New Hampshire’s Democrat governor, Maggie Hassan, violated her own ban on travel to take a trade mission to Turkey. She justified this, according to many, by pointing to a reported 22% increase in exports From New Hampshire. That might make some sense if it were true.
Last week, Business NH Magazine pointed out that of the 22% increase in “exports”( that Governor Hassan’s administration was bragging about) only 0.7% of that increase actually came from New Hampshire.
How does that work, exactly?
Export data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Department of Commerce updated in June does show NH’s exports increased 20 percent between 2012 and 2013 to $4.2 billion. (Data released earlier this year showed 22 percent growth as originally touted by the governor.) Driving that growth was $673 million in crude oil exports to Canada, making it NH’s second largest export. In fact, crude oil exports to Canada from NH skyrocketed 44,053 percent from $1.5 million in 2012.
The missing 21.3% was the result of oil, carried by rail, from the Bakken oil fields, across the country, through New Hampshire, and up in to Canada.
No one promoting the 22% figure believes the trains even stopped in the state. They passed through like “you know what” through a goose.
The Hassan administration is sticking to its figure, which it got from the census Bureau.
We could ask how those sorts of Census Bureau errors affect data reported by other states (and by all means feel free to investigate that yourselves), but I have a more intriguing question. Whether Democrat governor Hassan gets to take credit for increasing New Hampshire’s oil exports or not (keeping in mindthat there are no oil wells, drilling, or refineries in the GraniteState), how does she get away with not just toeing but tugging on the Green energy, anti-fossil fuel, Democrat-party, anti-fracking, environmentalist line while taking credit for New Hampshire’s rise as a leading “exporter” of oil.
And fracked oil at that.
