In a trailblazing decision, Connecticut state government has embraced the new reality that fossil gas has no role in a clean energy future. According to a must-read story in the Hartford Courant, state officials announced their state’s stunning reversal of policy on January 15th at a daylong environmental and legislative forum organized by the League of Conservation Voters (and cosponsored by CSE’s Connecticut chapter).
HELP MASSACHUSETTS MAKE THE CHANGE: STOP NEW GAS IN MASS BY TAKING ACTION HERE.
Here’s the key takeaway:
Connecticut’s top energy and environmental official said Wednesday that state officials are considering dramatic changes that include withdrawing from the regional power grid and reversing course on pro-natural gas policies. Katie Dykes, commissioner of Gov. Ned Lamont’s energy and environmental agency, told a Trinity College summit that a “lack of leadership” at [system manager] ISO-New England . . . has Connecticut evaluating whether the state should leave the regional power grid.
Dykes said ISO-New England’s policies are driving larger investments in natural gas pipelines and power plants that this state “doesn’t want and doesn’t need.” “Natural gas is not a ‘bridge fuel,’ it’s a fossil fuel. . . We’re working hard to turn this ship around,” Dykes said of Connecticut’s past pro-natural gas policies. Those past policies included support for new multi-billion-dollar pipelines to bring more natural gas into New England.
In Connecticut, residents and businesses have been facing an imminent threat of a new – and entirely unnecessary – gas-fired power plant supplied by massive new pipelines, all to be paid for by ratepayers through higher gas prices.
Now, state regulators – and Governor Lamont himself – appear to have recognized that these pro-gas policies are incompatible with the state’s own commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions. (Not mentioned, but clearly on the table, is the mounting evidence that investments in renewables – wind, solar, geothermal and grid-scale storage – are more cost-effective and offer a better return on investment than gas projects.)
On the one hand, this news is cause for rejoicing throughout New England. Everyone who has helped achieve this shift deserves a vote of thanks from consumers and conservationists alike.
On the other hand, Connecticut’s shift is a challenge to policymakers in Massachusetts and other New England states that have yet to adopt the same attitude toward fossil gas. In the Bay State, for example, utilities are pushing recklessly forward on the Weymouth compressor, on new LNG tank farms in Hopkinton and Charlton, and on new gas pipelines in Ashland, Westborough and Longmeadow. Like the proposed gas plant and pipelines in Connecticut, these projects are both expensive and unnecessary. Yet, so far, Gov. Baker and his administration has done nothing to stop them.
New York’s Governor Cuomo has already stood up to the fossil gas industry. Now Connecticut’s Governor Lamont is doing the same. Is Charlie Baker listening?