New Britain Herald
published Monday, February 8, 2010

The Rell administration, as a way of coping with the state’s budget woes, has proposed three possible sources of future revenue that the state could sell now to raise a $1.3 billion lump sum — in other words, sacrificing future budgets to meet today’s needs.

The governor’s budget office would “securitize” a portion of the charges on electric bills used to support clean energy and conservation initiatives, a move that Roger Smith, campaign director for Clean Water Action, told the Journal Inquirer, would “saddle Connecticut consumers with a future of higher electricity rates to reduce this year’s budget deficit. While the governor claims to be opposed to new taxes, this proposal turns utility bills into a tax collection vehicle for the state.”

Alex Bergstein, a mother of three living in Greenwich, replaced her family’s plastic water bottles with stainless steel a few years ago after becoming concerned about the chemical bisphenol-A, which is used in many food and beverage containers.

"What we really need to do is help people make their homes energy-efficient, to give them mass transit choices," says Roger Smith, energy and climate specialist in Connecticut for the environmental group Clean Water Action.

Roger Smith is the energy and climate specialist in Connecticut for the national environmental group Clean Water Action. He coordinates initiatives to combat global warming with about 90 organizations statewide.

Q. The spike in gas and oil prices last year seemed to encourage energy conservation. What were the most dramatic examples of that in Connecticut?