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, […]
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 inNews
Home energy efficiency funds available — for now
Madison — It’s just past 8:30 on a recent morning as employees of the home energy services company EcoSmart stretch a red tarp inset with a giant fan inside the kitchen doorframe of Lars Helgeson’s home. It’s for a “blower door test,” used to determine how airtight a house is. For a $75 co-pay, Helgeson’s […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
What’s in a name? Plenty says CEFIA
No secret the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority — the renamed and re-purposed Connecticut Clean Energy Fund — has been none too thrilled with the name it was given in last year’s energy legislation. How much doesn’t CEFIA like its new name? So much, that as of right now, there are at least two […]
Posted inNews
Showdown on citizen environmental action statute
Environmental and business groups are marshalling forces for an anticipated showdown Friday that pits part of the cornerstone of state environmental law against development and job creation. At issue is legislation that would restrict using environmental grounds to block development projects. Supporters say it’s needed because the existing language in the landmark Connecticut Environmental Protection Act […]
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Bill to label genetically modified foods raises many questions
The call to action went out mid-February to Connecticut’s organic farming community and its friends — a bill to require labeling of some genetically modified foods was up in the legislature for a fourth time in recent years. “We should have a lot of people at the hearing at (the) LOB and as many as […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Really most sincerely dead
If you were wondering how much more dead the dead Broadwater liquefied natural gas plant that was proposed for the middle of Long Island Sound back in 2004 could get, the answer is, it could get really, really dead. Today it was announced that Broadwater Pipeline LLC had requested to withdraw from its Federal Energy […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Final approval on new home solar program
As expected, Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Dan Esty has given final approval to a new residential solar incentive program to be run by the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Shoreline task force members named
The line-up is almost complete for the recently announced Shoreline Preservation Task Force, headed by Rep. James Albis, D-East Haven. There are eight representatives and two senators from shoreline districts, and three non-legislative members. While technically bipartisan, the membership definitely skews Democratic. Albis said he was looking for one more legislator and a coastal engineer. […]
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Controversy flares in new solar program for homeowners
The solar industry in Connecticut and around the nation had been waiting years for what happened last Tuesday: The board of directors of the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority approved a new residential solar incentive program. Then the solar folks saw the details. Instead of a long-term plan to help jumpstart an industry that […]
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Administration backs off arts funding change
The Office of Policy and Management this afternoon backed off its proposal in the revised fiscal 2013 budget to have the state’s major arts and cultural organizations compete for the money they have traditionally received as an earmark. Instead, Secretary Benjamin Barnes indicated in a statement that the Department of Economic and Community Development will develop […]
Posted inNews
Arts funding drama takes center stage
Arts organizations in Connecticut had been feeling the love from the Malloy administration: a new home in the Department of Economic and Community Development, leadership that seemed to care what they had to say, new programs, and not insignificantly — more funding. But not after last week. Tucked into Gov. Dannel Malloy’s revised fiscal 2013 […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Sides ready for new round on outdoor wood furnaces
You can chuckle all you want about outdoor wood furnaces and whether they’re a subject the legislature should even bother with given that there are probably only a couple of thousand in the state. Then you might want to get out of the line of fire. “I’ve been here a long time,” said Bob Girard, […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Lead by example rolls out first projects
Shovels could be in the ground as early as this week for the first two projects of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection‘s inaugural energy efficiency initiative known as Lead By Example. OK — it’s not exactly shovels — more like unscrewing lightbulbs and moving air conditioners. But it’s happening all the same. The […]
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A push for transit-oriented development, but in what direction?
Transit oriented development — a generation-old concept in which municipal and economic growth are linked to mass transit — is a current darling among many Connecticut constituencies. Called T-O-D to those in the know, it’s championed by environmentalists for its carbon footprint-shrinking possibilities; economic and business interests for its work force-friendly components; transit advocates for […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
Congressional delegation tops nationally on environment
Connecticut scored some of the highest marks given out by the League of Conservation Voters in its 2011 Congressional scorecard. That despite a year the organization called the U.S. House’s “truly breathtaking and unprecedented assault on the environment and public health.” The state’s two senators each scored 100 percent on the 11 votes ranked by […]