Advocacy at the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center

Connecticut addresses climate change through local, state, and regional efforts

 As the federal government abandons efforts to limit climate change, many of the nation’s state and local governments have begun taking action. Connecticut is one of several states leading the way: promoting greenhouse gas emission reductions, clean energy deployment, sustainable materials management, and climate resiliency. It has also joined with neighboring states to better understand and deal with the reasons for and impacts of climate change.In October 2018 the Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center sponsored a lecture by Rob Klee, then Connecticut’s Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection. Commissioner Klee reported on the state’s efforts, noting that they are necessary but admittedly insufficient to limit climate change. Still, they offer a degree of hope. Here are some excerpts from his presentation.                                                         

 —Patsy McCook, Secretary of the Board, Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center

Local efforts

• Sustainable CT, which applies to towns and cities of all sizes, is a municipality-driven effort to encourage sustainable practices through a certification process, a website of resources and practices, and friendly competition. The term “sustainable” is used broadly, incorporating economic development, arts and culture, affordable housing, livability and walkability, open space, clean energy, clean and diverse transportation, and materials management.
• Hartford, a certified town, has expanded PosiGen, a for-profit solar installer and efficiency service provider for underserved low- and moderate-income homes.
• The town of Meriden has worked with the state to develop a park, Meriden Green—which, by enabling runoff, provides an alternative to the downtown flooding resulting from now-frequent extreme rainstorms. New housing has been created near the Green and Meriden’s newly rebuilt train station.
• By working with rather than in conflict with nature, communities like New Haven are creating more resilient and sustainable entities. “Living shorelines” are alternatives to human-made structures like bulkheads and seawalls, which can affect coastlines, increase shore erosion, inhibit natural coastal processes, and damage habitat for fish, animals, and plants. These new shorelines disperse or mute wave energy, mimic natural settings, control erosion, create habitat, improve water quality, and maintain natural coastal processes.

State efforts

In 2018, two state Senate bills addressing climate change were passed by overwhelming bipartisan majorities:

            Commissioner Rob Klee

• Public Act 18-82, concerned with climate change planning and resiliency, implemented an interim target to reduce, by 2030, the state’s economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from a 2001 baseline. The law also updated current statutory references on sea level rise to reflect recommendations of the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA)—a DEEP-UConn collaboration that brings shared expertise to coastal and inland floodplain communities that are experiencing flooding, storm surges, and rising sea levels.
• Public Act 18-50 raised Connecticut’s target for the generation of solar, wind, and other renewable forms of energy consumed by its residents and businesses. It also created a statewide shared clean energy program focusing on low- and moderate-income customers and small businesses.
• Connecticut’s Green Bank provides a financing model that leverages taxpayer and ratepayer dollars to attract private capital.
• Two new mass transportation systems have opened: CTFastrak, a bus-rapid transit system that runs on a dedicated busway, and the Hartford Line, a train route connecting New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield.
• The Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Purchase Rebate Program (CHEAPR) offers rebates for purchasing or leasing an electric or hydrogen vehicle.
• Connecticut has completed a State Water Plan, which for the first time brings together scientific information crucial to the management and stewardship of our water resources in light of changing weather patterns and the effects of climate change. The plan documents the need to ensure that enough water flows in the state’s rivers and streams, and remains in reservoirs and aquifers—not only to support our ecosystems but also to meet the needs for drinking water, recreation, and industrial use.
• Sites have been chosen—and are subject to a management plan and public comment—for the Connecticut National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR). The Reserve system is a federal-state partnership dedicated to research on and monitoring and stewardship of estuaries. The selected Connecticut-based Reserve comprises state-owned properties along the lower Connecticut River, parts of Long Island Sound, and the mouths of the Connecticut and Thames rivers. It will promote conservation of these ecosystems by adding funding, resources, and expertise to existing scientific and management activities.

Regional efforts

• The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is an agreement among all nine states—all of New England and New York, Delaware, and Maryland—to cap and reduce power-sector carbon dioxide emissions. Each state has a budget of allowances of fossil fuel-fired electricity generators’ CO₂ emissions; the combined budget comprises a regional cap on allowances available to generators within the region. The cap is periodically tightened, resulting in significant emissions reductions and growing economies.
• Connecticut and 16 other states encompassing about 40% of the U.S. population have formed the bipartisan US Climate Alliance, which supports scientists’ efforts to understand the impacts of climate change on communities, states, and the planet.

Address

100 Lyme Street
PO Box 62
Old Lyme, CT 06371 

(860) 598-4218

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