By any measure of fairness, Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) just betrayed the public’s trust.

The agency told residents they had a right to request hearings on major air permits — then turned around and denied every single one, claiming people failed to meet a secret standard the agency never told anyone about.

This wasn’t a technical mix-up. It was a quiet, deliberate move that shut out a town, a citizens’ group, and an environmental nonprofit from challenging a fossil fuel project proposed next to a middle school in one of the state’s worst ozone zones.

DEEP told the public one thing, then did another

Over the summer, DEEP rolled out new procedures under Public Act 25-84, a law meant to expand the public’s right to demand hearings on air permits. On its own website, DEEP instructed residents to “submit a petition form” — a form that has been online for years and requires no oath or notarization.

Three groups followed those instructions to the letter: the Town of Brookfield, Save the Sound, and Stop the Brookfield Compressor Station Expansion, a grassroots coalition of residents. Together, they represented roughly 20,000 people and more than 200 public comments.

All three petitions used DEEP’s form. All were rejected.

On October 15, DEEP’s hearing officer ruled that the petitions weren’t “verified pleadings,” a phrase borrowed from a completely different section of state law. This so-called requirement appears nowhere in the statute, nowhere on DEEP’s website, and nowhere in the form the agency itself provided.

In short, DEEP set the public up to fail.

The agency could have allowed petitioners to amend their filings, updated its forms, or offered a chance to correct the technical defect. Instead, it denied the petitions outright — stripping the public of the ability to contest the permit and relegating everyone to a toothless “informational hearing.”

What this means for the rest of Connecticut

This isn’t just about Brookfield. DEEP’s ruling sets a precedent for every air permit in the state. If it stands, no member of the public can rely on DEEP’s own instructions when trying to participate in environmental decisions that affect their communities.

The public did everything right. DEEP moved the goalposts.

And Gov. Ned Lamont and Commissioner Katie Dykes appear content to let it happen.

For a law that was supposed to make government more accountable, this outcome does the opposite. It tells citizens that even when they play by the rules, the state can rewrite them afterward.

That’s not just bad governance. It’s an insult to every resident who believes transparency and public participation are the cornerstones of environmental protection in Connecticut.

Daniel Myers lives in Brookfield.