CT Colleges Organizing at University of Hartford March 28

Dear readers:

Please see the message below regarding follow-up to Powershift. There will be an open meeting at University of Hartford on March 28th at 1 pm, lasting no later than 3 pm, currently focused on getting students involved in advocating (federal?) renewable energy legislation. I myself think that some time should be spent on state legislation. Also note that March 28th is the day of Earth Hour, when everyone turns off their lights for an hour at 8:30 pm to acknowledge the carbon footprint of electricity.

Message:

Hi everyone,

We are so happy that you decided to stay in touch, and we want to jump right in by all gathering at the University of Hartford (CT) in just about two weeks on Saturday, March 28th at 1pm. We have the space booked till 3, and we will just take the time we need within that frame.

This will be a pretty nuts and bolts meeting that will be really important for establishing both our coalition and an infrastructure for communication between schools going forward. We are planning to make federal climate policy the backbone of our work, and we can be a crucial voice for getting a strong climate bill passed before talks in December!

We would love to have at least two representatives from each school in CT and really want to reach out to universities which weren't represented at Powershift. If anyone has contacts in those schools that I should target for getting people there, please let me know.

If you are from a school outside of CT but want to keep in touch, offer resources that might be helpful to us going forward or want to discuss collaboration, please be in touch! This crucial work won't happen without the voices of engaged and committed groups, so please come and help us lay the groundwork for a needed and dynamic coalition.

When: Saturday, March 28th at 1pm
Where: University of Hartford, Room 333 in the Gengras Student Union
What: Statewide coalition of students committed to pushing for a strong climate bill and clean,
renewable solutions
Why: If not you, who?

Directions are here: http://www.hartford.edu/about/info.asp?item=driving
Campus Map is here: http://www.hartford.edu/about/map/buildings.asp
Gengras Student union is building #25.

Thanks so much and call/ email with questions!

Jacqueline Rowland
Clean Water Action
CTCleanEnergyCampus
860.232.6232

Tyler Dunham
Renewable Energy Club
Connecticut College
tdunham@conncoll.edu

Connecticut's Energy Future - Who's Minding the Store?

By David Anderson

In my last post I mentioned an important study completed by the Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering (CASE) on the development and implementation of energy policy in Connecticut.

Like other studies, CASE's Preparing for Connecticut's Energy Future report found that there is no coherent policy possible under the current totally decentralized administration of energy affairs with literally nobody in charge.

CASE's findings had a public hearing early in the session. Subsequently HB 6633 was introduced by House Co-Chair Vicky Nardello. This 18-page bill would create an Energy Secretary to oversee all the existing entities that are part of the energy puzzle. The Energy Secretary would be required to develop a coherent policy for the State and report periodically.

To those who say in these times we cannot afford another department, I say our present chaotic structure has cost us a lot of money over the years. And now that a lot of federal money is available we need a single strong voice to get our share.

HB 6633 had a public hearing on March 10 and the Energy and Technology Committee deadline is this Wednesday. Let’s hope the committee steps up to the plate like our sister states to recognize the importance of good management and vote the bill out of committee.

David Anderson is the Former Chair and Ranking Member of Energy Committee-1980-1992.

Contact the 2009 Energy Committee:

Dist. 001 Senator John Fonfara (Democrat-Hartford) 860-240-0043 Fonfara@senatedems.ct.gov

Dist. 008 Senator Kevin Witkos (Republican-Canton) 860-240-8800 Kevin.Witkos@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 010 Representative Henry Genga (Democrat-E. Hartford) 860-240-8534 henry.genga@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 025 Senator Bob Duff (Democrat-Norwalk), 860-240-0414 Duff@senatedems.ct.gov

Dist. 026 Representative Peter Tercyak (Democrat-New Britain), 860-240-8585 Peter.Tercyak@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 032 Representative James O'Rourke (Democrat-Cromwell) 860-240-8585 Jim.ORourke@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 035 Representative Brian O'Connor (Democrat-Clinton) 860-240-8585 Brian.OConnor@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 038 Representative Elizabeth Ritter (Democrat-Quaker Hill) 860-240-8585 Elizabeth.Ritter@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 049 Representative Susan Johnson (Democrat-Willimantic) 860-240-8585 Susan.Johnson@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 061 Representative Matthew Conway (Democrat-Suffield) 860-240-8585 Matthew.Conway@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 063 Representative John Rigby (Republican-Winsted) 860-240-8787 John.Rigby@housegop.ct.gov

Dist. 068 Representative Sean Williams (Republican-Watertown) 860-240-8700 Sean.Williams@housegop.ct.gov

Dist. 070 Representative Rosa Rebimbas (Republican-Naugatuck) 860-240-8799 Rosa.Rebimbas@housegop.ct.gov

Dist. 078 Representative William Hamzy (Republican-Terryville) 860-240-8700 William.Hamzy@housegop.ct.gov

Dist. 089 Representative Vickie Nardello (Democrat-Prospect) 860-240-0434 Vickie.Nardello@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 097 Representative Robert Megna (Democrat-New Haven) 860-240-8585 Robert.Megna@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 100 Representative Matthew Lesser (Democrat-Middletown) 860-240-8585 Matthew.Lesser@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 102 Representative Lonnie Reed (Democrat-Branford) 860-240-8500 Lonnie.Reed@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 103 Representative Elizabeth Esty (Democrat-Cheshire) 860-240-8585 Elizabeth.Esty@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 121 Representative Terry Backer (Democrat-Hartford) 860-240-8585 Terry.Backer@cga.ct.gov

Dist. 122 Representative Lawrence Miller (Republican-Stratford) 860-240-8700 Lawrence.Miller@housegop.ct.gov

Dist. 147 Representative William Tong (Democrat-Stamford) 860-240-8747 William.Tong@cga.ct.gov

Mid-Session Meeting 3-10

All around, it has been agreed that the mid-session meeting between our peer environmental organizations and Senators Meyer and McKinney and Representative Roy was a success. Attendance was high. Issues that received attention from the legislators included the Bottle Bill, the creation of a Department of Energy, energy efficiency, DEP authority, toxins, riparian buffers, and highlands protection. Several environmental advocates presented bills their organizations strongly support (sustainable forestry, green cleaning products in schools, regionalism, solar power, maintaining farmland) or oppose (Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Ratepayer relief and categorizing biosludge as Class I renewable energy). An in-depth discussion of the idling bill in a way became the climax of the meeting. One point that came out of this was that we the environmentalists cannot allow the fact that there will not be very much funding available for new programs lead us into only advocating for bills which are not of the same caliber as legislation addressing the current economic downturn. We must do our best to maintain our focus on the issues we believe are most important.

Powershift 2009

We would be amiss as an environmental organization not to recognize the tremendous movement for a "Power shift" which occurred February 27- March 2 in support of a clean energy America. Our state can be proud of the 153 students who attended from Connecticut College, placing their school third for high attendance, after UVM and Middlebury. The Powershift 2009 conference was the second of its kind, following Powershift 2007 last November. The format of the conference includes speakers from environmental and political organizations and smaller group workshops. On Saturday, February 28, breakout sessions were held for each state so that all attendees from the same state could meet each other and build a coalition. The conference culminated in training for a lobby day at the Capitol on Monday, March 2. Students are encouraged to monitor the legislators they met with on the lobby day by sending letters, postcards, photo-petitions, and phone calls. In addition, they are encouraged to invite them to their campuses during the recess April 6th-17th. I will follow up with the results of the CT break out session when my correspondence with conference attendees is complete.