Bryan T. Garcia, the president of the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority, calls himself a believer in the philosophy of hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky. “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take,” Garcia quotes Gretzky as famously saying — and quotes him often.
Jan Ellen Spiegel
Jan Ellen is CT Mirror's regular freelance Environment and Energy Reporter. As a freelance reporter, her stories have also appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Yale Climate Connections, and elsewhere. She is a former editor at The Hartford Courant, where she handled national politics including coverage of the controversial 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. She was an editor at the Gazette in Colorado Springs and spent more than 20 years as a TV and radio producer at CBS News and CNN in New York and in the Boston broadcast market. In 2013 she was the recipient of a Knight Journalism Fellowship at MIT on energy and climate. She graduated from the University of Michigan and attended Boston University’s graduate film program.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
State’s energy strategy likely to increase fees
There was a nugget of news in the big energy speech Gov. Dannel P. Malloy gave at the Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships’ annual summit Thursday, which happened to be in his hometown of Stamford. Turns out the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection also Thursday released its long-term energy strategy known as the Integrated Resource […]
Posted inNews
Storm impacts serve as warnings in annual environmental report
The Council on Environmental Quality’s annual report on Connecticut’s environment in 2011 can be summed in one word: storms. Tropical Storm Irene and the October snowstorm hurt air, water, land, animal and human health — most notably in Long Island Sound. These catastrophic events caused more beach closings, lower oxygen levels, more pollution and fewer lobsters, […]
Posted inNews
Leader to address ‘dysfunction’ on energy committee
At least four major components of the omnibus energy bill that never made it to the floor of either chamber of the General Assembly in the just-completed annual legislative session are likely to make their way into the special session in two weeks. While the move is expected to rectify some key issues — in […]
Posted inNews
Merritt Parkway trail proposal faces a bumpy road
Trumbull — Will Britnell, principal engineer with the Connecticut Department of Transportation, typically starts meetings on the subject of building a trail along the Merritt Parkway with a quote from Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” That pretty much says it all. […]
Posted inNews
Coastal management legislation balances environmental concerns with property rights
In Connecticut’s post-storms legislative world, most of the focus has been on how to make sure power outages like the ones the state suffered in August and October never happen again. But for communities along the shoreline, where some buildings are still in disrepair, seawalls remain crumpled and some landscapes were altered permanently by Tropical […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Major energy legislation is a last minute casualty
A huge energy bill with a number of critical components for running key state programs is another major casualty in this session, despite non-stop efforts over the last several days in particular to craft language acceptable to those who could assure its passage.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
GMO labeling: technically alive, but realistically dead
The prospect of Connecticut passing groundbreaking first-of-its-kind legislation to label genetically modified food is basically nonexistent. Late last week lawyers from the Legislative Commissioners’ Office forced sponsors to gut the bill so that even if it passes — still a long shot — it would be little more than a statement of concern about GMOs, […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Health, Money
Outdoor wood furnace regulation clears Senate
For the first time in three years of trying, legislation to tighten regulations on outdoor wood furnaces has passed a chamber of the legislature. The Senate passed and sent to the House an amended version of legislation that advocates of it say is even stronger than the original. The original bill sought to ban outdoor […]
Posted inNews
State could become the first to require recycling of mattresses
Legislation that would make Connecticut the first state to mandate the recycling of used mattresses passed the Senate on Wednesday afternoon and is now headed for action in the House. The bill uses an environmental model called extended producer responsibility, EPR, a principle of the broader concept of product stewardship, in which producers take responsibility […]
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Looks like an onion skin, but it could be electricity
Sergio Squatrito knows all about food waste. At Carla’s Pasta, his family’s company in South Windsor, in addition to an array of easy-to-prepare pasta and other Italian specialties, the company produces 2,000 to 3,000 pounds of food waste a day. “We’ve tried four different ways of getting rid of our food scraps and all of […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
No pesticides were used to kill these bills
A couple of high-profile legislative deaths to announce in this final two-week run-up to the end of the legislative session. Bottom line for both — the ban on the use of pesticides on school properties that house children through the eighth grade stays in place. A highly contentious bill that garnered nearly 100 opposition comments […]
Posted inPolitics
PURA Chairman DelGobbo to step down
Talk about burying a lead. In the press release from Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s office that he was re-nominating Jack Betkoski as one of the three directors of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority was this little side note: “Governor Malloy also received formal notification from PURA Director and current Chairman Kevin M. DelGobbo that he is declining the […]
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Warm, dry winter and insect invasions are concerns for spring and summer
After eight months or so of all manner of weather indignity, an ominously warm winter and don’t forget that earthquake last August, we may just be getting to the really bad stuff. Spring, and eventually summer, look to be arriving with a smorgasbord of pestilence, disease, critters, drought and more. Many of those whose livelihoods […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
What you missed during the death penalty debate
OK, and from several days before. Catching up a bit in the world of energy and the environment, here’s a laundry list of some things that have happened lately that could actually affect you. 1. The merger of Northeast Utilities and NSTAR not only was approved Monday by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Wednesday, […]