A public hearing on Connecticut’s draft Comprehensive Energy Strategy will take tonight (Wednesday) at 6:30 in the Beacon Hall Events Center, Room 214, Housatonic Community College, 600 Lafayette Boulevard.
“While Connecticut has made progress in advancing renewable energy and protecting the environment, it is disappointing that the state continues on a path to support major investment in fossil fuels,” said Connecticut Sierra Club Chair Martha Klein. “Fossil fuels harm the environment by polluting our air and water and harm consumers who will continue to foot the bill for unneeded fossil fuel infrastructure. It is both shocking and troubling that while President Trump is doubling down on fossil fuels and new pipelines in DC–Connecticut has chosen to follow his lead. Sadly, this CES draft simply does not hit the clear renewable energy goals to set forth by the Global Warming Solutions Act. I encourage every Connecticut resident concerned about the environment to turn out to today’s public hearing in Bridgeport and tell our state leaders that it’s time for Connecticut to be a leader in combating climate change and investing in clean, renewable energy!”
“I hope that Bridgeport and Fairfield county residents will show up and stand up for clean, renewable energy,” said State Rep. Chris Rosario. “It’s time for Connecticut to stop subsidizing new fracked gas pipelines and other dirty fossil fuels. It’s time for Connecticut to become a national leader in generating clean power from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources. Our new Comprehensive Energy Strategy needs to be amended to achieve these goals sooner and more effectively.”
Bridgeport City Council President Tom McCarthy noted, “Connecticut needs an energy plan that leads the nation in producing clean energy such as solar and wind not fossil fuels. Here in Bridgeport we are leading the way in the creating the new green economy by building the world’s largest fuel cell, tripling recycling rates and building some of the largest solar installations in the state. I encourage our residents to register their support for clean energy this Wednesday in Bridgeport at this important public hearing in our state’s future energy policy. It’s time for Connecticut to build more solar panels and wind turbines and fewer pipelines.”
No one has made any comments here but I have a question. Why does Connecticut has one of the highest if not the highest utility(electric and gas) and these costs are a crushing burden on those who are living paycheck-to-paycheck or even day to day. This meeting does not address this issue at all. I love green energy,but in many cases,that creates extra costs. The extra costs might be borne much more easily by some of our suburban socially conscious neighbors(so that they can sleep well at night because they are doing “good” things) but ends up being a crushing burden on many others. Utility costs in the State of Connecticut are out of control.
Your state’s power plants do not sell directly to utilities, much less to individual customers. Instead the current policy leads to power being sold to financial firms, hedge funds for example, so that by the time the power gets to the end user prices are as high as ever at the retail level, even though wholesale prices have dropped notably. Ask your rep if he supported the proposed legislation this year to change this practice and reduce your utility cost.
I attended the meeting last night. I did not spot any Bridgeport political representation at the meeting… A very significant percentage of the speakers were public utility executives and fossil-fuel business reps (oil and natural gas)…
The discussion brought to the meeting by the various business and environmental groups concerned with Connecticut energy matters was focused on a 200-page document encompassing the DEEP “plan” for Connecticut’s energy future, the latter of which was represented in a 2-page topic list distributed at the meeting. This discussion would have been more apropos to a 1973, pre-OPEC oil embargo energy discussion…
Connecticut’s “visionary”, public-serving DEEP presented a plan for discussion focused largely on natural gas and traditional electric-energy infrastructure/electric-energy importation from the international grid, albeit with some token, “revolutionary ideas” such as the limited use of mini-grids and token solar-energy programs offered by way of partnerships with the utility-monopolies and large, national, solar-panel-provider companies…
It is obvious that the DEEP and the utilities are continuing an incestuous, corrupt, “profit sharing” relationship designed to keep the status quo for big-energy/public-utility monopolies far into the future of Connecticut — the latter three words appearing to be an ironic contradiction in terms…
The DEEP representatives exhibited what could be interpreted as “dismissive” body language, per their reaction/lack of reaction to suggestions of any efforts toward implementing any significant changes in Connecticut energy policy in which any significant amount of off-grid, green-alternative electric energy generation would be facilitated via any state involvement or state sanction…
It looks like a 10-steps backwards energy plan for Connecticut, in terms of economic, environmental, and technological implications of this “more-of-the-same” “plan.”
This state seems to be trying to chart a unique economic/energy course — backwards and to the right…
Thank you to Jennifer and Jeff for the information. Very thought-provoking.