Just two days after the details of a master plan to expand Tweed New Haven airport were released in July, there was a harsh reminder that in a showdown between climate change and Tweed, climate change may well win. Elsa, the first of three tropical systems this past summer that drenched the Connecticut shoreline, dumped a whole lot of water on Tweed. Planning for a changing climate Flood insurance rules are changing, but some say not enough Connecticut farmers are finding there’s no easy way to deal with climate extremes Adapting to an uncertain climate future, Connecticut auditions new fore ..read more

Lawmakers in New York are considering the nation’s first statewide ban on natural gas connections in new buildings, following dozens of local governments that have passed similar policies in the past two years. But as New York and other left-leaning states consider ways to limit natural gas and the greenhouse gas emissions it creates, 20 mostly Republican states have passed laws barring cities and counties from blocking gas hookups. “Growing the demand for natural gas is exactly what the world does not need right now,” said New York state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, the Democrat who sponsored the na ..read more

Photo courtesy of Not Another Power Plant A protester holds up a sign calling for state officials to halt plans for the Killingly plant. The protest took place in 2019. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has agreed to a request by the regional electric grid operator — ISO-New England — to keep the proposed natural gas power plant in Killingly out of its future plans. “Based on a review of the record, including the confidential information provided by ISO-NE and NTE (Killingly’s owner), we find that the relevant condition for termination … has been met,” FERC wrote in a decision releas ..read more

Facing an election year with an environmental track record far skimpier than he may have wanted, Gov. Ned Lamont Thursday unveiled a massive climate change-focused executive order that could make up for some legislative shortcomings. It could also help reverse the state’s current trajectory that falls short of its 2030 greenhouse gas emission targets. “One of the things you find about democracies is we’re pretty good at responding to emergencies, but we’re not as good when it comes to looking around the corner,” said Lamont at a news conference outside the State Capitol. Commissioners fr ..read more

Yehyun Kim :: CT Mirror Christopher Caez looks for an air leakage point to seal near a furnace in the basement in 2020 in Middletown. Sealing leakage points helps avoid overheating and overcooling, subsequently saving on heating and cooling costs. You can pretty much count on it – energy is going to cost more this winter. A lot more. The U.S. Energy Information Administration – keeper of all energy data – has warned about it nearly every day for weeks: “EIA forecasts higher U.S. heating bills this winter;” “EIA forecasts U.S. winter natural gas bills will be 30% higher than last winter;” “U ..read more

These prices at the pump were from January 2019. Connecticut’s average gas prices today, according to AAA, are $3.546 for regular unleaded and $4.063 for premium. With gasoline prices in Connecticut creeping to their highest levels in seven years, Gov. Ned Lamont conceded Tuesday he likely won’t be able to revive legislative interest in joining a regional Transportation Climate Initiative any time soon. But while the TCI is focused on containing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing air quality — while also raising revenue for the state’s transportation program — its fate also hinges on Conne ..read more

Photo courtesy of Not Another Power Plant Protestors outside the Capitol in 2019 opposing the Killingly power plant project. A proposal for a natural gas power plant in Killingly, which has drawn the ire of environmental activists for six years, was dealt a major setback after the regional electric grid operator — ISO-New England — said it doesn’t want Killingly to be part of its future plans. In a Nov. 4 letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the independent system operator that runs the New England grid — known as ISO-New England — has requested permission to cut Killingly fr ..read more

There will be no bargains with an overheating climate. The $3.5 trillion price tag that President Joe Biden proposed for his climate-heavy Build Back Better Act might seem enormous. But over the long term, it will be a pittance. By zeroing in on that number, the public debate seems to have skipped right over the economic ramifications of climate change, which promise to be historically disruptive — and enormously expensive. What we don’t spend now will cost us much more later. The bills for natural disasters and droughts and power outages are already pouring in. Within a few decades, the tot ..read more

Jan Ellen Spiegel :: CTMirror.org Damage from Storm Irene in East Haven. It was 10 years ago, but when Lori Mathieu thinks about extreme weather events, she remembers Hurricane Irene. “Which was a hurricane that turned into a tropical storm but hit us pretty hard,” she said. “And then we had that incredibly odd snowstorm that hit us while the leaves were still on the trees.” And then, of course, Superstorm Sandy comes to mind. It hit New England just a year later and killed five in Connecticut. More recent storms and major flooding events have continued to cause damage. “We certainly have t ..read more

Cloe Poisson The Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) facility in Hartford, December 19, 2019. When the trash-to-energy plant in Hartford’s South Meadows broke down in November 2018, garbage started piling up inside the facility’s two cavernous storage areas. And kept piling up. And piled up some more. The refuse was accumulating because operators could not hire enough trucks and drivers to haul it to out-of-state landfills. By January 2019, the facility was jammed floor-to-roof with thousands of tons of trash, and officials were days away from a lose-lose decision: eith ..read more