Spiking winter energy prices are the result of a crisis that has been a decade in the making, after New England opted to bet on natural gas.
Acadia Center
Posted inEnergy & Environment
A key rule on the New England power grid will end, but not for a while
At the last minute, ISO-New England filed a plan to keep the MOPR – a rule that makes it harder for renewables to join the grid – until 2025.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
New England takes a detour on grid reform; griping ensues
After years of pushing to reform New England’s electric grid, DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes agreed to delay the first big change.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Transportation
It looks like CT’s Transportation Climate Initiative bill is dead. Now what?
The legislature’s failure to pass TCI could test the state’s leadership role in battling climate change.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Transportation
CT signs on to regional plan to cut transportation emissions
Connecticut has signed on to a ground-breaking plan that will help dramatically lower greenhouse gas and other emissions from transportation.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Energy bill takes on storm response and grid reform challenges
Energy legislation wasn’t on the radar for any special legislative sessions called to deal with critical issues lost to the COVID-cancelled session from this winter. Even the annual July electric rate adjustment –- which this year contained big increases that sparked public outrage — would not have warranted legislation. That was until Tropical Storm Isaias […]
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Never let a good crisis go to waste
Experts say the pandemic gives Connecticut an opportunity to make big advances in clean energy — and reap the profits.
Posted inEconomic Development, Energy & Environment
Katie Dykes takes helm at DEEP in era of escalating climate change
Katie Dykes’ new job as DEEP commissioner brings old and new challenges, such as the growing threat of climate change.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT poised to catch brunt of Trump’s auto standard rollbacks
The Trump administration has unveiled its proposal to dramatically weaken auto emission and efficiency standards. Few states will feel the consequences of it more than Connecticut.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
After near derailment, energy bill heads to governor as fence-mending begins
Updated at 6:25 p.m.
After a near-death experience, energy legislation that will fundamentally change how renewable energy is valued financially in Connecticut passed the state House early Wednesday morning and is now headed to the governor for his expected signature. The legislature also completed action on an environmental bill.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Energy bill heads for committee showdown, uncertain future
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.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Solar is again the flashpoint in CT’s new energy strategy
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.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
CT’s clean energy edge: Going, going . . . or coming back?
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?
Posted inEnergy & Environment
DEEP taking heat on its proposed changes to solar policy
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.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
With no plan for replacing Millstone, what are CT’s options?
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?