The CT Mirror (https://ctmirror.org/author/jellenspiegel/)
The Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to ease auto emissions standards has particular resonance for Connecticut, with the potential to force the state to accept cars that are more polluting than it wants and make its notoriously bad air even worse. Continue Reading →
The Energy and Technology Committee Thursday voted to send major energy legislation to the full legislature for consideration, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the bill as it exists now. The approval came after assurances from committee leadership that the bill would be revised further before it’s debated on the floor. Continue Reading →
With the Energy and Technology Committee’s approval deadline for bills this session on Thursday, committee leaders, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, the governor’s office and environmental advocates are racing the clock on one of the most consequential energy bills in years. Solar policy could stop them — again. Continue Reading →
The final version of Connecticut’s new energy strategy and the bills that would implement it are before the legislature. So is a controversy that has dogged the plan since it was first released – solar policy. Continue Reading →
Slid into last year’s budget during final negotiations was a provision that limits the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to 90 days to either approve or deny a laundry list of nearly four-dozen permits. If DEEP doesn’t take action, the permit automatically goes into effect. DEEP calls the sneak change “awful public policy,” and the fight is on. Continue Reading →
Connecticut, once a national leader in clean and renewable energy and energy efficiency, has slipped behind many other states, including its neighbors. Most of the finger-pointing is at the state’s budget problems and questionable choices by the legislature. But the state may have started to lose its energy edge before then. The question is, can it get it back? Continue Reading →
More than six years after Irene, five years after Sandy, and tens of millions of dollars later, Connecticut’s shoreline communities have been slow to embrace resiliency and now look much as they did before the storms hit. But there are exceptions. Continue Reading →
The Connecticut Green Bank – an international model for funding clean energy projects – says it would have to shut down under the latest budget proposal. The bank says it would lose essentially 100 percent of the funding it uses to leverage much larger amounts of private financing. Continue Reading →
Provisions in the Connecticut Comprehensive Energy Strategy that would drastically limit the number of solar systems people and businesses can put on their roofs and could change the payment structure for excess electricity those systems generate have riled the state’s solar industry and those who support it. Continue Reading →
Regardless of what the Connecticut legislature decides on Millstone, it won’t change some basic realities: One day the nuclear plant will close, and Connecticut doesn’t have a plan for that. The question of how to replace Millstone elicits all kinds of ideas. But parameters matter: Are we talking short-term, long-term, cleanly, at what cost to ratepayers? Continue Reading →
With TV ads and ferocious lobbying on both sides of the issue, it’s unclear whether any legislation to help out the Millstone Nuclear Power Station will survive this legislative session. A delay in the release of an updated state energy strategy isn’t helping matters. Continue Reading →
After years of delays, shared solar may finally be close to its first test in Connecticut. But along with some cheers from its supporters, there’s still an awful lot of complaining over how it’s being handled. Continue Reading →
The state could turn out to be one of the most uniquely qualified to challenge the Trump administration on environmental policy. “Connecticut fights way above its weight in a number of the areas on the national scene,” Attorney General George Jepsen said. “Environmental issues is one of those areas.” Continue Reading →
Connecticut has the potential to become a major player in, and economic beneficiary from, offshore wind, all without putting a single turbine in state waters. But it may need to move fast and put a little economic skin in the game. Continue Reading →
The Trump administration called massive cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency an attempt to ease the burden of unnecessary federal regulations. Connecticut’s environmental commissioner called it an assault on public health and the environment. Continue Reading →