Legislative Update: Air Conditioning - July 10, 2026 Windham Independent
Legislative Update - Air Conditioning
In the Shrek movie, Lord Farquaad says: "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make”. In real life, European politicians are actively raising barriers to discourage their citizens from getting air conditioning in their homes, despite knowing that not having air conditioning has deadly consequences.
On June 11, Dr Hans Kluge (Regional Director for Europe, World Health Organization) said: “Over just the past 4 years, heat has claimed more than 200 000 lives across the European Union and its associated countries. The tragedy is 2-fold: first, most of these deaths were entirely preventable; and second, this is just the tip of the iceberg, with millions more people being affected physically and mentally.”
Why doesn’t Europe save lives by embracing air conditioning? Because European politicians focus on saving energy over saving the lives of its citizens. In the European Union , 80% of the homes lack air conditioning.
Europe’s overly strict environmental regulations greatly increase the cost of energy and air conditioners in order to discourage their use. And Europe is much poorer than the US, so many Europeans cannot afford the sky high energy bills that air conditioning would generate.
But just because New Hampshire is currently respecting its citizens' right to make their own energy use decisions, it doesn’t mean that this cannot change.
On July 6, the NH Journal (nhjournal.com) reported that Cinde Warmington (the Democrat candidate for Governor) is bringing back her disastrous Net Zero Energy plan, a combination of bans on fossil fuels, mandating purchases of much more expensive green energy, billions in government spending, and even more billions in costs imposed on businesses that get passed down to you.
If Cinde Warmington and the New Hampshire Democrats were as honest as Lord Farquaad, they would tell you that “Some of you will die, but it's a sacrifice Democrats are willing to make”. They won’t be that blunt (on the record, at least), but their votes on energy policy speak loudly: they vote for expensive mandates, for higher energy prices, they vote to take your energy choices away.
Expensive energy has a disparate impact on the poor, which the Democrats claim to protect. And yet, it’s the Republicans that are leading the fight to keep energy costs under control.
I cannot promise you lower energy prices (no state legislature can do that by themselves), but I promise to do everything in my power to lower the cost of energy, and to fight against the many mandates and restrictions that the Democrats propose every year. To do that, I need your support in the September 8 primary elections.
Please reach out to me at 603 267 4142 (call or text) or at dpmwindham@gmail.com (a quick call or text after emailing me would greatly help) with any questions or concerns.
Daniel Popovici-Muller
Windham State Representative,
Vice Chairman, Finance II Committee
Member, Education Funding Committee