David Segal and Gary Gump at the Portsmouth Wind Turbine.

State Rep. David Segal, candidate for the first congressional district, visited the Portsmouth wind turbine today to talk about his "Green New Deal," one of the planks of his 7-point-plan for jobs and economic recovery.

He was introduced by Portsmouth EDC Sustainable Energy subcommittee chair Gary Gump, part of the team that led the turbine effort, who thanked him for his work in the legislature on NetMetering, and urged him to "continue that support at the state level, or in Washington."

"The Portsmouth wind turbine is an example of what we should be doing more of," said Segal. He said that if elected, one of his first acts would be to propose a "Green New Deal," that would make more projects like the turbine possible, and would create jobs by investing in renewable energy.

"Investing $100 billion in the greening of the economy over the next two years would create an estimated 2 million jobs nationwide," said Segal. Such an investment, he proposed, could be financed by a tax on high-dollar-value (those over $100K) credit default swaps and other speculative transactions. Such a tax could raise $150B a year, Segal said, and the return from the millions of new jobs created would offset increased spending.

"If we're investing in the right projects, we don't have to worry about the deficit," said Segal.

If you want to learn more, you can meet Segal tonight in Portsmouth at Custom House Coffee on West Main Road at 7pm. (And we'll also be collecting signatures for the referendum — so why not stop by?)

Full disclosure: I am a supporter of David Segal.