for comment.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.