A lightning rod for controversy last year as he oversaw the birth of a new Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, Daniel C. Esty glided through a lengthy and ultimately uneventful confirmation hearing Tuesday -- even though he declined to promise approval of post-Irene seawalls.
Read moreMajority Democrats in the state Senate announced a multi-tiered initiative Wednesday to better safeguard electric service and to hold Connecticut's utilities accountable through new performance standards and penalties.
The proposal includes a $300 million state investment over the next decade to create "microgrids" -- sections of community centers with extra safeguards to ensure electric service remains available for grocery stores, gasoline stations and other vital service providers during large-scale outages.
You can chuckle all you want about outdoor wood furnaces and whether they're a subject the legislature should even bother with given that there are probably only a couple of thousand in the state.
Then you might want to get out of the line of fire.
Despite the sluggish economy, the time could be right for TOD -- transit-oriented development -- a generation-old concept in which municipal and economic growth are linked to mass transit. In fact, TOD is a current darling among many Connecticut constituencies.
Read moreRecycling programs should work like utilities do, said John Phetteplace, the solid waste manager for the town of Stonington. "You pay for your water; you pay for your electricity; you pay for your trash."
If you want to pay less, he said, generate less trash.
Read moreFederal environmental officials have warned Connecticut they will begin to de-certify a crucial pollution abatement program the day after the General Assembly session ends in May -- unless state policy-makers craft a solution first.
At issue is a more than $80 million backlog in applications for assistance through Connecticut's Underground Storage Tank Petroleum Cleanup Program -- and hundreds of gasoline stations that fuel industry representatives say are at risk of going out of business.
Easy to miss in the flurry around the Two Storms Panel report was an idea called the microgrid -- a small electric grid with its own generation source.
It's normally linked to a main electric grid, but when that suffers widespread interruptions, a microgrid can isolate itself to keep running. "All the pieces have been tried that we need to put together," said Dan Esty, head of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. "Just not at the scale we're talking about."
Read moreSome half-dozen years after the Rowland administration tried to all but eliminate the state's Department of Agriculture, the Malloy administration is embracing the state's $3.5 billion, 20,000-job agriculture industry as a potent component of job creation.
Read moreWriting new utility standards into law, complete with penalties for poor performance, topped a list of initiatives Gov. Dannel P. Malloy unveiled Wednesday to enhance Connecticut's readiness for future weather-related crises. "We can't know exactly what emergency is coming next, but we can learn from past experience and improve," Malloy said. "The initiatives we're announcing today are the first step toward that goal."
Read moreState government is facing a deadline this spring to resolve an $80 million backlog in a fuel cleanup program involving leaking underground tanks -- or risk hundreds of gasoline stations going out of business. The backlogs stretch back nearly a decade.
Read moreThe Nature Conservancy now has its Coastal Resilience free web tool, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has its own free web tool. Despite this, Connecticut communities remain largely unaware that these services are available, despite outreach efforts and the heightened awareness since Tropical Storm Irene.
Read moreSelective burying of electric wires to protect critical public services, dramatically enhanced tree-trimming and new utility performance standards with penalties topped a list of recommendations issued Monday by the panel studying Connecticut's readiness for future major storms.
Connecticut could separate itself from its neighbors in a big way this year as it considers setting several new standards to ensure reliable electric service.
The Two Storm Panel -- which will release its assessment next week of Connecticut's emergency readiness in the aftermath of August's Tropical Storm Irene and the Oct. 29 nor'easter -- completed its fact-finding hearings in mid-December with a new estimate on the cost of increasing electrical service reliability statewide.
After the bumper 2011 legislative session, you might expect a modest wish list from legislators, environmentalists and conservation advocates for 2012. Not happening. Nearly a year after those groups and the Malloy administration began an energy and environmental reform quest that led to the new Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, an unprecedented comprehensive energy bill, scads of funding for clean water projects, commitments to open space and a host of other initiatives, all parties are back asking for more.
Read moreThe most cost-efficient segment of the plan centers on trees which, Louth said, caused the "vast, vast, vast majority" of the more than 1.4 million outages that affected the state between the two storms. CL&P would add $366 million to its tree-trimming budget in total over the next decade.
Read moreA study on the economic impact of Connecticut's state-run parks and forests is causing more than a few eyebrows to arch not to mention visions of some serious dollar signs. The total -- an impressive $1.25 billion a year.
And that could be a very conservative number.
Town safety zones; tougher construction standards; performance standards for utility executives; burying some power lines: Panel hears array of suggestions to mitigate potential damage caused by future storms.
Read moreTwo key pieces of federal legislation that would pay for dozens of programs aimed at cleaning Long Island Sound are caught in the uncertainties of Washington's political battles over the environment and money. As Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman warned environmentalists in a recent conference call: "We're fighting for appropriations in a very tough climate."
Read moreConnecticut Light & Power Co. was unprepared for the 809,000 outages it faced after an unprecedented Oct. 29 snowstorm, an independent assessment concluded Friday, noting that CL&P's "worst-case scenario" plan offered little guidance for outages beyond 100,000 customers.
Connecticut residents were inconvenienced but faced no danger of a fuel shortage during the storms that hit this fall. But if the state were to face a major hurricane similar to the one that struck in 1938, emergency fuel supplies could be exhausted within a week or two.
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"This is an investment worthy of being made."
Gov. Malloy to charter school students who had been bused to the Capitol Tuesday evening to thank him for proposing an increase in funds for charters.
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Top donors to the CT congressional delegation
1. United Technologies, $197,500
2. Sempra Energy, $133,100
3. General Electric, $121,775
4. Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, $106,510
5. Goldman Sachs, $99,500
Source: Maplight
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