Thousands of aging dams in CT challenge the officials that oversee and regulate them — and almost every town with conflicting priorities.
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
CT legislators take another swing at a big climate bill
The bill has 17 multi-part initiatives designed to address climate change, but it is not a comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction roadmap.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
What CT could learn from other states’ climate change policies
There could be lessons for CT in the region and beyond for innovative ways to tackle climate change from energy and emissions standpoints.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
After a lackluster 2023, CT’s efforts on climate policy are still stalled
Even as extreme weather fueled by climate change pummeled Connecticut last year, all major climate legislation failed.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
BEST OF 2023: Climate change has hit CT hard this year. Are we ready for more?
Planning for this sort of climate change-driven weather certainly requires physics and meteorology — but also probably a crystal ball.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
For CT towns struggling to deal with flooding, help is on the way
Nonprofits can facilitate flood remediation projects, and CT towns now have access to grant writing support, resilience training and more.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Facing defeat, Lamont withdraws regs phasing out new gas car sales
Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration withdrew the regulations after learning that the Regulation Review Committee had enough votes to kill them.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
The forgotten reasons behind CT’s ban on new gasoline car sales
Lost in the battle over CT’s rule requiring sales of only zero-emissions new cars by 2035 is the reason for the rule: the environment.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
With more and heavier rain, more inland flooding in CT
Nonprofits have become essential tools for CT towns that generally lack the expertise to figure out and solve inland flooding issues.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
With CT shoreline flooding rising, officials turn to natural mitigation
Along CT’s shoreline, salt marsh remediation is being explored as a natural solution for flooding. But it often takes non-governmental action.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT’s warm, wet El Niño forecast – but don’t put away the shovels
The effect of El Niño on the Northeast’s weather is tricky to predict. But the forecast is warmer and wetter than normal.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
No hydrogen hub for CT and the Northeast
Connecticut and the Northeast came up losers in the competition for regional hydrogen hubs, despite its history in the fuel cell industry.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
As flooding worsens in CT, its drainage systems can’t keep up
CT has updated its stormwater manual with stricter regulations for how municipalities and some large institutions handle stormwater.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
With 3-state deal, Lamont doubles down on offshore wind
Despite recent industry setbacks, CT is joining Massachusetts and Rhode Island in jointly purchasing power to be generated by offshore wind.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT’s biggest offshore wind project nearly dead in the water
CT’s utilities and Park City Wind developer Avangrid ended an agreement, saying economic headwinds have made the project no longer viable.