Environment Connecticut urges legislature to reject proposed tax on electric bills that delivers a body blow to Connecticut’s clean energy economy.
Statement of Environment Connecticut Program Director, Christopher Phelps
West Hartford – In her 2010 budget proposal address to the legislature, Governor Rell said, “Kermit the Frog had it wrong all these years, I'm afraid. It is easy to be green. Solar, fuel cells, wind turbines and geothermal - all hold the keys to economic and energy prosperity.” The line made for a nice sound bite, but apparently Governor Rell didn’t mean a word of it.
In the dark of night, hours after her speech, after the TV cameras and microphones had left the building; Governor Rell quietly announced that she wants to steal ratepayer-funded Connecticut Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency Funds to close the state budget deficit.
Without the investments in clean energy technology provided by these funds, Connecticut will no longer be able to make any significant efforts to help families and businesses put money in their pockets by cutting their energy bills. Solar, fuel cell, wind and geothermal businesses will no longer be able to call Connecticut home. Clean energy and energy efficiency are indeed the “keys to economic and energy prosperity.” Unfortunately, Governor Rell lost the keys.
The Governor’s dark of night proposal would deliver a body blow to Connecticut’s clean energy businesses such as solar installers and fuel cell entrepreneurs. It would also slash weatherization and energy efficiency programs that help families and small businesses on Main Streets across the state cut their energy bills and put money back in their pockets.
The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and Energy Efficiency Fund are funded directly by small surcharges on electric ratepayer bills. The programs of these funds directly benefit every family and business in the state and do so with no cost to taxpayers. Governor Rell’s proposal would gut these funds and the job-creating programs they support and turn the ratepayer surcharge into little more than a stealth tax on electric bills for every family and business in the state.
As the cliché goes, this is a penny-wise, pound foolish proposal. In fact, Governor Rell has dispensed with half of the cliché and chosen instead to simply be pound foolish.
Environment Connecticut urges the legislature to reject the Governor’s proposal and instead, protect the clean energy and energy efficiency programs that help cut energy bills, put money back in the pockets of families and small businesses, and provide the foundation for Connecticut’s clean energy economy that does indeed “hold the keys to economic and energy prosperity.”
