New Haven, CT—Save the Sound released its priorities for the 2025 Connecticut Legislative session today, which starts this Wednesday, January 8, and runs until June 4. This year is a “long session,” in which lawmakers craft the biennial budget in addition to passing legislation.
Reduce Costs & Increase Resiliency
“Investing in energy efficiency and clean, renewable energy is essential to helping households and businesses manage their energy costs,” said Charles Rothenberger, director of Connecticut government relations. “This past summer saw higher-than-normal electricity bills as customers attempted to cope with a summer-long heat wave while simultaneously paying down the bailout of the Millstone nuclear power plant. These trends make our efficiency and clean energy investments more important than ever. The state’s efficiency and clean energy programs have already lowered energy burdens for nearly 62,000 families and more than 6,700 businesses, while reducing pollution and improving public health outcomes for everyone. Last year alone, the state’s efficiency programs provided energy savings equivalent to a 44-Megawatt power plant (enough to power 24,000 homes for a year). It is imperative that we continue this progress.”
Our 2025 Agenda to reduce emissions and increase resiliency:
- Expand incentives to help homes and businesses supplement or replace expensive, inefficient heating and cooling systems with clean, cost-effective heat pumps.
- Defend investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy by protecting programs that help homes and businesses reduce their energy costs, improve efficiency, and manage demand through system-wide electric grid benefits.
- Increase investments in resilience to protect communities from flooding and other climate impacts.
Protect & Invest in Our Waters
“We need to keep pushing efforts to clean up the Sound and its watersheds,” said Bill Lucey, Long Island Soundkeeper. “We can do this by increasing river and floodplain protections, upgrading our aging sewage treatment systems, and removing yet another toxic and unnecessary pesticide.”
Our 2025 priorities for protecting and investing in our waters:
- Establish a CT Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Act Taskforce to enhance floodplain conservation to protect property and water quality.
- Reduce the use of Neonicotinoids (Neonics) that are known to kill insects and crustaceans in our streams and the Sound, degrading food webs.
- Maintain high levels of infrastructure investment in the Clean Water Fund to upgrade sewage treatment systems.
Defend Communities & Environmental Rights
Our 2025 agenda items to defend communities and environmental rights:
- Defend residents’ environmental rights by watchdogging and defeating rollbacks of the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act and other key environmental laws.
“Now, more than ever, it is incredibly important to strengthen and protect the environmental rights of Connecticut’s residents at the state level. We cannot afford to lose ground on existing environmental protections and must continue to move forward,” said Chase Lindemann, Peter B. Cooper legal fellow.
- Strengthen the state’s Environmental Justice Law by extending the deadline for public participation reports from 30 days to 120 days, and ensuring equal application of the law to protect state-identified Environmental Justice Communities with 10,000 or fewer residents.
“Connecticut’s Environmental Justice Law requires applicants for affecting facilities to conduct meaningful public participation in state-designated EJ Communities about their intentions to construct or expand affecting facilities, including submitting a public participation plan and a report to DEEP within 30 days after their required informational meeting. One month is not enough time for communities to understand projects that may not suit their best interest, so we are advocating to extend the deadline to 120 days. Additionally, we encourage legislators to ensure fair application of the EJ Law to protect Connecticut’s smallest EJ Communities,” said Alex Rodriguez, environmental justice specialist for Save the Sound.
- Ensure that state land conveyance requests from municipalities and private owners avoid environmental harm and land grabs.
“One of the roles Save the Sound plays is watchdog—and we’ll be watching as requests to convey state land come up this session,” said Kathy Czepiel, Connecticut land protection manager. “This land belongs to the people of Connecticut; we’ll make sure it’s being put to appropriate use and advocate for environmentally sound policies such as wetlands protection, stormwater mitigation, and public access when those issues arise.”
###