Reps. Jahana Hayes and Jim HImes have not signed on to controversial Green New Deal that aims to combat climate change.
Climate Change
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Solar policy fight is picking up where it left off
The solar compensation policy that nearly derailed major energy legislation last session is back for a new go-round this session.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
PURA chair Katie Dykes named DEEP commissioner
In naming Katie Dykes as commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Gov.-elect Ned Lamont has chosen a person who is well known at DEEP. But she comes with much more of an energy than strict environmental background.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT’s clean energy battles transition from Malloy to Lamont
Efforts by the Malloy administration to move towards more renewable energy to help fight climate change are poised to shift to the Gov.-elect Ned Lamont, who has even more aggressive goals. But the battles the Malloy administration fought with the utilities for eight years, which are still unresolved, also are also poised to shift to the new governor.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Connecticut’s vanishing shoreline: Towns trying to beat the odds
Shoreline resiliency against sea level rise and flooding in Connecticut is largely in the hands of local governments. But with money tight and local budgets reliant on the taxes shoreline properties generate, efforts to protect coastal communities from climate change have been slow and underfunded. Some communities, however, are making more progress than others.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Connecticut’s vanishing shoreline: One storm away from disaster
Connecticut is fortunate it hasn’t been hit by a tropical-style storm since the successive storms of Irene and Sandy in 2011 and 2012 swamped the coastline, illuminating its vulnerabilities to the effects of climate change. That’s because there’s a general consensus that if either of those storms were to hit now, they would be just as damaging.
Posted inPolitics
Himes knocks Trump foreign policy, Arora defends it
Rep. Jim Himes and Republican challenger Harry Arora on Monday night presented two different views on how the United States should treat friends and foes around the world.
Posted inPolitics
Trump digs coal, and GOP candidates skip climate forum
By skipping a forum on climate change Monday night, the five Republican candidates for governor saved themselves from two unpalatable options: Defending the Trump administration’s love affair with coal to furious environmentalists, or riling the GOP base a month before the primary by publicly breaking with the president.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Connecticut on front line of key fights with Pruitt’s EPA
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rejected Connecticut’s petition to force a power plant in York County, Pa. to cut down on smog pollutants that the state claims heavily contribute to its unhealthy air. But the state hopes to have other wins, and is at the forefront of the resistance to the agency’s proposed rollback of protections on air and water.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
EPA plan to ease car emission standards would affect CT more than most
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.
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 inCities & Towns, Energy & Environment, Housing, News
Sandy + 5; Irene + 6: Coastal resilience still elusive and expensive
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.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Blumenthal: A Trump decision to exit Paris climate accord would cost CT jobs
WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Blumenthal said President Donald Trump’s expected decision to pull the United States from the Paris climate accord will cost Connecticut jobs and hurt U.S. credibility overseas.