Melissa Everett, Ph.D., Connecticut Energy and Sustainability Program Manager

In the final days before the end of the 2018 session, the Connecticut General Assembly passed Senate Bill 9 and Senate Bill 7, two bills that we mobilized to support.

As the legislative session opens in Connecticut, the lay of the land looks the same as last year, except with some promising differences that are largely the results of grassroots action taken by our members and allies.

It's clear that there’s a need for fresh thinking about the politics of energy in Connecticut.

After countless false starts and impasses, Connecticut’s bipartisan budget still contains a catastrophic flaw: it raids $10 million per year from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and $13 million from the CT Green Bank, both big enough money grabs to disable these critical institutions. 

In the 1970s, 88% of American children had elevated levels of lead in their blood. Today that number is less than 1%.  Bald eagles, once nearly extinct, have made a dramatic comeback.  The US has cut air pollution 70% while our economy has tripled.  

Clean Water is determined to hold onto clean energy progress in the Connecticut, and to begin a strange new political era with vision and mojo.  We are gearing up by visiting and celebrating some of the state’s most exciting clean energy installations -  and making a party of it.

This short 2016 legislative session has been amazing, exhausting, productive, and heart-breaking all at once.

Climate change touches everything, including the conditions for human settlements on the land.  In Connecticut, our single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation.

When it comes to rooftop solar, Connecticut has been burning through goals and incentive budgets to install over 150 MW of panels, a few at a time.

Near my home, the Scantic River is a magnet for paddlers, hikers, foragers, picnickers - an oasis between the suburbs of Enfield and Somers, Connecticut.  A new pub on its shores, Powder Hollow Brewery, now makes craft beer from our local waters.