Energy and Global Warming

Smart investment in clean energy and energy efficiency can cut pollution and help put Connecticut residents back to work. Energy efficiency investments cut dependence on polluting fossil fuels and return more than $2 to the state’s economy for every $1 invested. Renewable energy such as wind and solar power provide fuel-free electricity that helps reduce peak electric demand, cut global warming pollution, and support new “green job” growth.

Environment Connecticut urges the Legislature to expand Connecticut’s clean energy economy by:

• Investing in home-grown clean energy by creating strong solar incentive programs supporting at least 300 megawatts of new solar power installations statewide at no cost to the state budget—the equivalent of nearly 100,000 residential rooftop solar systems;
  
  
• Expanding private and public financing opportunities to support solar and other clean energy resources by enabling municipalities to bond for loans directed toward energy efficiency and clean energy improvements;
  
  
• Protecting Connecticut’s ratepayers and clean energy economy by preserving the ratepayer-supported energy efficiency and clean energy funds from any effort to raid these programs;
  
  
• Strengthening Connecticut’s appliance energy efficiency standards statute by requiring adoption of new product efficiency standards within a specific time frame upon their being adopted in other states; and
  
  
• Improving implementation of clean energy programs by creating a state department or agency, tasked with coordinating energy programs across state agencies and quasi-public entities.

Clean Water

Cleaning up our lakes, rivers, streams and Long Island Sound is vital to maintaining the quality of life for every resident of Connecticut.

In recent years, the Legislature began to re-invest in clean water by restoring previous cuts to the Clean Water Fund. However, Connecticut has a lot of progress yet to make towards the goal of cleaning up and permanently protecting our state’s waterways and Long Island Sound.

In 2010, Environment Connecticut urges the Legislature to:

• Increase annual General Obligation bond authorization for the Clean Water fund to $110 million;
  
  
• Protect Connecticut’s rivers and streams by supporting Regulations Review Committee approval of strong stream flow regulations, and protect all of our state’s waters; and
  
  
• Enact Riverfront Protection legislation, creating a buffer protection zone to preserve the natural vegetative buffer alongside riverbanks.

Landscape and Natural Resources

Connecticut’s woodlands, beaches, parks and farmlands are an irreplaceable part of our state’s heritage. Unfortunately, Connecticut is rapidly losing farmland and open space to development, and our parks and beaches show the effects of years of budget cuts and neglect.

Environment Connecticut urges the Legislature to protect our state’s natural heritage by:

• Protecting funding for the Community Investment Act to support open space and farmland preservation programs;
  
  
• Opposing cuts to the state park and forest system, which is already underfunded; and
  
  
• Authorizing collection of renewal fees for Greenway and Wildlife license plates and depositing the revenue into dedicated DEP greenway and wildlife accounts.