News release from Citizens Campaign for the Environment:
The Citizens Campaign for the Environment submitted 8,380 petition signatures from across Connecticut to House and Senate leaders today to underscore the broad public support for clean energy measures. The signatures were gathered over the past few months and indicate support for three key legislative initiatives: 1. Repeal the Pipeline Tax Amendment #4118; 2. Support full-scale community solar program for Connecticut residents and businesses and 3. Increasing Connecticut’s Renewable Portfolio Standard goals.
Connecticut Program Director Louis Burch stated, “The public has expressed a strong desire to see Connecticut transition away from dirty fossil fuel infrastructure. State residents want to embrace clean, renewable solutions to meet our future energy needs. We respectfully urge Connecticut lawmakers to enact these important clean energy policies, which enjoy broad public support, this year.”
In total, CCE has collected a total of 8,380 petition signatures from Connecticut citizens, in addition to more than 4,430 hand written letters to legislators in support of expanding shared solar in Connecticut, repealing the pipeline tax established in 15-107, and aggressively expanding Connecticut’s RPS goals.
The specific issues outlined on the petition include:
1. Establishing a full-scale community solar program for Connecticut residents and businesses;
2. Repealing the ratepayer gas infrastructure surcharge AKA “the pipeline tax” established under PA 15-107;
3. Increasing Connecticut’s Renewable Portfolio Standard goal to require 50% of our power to be generated by Class 1 renewable resources by 2030.Background information on the issues:
Repealing the Pipeline Tax – Amendment LCO #4118
While our neighboring states move forward with clean renewable programs like shared solar, Connecticut continues to subsidize dirty fossil fuel infrastructure in our region. Public Act 15-107 contained a provision that authorized electric utilities to recover the costs of infrastructure projects through a surcharge on customers’ electric bills, as part of a larger strategy to finance and develop additional gas infrastructure capacity across Connecticut and New England. This includes the construction of five new gas-fired power plants, hundreds of miles of gas pipeline connections, compressor stations, and other related infrastructure projects.Similar charges have been blocked in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, but Connecticut’s ratepayer gas infrastructure tax remains in place. If left intact, this surcharge would force Connecticut ratepayers to shoulder a disproportionate share of the costs in a region-wide expansion of gas infrastructure throughout New England. According to a recent report by Synapse Energy Economics, the total cost to ratepayers for the proposed infrastructure projects could be as high as $6.6 billion. Additionally, Synapse concluded that additional pipeline capacity is not warranted, as New England’s use of natural gas is expected to decrease by 41% from 2015 levels by 2030, due to state requirements for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emissions caps.[1]
Community Solar
“Community solar” or “shared solar” programs are an innovative strategy that allow energy customers to reap the benefits of clean solar power, regardless of whether they themselves are able to install solar PV panels on their roofs. By allowing ratepayers to purchase electricity from a shared solar facility, residents and businesses can reduce their energy bills and do their part in protecting the environment by using clean, locally generated solar power.Last year, Connecticut’s solar industry employed more than 2,160 people, and ranked 20th in the nation in solar jobs, per capita.[2] This tells us that the solar industry is strong in our state, but has a long way to go in terms of being a national leader on clean solar power. A full scale shared solar program of 200 MW would bring over $374 million in economic benefits, create more than 2,570 new jobs in our state and generate an additional $81 million in local property tax revenues.3
15 states and the District of Columbia have established shared solar programs since 2010. In our neighboring Massachusetts, 48 projects have been established or are under development across 30 towns, with a total nameplate capacity of 194 MW. Shared solar generated over $154 million in private investments in the first few years of the program, and the commonwealth recently announced projections of more than $4.5 million in energy savings for low-income households.[3]
Increasing the Renewable Portfolio Standard
Instead of subsidizing further dependence on fossil fuels, Connecticut should be doubling down on its commitments to meet/expand its existing renewable energy goals. Renewable energy resources such as clean wind and solar power do not cause pollution at the point of generation or contribute to climate change, they require no water resources to operate, can be generated in-state, and they create good paying green jobs.The Comprehensive Energy Strategy (CES) published in early 2018 calls for a significant ramp up in renewable energy resources, recommending that Connecticut adopt a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) goal requiring electricity suppliers in the state to purchase a minimum of 40% of its retail load from renewable sources by the year 2040. CCE supports increasing Connecticut’s RPS to 40% by 2030 as a minimum, and encourages the legislature to continue facilitating a more aggressive expansion of renewable resources in our state.
[1] Synapse Energy Economics, “New England’s Shrinking Need for Natural Gas” (2017). Taken from http://www.synapse-energy.com/sites/default/files/New-Englands-Shrinking-Need-for-Natural-Gas-16-109.pdf.
[2] The Solar Foundation, “Solar Jobs Census” (2016). Taken from:
http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Solar-Jobs-By-State-1.pdf.3 Vote Solar, Connecticut Community Solar Jobs Report (2017). Taken from: https://votesolar.org/usa/connecticut/updates/jobs
[3] PVTech (2017). Massachusetts Governor Makes a Push for Solar and Low-Income Access to Renewables. Taken from: https://www.pv-tech.org/news/ massachusetts-governor-makes-a-push-for-solar-and-low-income-access-to-rene.
