When he ran for governor, Ned Lamont had a platform that aimed to address climate change and advance renewable energy. Early in his administration Lamont issued several Executive Orders that addressed climate change. Among the Executive Orders was a call for Connecticut to get its electricity supply from 100% carbon-free generation, which was passed into law by the legislature in 2022.

 

These were important and exciting steps toward lowering climate harming emissions and protecting Connecticut residents from the impacts of climate change. 

 

As of late, however, Governor Lamont has been building a different kind of record. The list of failures on climate action are piling up and are alarming:

 

• Sierra Club just learned that Governor Lamont decided to install new fossil fuel equipment at the Capitol Area System instead of renewable options. This decision will lock the Capitol Area System into equipment that burns fossil fuels and emits health and climate harming emissions for decades. Here’s our press release decrying this decision.

• Last week, Governor Lamont negotiated a deal to keep Commissioner Marissa Gillett at PURA but to weaken PURA by making it a quasi-public agency, a deal that will give more power to the monopoly utility corporations, making it harder for PURA to regulate them and keep energy costs down.

• In his State of the State address in January, Governor Lamont urged policy makers not to rule out expanding methane gas and stated he wants to increase costly nuclear power. This was concerning as renewables, not nuclear and gas, are Connecticut’s path to addressing climate change and lowering energy prices.

• Despite numerous studies on the benefits of offshore wind for Connecticut, including this one from Sierra Club, Governor Lamont caved to opposition and failed to procure offshore wind in a bidding procurement launched by Connecticut with Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

• Governor Lamont has not made progress to transition the state fleet of vehicles to zero-emission vehicles. State statute calls for 1,200 vehicles to be electric by 2025, only 43 vehicles in the fleet are electric according to this CTMirror article.

• Clean Car and Clean Truck regulations, approved by all our neighboring states, did not pass in Connecticut, in an astonishing failure by Governor Lamont and the legislature. Connecticut residents pay the price with dirty air and climate impacts.

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At a time when it is clear that the federal government is not going to protect us from climate impacts, Governor Lamont cannot continue to fail us too. There are more decisions on climate that the Lamont Administration must make in the coming weeks and months, including a proposal before the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection to greatly increase harmful pollution by doubling the size of the Brookfield Compressor. 

 

Call Governor Lamont today at 860-566-4840 and urge him to act on climate: stop new fossil fuel proposals and ramp up renewable energy! 

 

Samantha Dynowski is State Director of Sierra Club Connecticut.