2025 Legislative Session Wrap Up
🌱Legislative Wins: Good Bills that Passed
S.B. 9 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE ENVIRONMENT, CLIMATE AND SUSTAINABLE MUNICIPAL AND STATE PLANNING, AND THE USE OF NEONICOTINOIDS AND SECOND-GENERATION ANTICOAGULANT RODENTICIDES. S.B. 9 strengthens climate resilience and transparency around flood insurance. It updates water planning, zoning, and emergency preparedness to reflect climate risks, and allows municipalities to create and fund resiliency districts. The bill also bans neonicotinoid use on turf and restricts toxic rodenticides to protect public health and wildlife. With 61% of Connecticut residents living in flood-prone areas and sea levels projected to rise 1.5 feet by 2050, investing in adaptation is essential for safety and financial stability.
There was originally stronger language on rodenticides within H.B. 6915, which would have prohibited the use of second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides with only a couple exceptions such as health and agriculture. Violation of the bill would have been punishable by a fine up to $5000. These chemicals are highly toxic, and can poison birds of prey. This bill made it out of committee, but did not make it to the floor for a vote.
H.B. 5004 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES AND ASSOCIATED JOB SECTORS. H.B. 5004 was the House leadership's priority climate mitigation bill. It sets new emissions targets: 45% below 2001 levels by 2030, 70% below 2016 levels by 2040, and net-zero by 2050. It also calls for state agencies to use only zero-carbon electricity by 2030. The bill promotes heat pumps, solar canopies, nature-based solutions, and renter access to energy efficiency programs. It supports green jobs through tax incentives, sustainable purchasing, and the Clean Economy Council, and allows schools to apply for grants to install heat pumps.
S.B. 1377, AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION S.B. 1377 is a large transportation bill and includes a provision would codify discounts of up to 50% on bus fares for veterans, seniors, disabled people, and youth. It would allow Boards of Education to purchase passes at the discounted rate and distribute it to their students for free or sell them at a reduced cost.
This provision was originally part of S.B. 1243, which would have allowed school districts to work with the Department of Transportation to provide free or reduced bus fares for students and veterans. Students living within two miles of their high school often don’t receive yellow bus service and must pay daily, disproportionately impacting low-income families. While the bill passed out of committee, it wasn’t called to the floor due to budget constraints. A weaker version of the policy passed in S.B. 1377. Advocacy was led by students from University High School Social Justice League, Fridays for Future Stamford, CT Tickets to Opportunity, and Save the Sound, and supported by Sierra Club.
H.B. 5013 - AN ACT ADDING CERTAIN PLANTS TO THE INVASIVE PLANTS LIST. H.B. 5013 prohibits the sale of invasive plants. The bill adds star of bethlehem, glossy buckthorn, european buckthorn, reed canary grass, winged euonymus, european privet, black locust, miscanthus, japanese barberry, and the Norway maple to the invasive plants list.
H.B. 5019 - AN ACT ESTABLISHING EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONSUMER BATTERIES. H.B. 5019 helps ensure batteries are properly disposed of. When thrown away improperly, batteries can leak toxic chemicals, posing serious risks to both the environment and public health.
H.B. 7174 - AN ACT CONCERNING RIPARIAN AREAS. H.B. 7174. H.B. 7174 would create a working group within the legislature to identify what laws to create to best protect riparian areas. This will help create the foundation to advocate for riparian area protection next session. This bill passed the House. Rivers Alliance and Save the Sound led efforts to advocate for this.
🌱Legislative Wins: Appointments
Executive and Nominations Committee appointment of Marissa Gillett as a PURA Commissioner. Marissa Gillett, as chair of PURA, has consistently championed utility oversight, transparency, climate progress, ratepayer protection, and environmental justice—all while working to modernize the electric grid. Despite efforts by the utilities and opponents to stop her renomination, strong support from advocates and legislators has ensured she will continue to lead PURA.
‼️Problematic Bills that Passed
S.B. 4 AN ACT CONCERNING ENERGY AFFORDABILITY, ACCESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY. S.B. 4 was the major energy bill of the session, aimed at addressing high energy costs. It weakens the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), lowering the 2030 goal from 40% to 29%—slowing the transition to clean energy. It also allows small modular nuclear generating facilities in any community in the state, a significant change from current law. Advocates secured key defensive wins: proposals to bond energy efficiency funding and cut solar credits were scaled back. Bonding would have jeopardized stable funding for the Conservation & Load Management program, and changes to solar credits could have made rooftop solar unaffordable. The final bill imposes a smaller solar fee ($0.0325/kWh instead of $0.20). It also includes positive steps like advanced metering, demand response, grid enhancing technologies, a thermal energy network program, and removal of landfill methane and biomass from Class I renewables.
H.B. 7231 - AN ACT CONCERNING SUNDAY HUNTING ON PRIVATE LANDS. H.B. 7231 Authorizes Sunday hunting on private lands in Connecticut. The bill allows hunting on Sundays on private property with the written permission of the landowner, expanding beyond the previous allowance of only bow and arrow deer hunting. However, Sunday hunting of migratory birds remains prohibited, and hunting is not permitted within 40 yards of blazed public trails, including Connecticut blue-blazed trails.
🛡️ Defensive Wins: What We Helped Stop
S.B. 647 - AN ACT CONCERNING PROTECTIONS FOR CONSUMER ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE ELECTRICITY. S.B. 647 would have cut Connecticut’s clean energy programs. The bill proposed dismantling critical programs like the Conservation and Load Management Program and the Clean Energy Fund, shifting the System Benefit Charge to the general fund, and cutting support for EV charging and heat pumps. It also threatened renewable energy progress by limiting power purchase agreements, removing ecosystem protections for hydropower, separating PURA from DEEP, and calling for a study to expand natural gas. The bill died in committee.
S.B. 887 - AN ACT EXEMPTING CERTAIN COOKWARE FROM PFAS
REQUIREMENTS. S.B. 887 would have exempted certain cookware from PFAS requirements. PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals” for their persistence in the environment, are linked to many human health risks. This bill died in committee.
S.B. 1353 - AN ACT CONCERNING SUBSIDIES FOR NEW ELECTRICITY DEMAND. S.B. 1353 would have removed policies to provide incentives for heat pumps and EV charging. Advocates pushed hard against the bill and helped prevent it from making it out of committee.
S.B. 1523 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE TAKING OF WILDLIFE THAT DAMAGE CROPS OR BLACK BEAR THAT INJURE OR KILL LIVESTOCK. S.B. 1523 would have allowed lethal force against bears injuring livestock and removes the requirement to try nonlethal methods before getting a permit. It also permits killing or trapping wildlife that damaged crops the previous season, with no clear verification process. While the bill directs DEEP to create a bear management plan, it does not authorize a hunt. Bears play a vital role in ecosystems by controlling deer populations and dispersing seeds, making their protection essential. The bill passed the House, but was amended, and the Senate ran out of time for a vote on the amended language.
S.B. 1560 - AN ACT CONCERNING CONNECTICUT'S ECONOMY, ELECTRICITY AFFORDABILITY AND BUSINESS COMPETITIVENESS AND ESTABLISHING THE CONNECTICUT ENERGY PROCUREMENT AUTHORITY AND THE GREEN BOND FUND. S.B. 1560 was another sweeping bill to change energy policy. Among its many sections, S.B. 1560 would have moved the systems benefit charge into bonding; it would have created a duplicative quasi public agency to do work already being done by state agencies; and it would have added existing nuclear to class I renewables in the renewable portfolio standard. Sierra Club raised concerns about all of these concepts. This bill died in committee.
H.B. 6249 - AN ACT LIMITING APPEALS UNDER THE CONNECTICUT ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION ACT. H.B. 6249 would have limited who could appeal under the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act to people only within 100 ft of the polluting facility, or nonprofits. This doesn’t make sense, as pollution travels more than 100 ft. Save the sound led efforts to prevent this bill. It was favorably reported out of committee and never got called for a vote in the House.Save the Sound led efforts to prevent this bill. It was favorably reported out of committee and never got called for a vote in the House.
H.B. 6278 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE USE OF ALTERNATIVES TO ANIMAL TESTING METHODS AND REQUIRING THE USE OF BIODIESEL
BLENDING METHODS FOR CERTAIN DIESEL FUELS. H.B. 6278 required diesel fuel sold and state operated diesel vehicles to increase the percentage of biodiesel incrementally by certain dates. Biofuel blending can increase NOx tailpipe emission. Additionally, due to the limits of waste oil collection, additional virgin vegetable oils would need to be produced if demand outpaced current waste oil supplies. This bill made it out of committee and did not make it to the floor for a vote.
❌ What Didn't Pass (But We’re Not Done)
S.J. 36 - RESOLUTION PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO THE STATE CONSTITUTION REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS. S.J. 36 would have granted the right to clean air, water, soil ecosystems and environment and a safe and stable climate as a constitutional amendment. This was meant to be a blanket protection which would fill gaps in existing environmental law. However, the language was slightly amended in a way which cleverly nullified that blanket protection. Advocates (led by the CT Environmental Rights Amendment) and legislators agreed it would be best to continue discussing the language in a working group after the session.
S.B. 830 AN ACT ESTABLISHING SAFETY STANDARDS TO PREVENT HEAT-RELATED ILLNESS IN WORKPLACES. S.B. 830, which would have strengthened heat safety standards for outdoor workers—requiring access to free water, shaded rest breaks, emergency heat response plans, and acclimatization protocols for new employees. With extreme heat on the rise and over 120,000 heat-related hospitalizations reported by the CDC in 2023, protecting workers is more urgent than ever. S.B. 830 was added to S.B. 1274 as a task force to study best practices for preventing heat-related illness, and passed the Senate, but not the House.
S.B. 1154 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE SALE OF CERTAIN LIGHTER-THAN-AIR BALLOONS. S.B 1154 would have required a phase-out of helium balloons by 2027. Helium balloons can easily escape and pose a significant threat to wildlife. The bill made it out of committee and never got called to the floor.
S.B. 1292 - An Act Requiring a Study Concerning Energy Efficiency Requirements for Artificial Intelligence Data Centers. S.B. 1292 would have created a study on energy efficiency in data centers, including the best practices and systems to implement energy efficiency. Data centers consume large amounts of energy, and the rise of AI is expected to cause data center power demand to grow 160% by 2030. This study would find the best practices to regulate their energy use and make it practical within the grid. This bill made it out of committee and never got called to the floor.
H.B. 5012 - AN ACT PROHIBITING THE PRACTICE OF SHARK FINNING. H.B. 5012 bans shark finning, which involves removing a shark’s fins and discarding the body at sea—leaving the animal to die slowly. With over a third of shark species at risk of extinction, this practice threatens biodiversity, marine ecosystems and ocean health. This bill passed the House but did not make it for a vote in the Senate.
H.B. 5017 - AN ACT CONCERNING PARTICIPATION IN THE TIRE STEWARDSHIP PROGRAM BY TIRE RETAILERS. H.B. 5017 aimed to enforce CT’s tire stewardship law intended to stop the illegal dumping of tires which leach toxic chemicals into the environment. It also would have extended liability protections for stewardship organizations to retailers as well, but would not have extended the condition that retailers must be exercising authority according to the law. This bill made it out of committee but did not make it for a vote on the floor.
H.B. 6263 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE USE AND PURCHASE OF GAS POWERED HAND-HELD OR BACKPACK LEAF BLOWERS BY STATE AGENCIES. H.B. 6263 would have required state departments to transition to electric lawn equipment, with exceptions for safety, and mandate that contractors use electric equipment on state property starting in 2029. This lead-by-example bill aims to reduce pollution and noise from gas-powered leaf blowers. It passed out of committee but was not called to the floor. Gas powered leaf blowers spew particulate matter harmful to respiratory health, emit greenhouse gases and are noisy and disruptive. The bill made it out of committee but did not get called to the floor.
H.B. 6273 - AN ACT ESTABLISHING FUNDING FOR FARMERS WHO HAVE CROP LOSS DUE TO SIGNIFICANT ACUTE WEATHER EVENTS. H.B. 6273 would have created a grant program to reimburse farmers for crop losses due to extreme weather. As climate impacts grow, supporting Connecticut’s small farmers is essential to sustaining local food production. The bill passed committee but was not called for a vote.
H.B. 6280 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A CLIMATE CHANGE SUPERFUND. This bill would have made polluters pay for climate damages by establishing a Climate Superfund Cost Recovery Program. It would have made fossil fuel and other companies working with them pay an amount proportional to their emissions and the damages caused in the state. The funds would have been used for climate adaptation. Similar laws have passed in Vermont and New York. This bill did not make it out of committee.
H.B. 6889 - AN ACT CONCERNING EVICTIONS FOR CAUSE. H.B. 6889 would have expanded just cause eviction protections. Current law gives these protections to the elderly and disabled. This law would have protected all tenants who have lived for at least 13 months in a building, complex, or mobile home with at least 5 units from getting evicted without cause. Despite tireless work by advocates led by the CT Tenants Union, this bill did not get called to the floor for a vote.
H.B. 6917 - AN ACT CONCERNING THE MANAGEMENT OF SOLID WASTE IN
THE STATE. As Connecticut faces an unsustainable waste crisis, this bill is a meaningful step toward reducing statewide waste. The bill went through several iterations and included different combinations of the following provisions at different times throughout the session. H.B. 6917 initially imposed a $1.50 per ton fee on solid waste processed by facilities involved in shipping waste out of state. The bill would have required certain large-scale food distributors (like supermarkets) to adopt a food donation policy to reduce waste and support food relief organizations. Another iteration of H.B. 6917 included a provision to ban polystyrene foodware, packaging, and plastic stirrers, require water bottle fill stations in state buildings and establish a task force to study reducing single-use plastics. This bill passed the House with a version that only included the food waste program and task force on plastics, but did not make it for a vote in the Senate. The zero waste coalition led efforts advocating for this bill, and advocates hope to pass some of its provisions next session.
H.B. 7019 - AN ACT REQUIRING A STUDY OF INCENTIVES FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF RESIDENTIAL ELECTRIC RESISTANCE HEATING SYSTEMS. H.B. 7019 would have required a study of incentives for replacing residential electric resistance heating with energy efficient heating systems like heat pumps. Electric resistance heat is the most expensive way to heat, and is highly inefficient. Replacing these systems saves money for those using them, and takes strain off the grid. The bill made it out of committee but did not get called to the floor for a vote.