After years of delays, shared solar may finally be close to its first test in Connecticut. But along with some cheers from its supporters, there’s still an awful lot of complaining over how it’s being handled.
DEEP
Posted inEnergy & Environment
CT gets good news for now on its EPA grants
At least for the near term, the major EPA grants to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will keep flowing despite a freeze and review of contracts and grants by the Trump administration.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Supreme Court upholds Connecticut’s energy strategy
The state Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a legal challenge by oil dealers to a comprehensive energy strategy Connecticut adopted in 2013 to encourage a greater reliance on natural gas by residential and commercial customers.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Katie Dykes, state’s energy policy strategist, to join PURA
Katie Dykes, a key voice on energy policy as a deputy commissioner at the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, was nominated Thursday by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to serve as a commissioner of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Above the waves, Connecticut fishermen struggle to hang on
Shifting fish species have Connecticut fishermen in an emotional dispute over how the U.S. fishing system operates. They’re calling, if not downright begging, for immediate changes to fish allocations to save the state’s fishing industry from what many believe is its inevitable ruin. But others in the scientific and environmental communities are saying – maybe not so fast.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Beneath the waves, climate change puts marine life on the move
Climate change-induced shifts of marine species in the Northeast are forcing changes in fishing patterns for Connecticut fishermen, threatening to upend fishing management systems and generating political controversy and finger-pointing as policies struggle to keep up with the pace of fish movement, and the Connecticut fishing community struggles to hang on.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
As DEEP cuts budget and park hours, it gets a surprising new role
The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced cutbacks Friday at state beaches, parks and campgrounds. Left out of the announcement was a significant wrinkle: As the department struggles to manage its various assets with less money, it is being handed a significant new responsibility – managing the Old State House in Hartford.
Posted inCT Viewpoints
Back off on CT’s gas conversion scheme; reopen the energy discussion
The Malloy administration’s ratepayer financed methane (natural gas) infrastructure build-out has become a self-justified Ponzi scheme that both exploits the utility ratepayers of Connecticut and creates serious environmental and energy liabilities for the state going forward.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
Recycling food waste in Connecticut: Slow as molasses
Five years after legislative initiatives designed to do something about the large amount of food waste in Connecticut’s trash, very little has been implemented, and the food waste problem is getting bigger. A lot bigger.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Politics
CT fighting move to give Long Island Sound waters to New York, Rhode Island
WASHINGTON – Connecticut’s lawmakers and state officials are trying to derail a bill would take about 150 square miles of Long Island Sound waters from federal government control and give that authority to New York and Rhode Island, a move that could hurt the state’s fishermen.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Shared solar program in Connecticut stalled over who pays for what
Connecticut’s shared solar pilot program has already missed its first deadline and faces even more delays. In the meantime, arguments over how to pay for clean energy are bubbling up again.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Winter power, gas supplies, new pipelines – a volatile mix in CT
Another winter, another warning from the folks who run the power grid that natural gas shortages could cause power problems. The warning once again focuses all eyes on natural gas pipelines – viewed as either a big answer to the region’s power difficulties or a big problem, depending on whom you talk to.
Posted inEnergy & Environment, Money
On conservation’s front lines, districts facing budget cuts
The five little-known Connecticut Conservation Districts help municipalities and the public with soil and water conservation problems and projects they can’t handle themselves. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget would end all $300,000 in state funding for the districts — money they say is necessary to run their offices and leverage larger sums in the form of grants.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Op-Ed: How much CT environmental spending seems right?
How much does each of us Connecticut residents contribute, on average, to the portion of the current DEEP budget devoted to environmental protection, according the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality? Does $100 sound about right? Guess again.
Posted inEnergy & Environment
Connecticut oil dealers battle cold, snow, prices and policy
A cold winter and low oil prices help a little as Connecticut oil dealers fight to remain relevant in the face of state policy that encourages people to switch from oil to gas heat.