CTLCV is Hiring

CTLCV has an opening for the CTLCV Education Fund Program Director. Details here and at www.conservationeducation.org.

DEP: Doing More with Less To Protect the Environment

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) came under attack this year for, allegedly, not getting permits out the door fast enough. Legislators and the governor promoted measures to speed up DEP permitting. Some legislative proposals essentially would have undone DEP. One proposal would have merged it into the Department of Commu­nity and Economic Development, for example.

Read more about Connecticut’s conservation politics in our 2010 Environmental Scorecard

However, DEP is a bit of an unsung hero. The agency’s  responsibilities keep expanding even as its staff and resources keep shrinking. Its traditional core programs—reducing pollution of water and air, managing waste, supporting outdoor recreation, and protecting natural resources—now include new initiatives, such as fighting invasive species, manag­ing electronic waste, responding to climate change, and handling federal stimulus projects. Yet, in the past two years alone, DEP lost some ten percent of its workforce along with some of its most knowledgeable and experienced leaders. Figuring out how to handle more responsibility with fewer resources is a necessity at DEP. And guess what? DEP is succeeding. The agency is doing its work faster and more efficiently.

“Many of the legislative battles fought this year directly involved the DEP’s role in enforcement of environmental laws. It is imperative that state lawmakers understand the long-term importance of an effective DEP that is appropriately staffed and funded. Our legislative champions must continue to speak up in support of the environmental work this agency does every single day to protect our air, land, water and health of citizens across the state.”

-Lori Brown, CTLCV Executive Director

Since 2008, the DEP has been systematically imple­menting a process to identify and minimize wasted time and effort across the agency’s permitting and enforcement processes and other programs. They call it LEAN—which doesn’t stand for anything other than, well … “lean.” It is an extension of the lean manu­facturing systems introduced in US and Japanese industries more than 20 years ago.

So far, DEP has completed 23 LEAN projects. The results are remarkable. Wherever LEAN is happen­ing, programs are accelerating, and with no erosion of environmental protections. Inspections are up. Backlogs are down. Permitting time has been cut drastically, too. The Office of Long Island Sound cut its average permitting time from 18 months to about 71 days. Wastewater-discharge permitting time is down from 30 months to about 140 days.

In the face of daunting responsibilities and less staff, DEP has opted to do more, not less. These are the folks who protect our air, water, and quality of life, and they deserve our thanks.

CTLCV Releases 2010 Environmental Scorecard

Legislators’ Grades Slip in Tough Budget Year

The scores are in.  And state legislators let their environmental grades slip in the 2010 legislative session, according to the 2010 Annual Environmental Scorecard released on August 5 by the bipartisan Connecticut League of Conservation Voters (CTLCV).  Citizens who want a sense of how their state legislators performed on environmental issues this year should take a look at their rankings.   

In the face of record-setting budget deficits, many legislators and business leaders seemed inclined to blame the economic downturn on the Department of Environmental Protection, in particular, and environmental regulations, in general.  In the first months of the session, the state's most important protections for air, water, and land appeared at risk of dissolution.

“This year was especially trying.  Lobbyists that have fought every year to weaken environmental laws and regulations for the benefit of a few industries found an opportunity for their false claims that protecting the environment was somehow an obstacle to Connecticut’s future,” said CTLCV’s Executive Director, Lori Brown.  “History has always shown the opposite.  A clean environment makes for a good economy.”

"Clean water, clean air, and protected open spaces are among the qualities that make Connecticut such a desirable place to live and work.  These precious environmental resources need to be protected, even during hard economic times, not needlessly squandered in short-sighted and harmful policy changes, said  Martha Phillips, CTLCV Co-Chair.

Scorecard Grades Lawmakers on their Environmental Voting Records

CTLCV grades all state senators and representatives on a 0% to 100% scale based on their votes on important environmental legislation.  The 2010 Environmental Scorecard grades legislators on their votes on nine major environmental bills, including bills on energy, recycling, green jobs, toxics, and environmental rollback.

Number of Legislators with Good Grades Drops by 15%

In 2009, 82% of the legislature earned A’s or B’s on their environmental voting records.  This year, however, the percentage of legislators scoring A’s or B’s dropped to 67%.  Fifty-one legislators scored a perfect 100% by casting pro-environment votes on each of the bills that CTLCV scored.  Another 33 legislators earned A’s on their environmental voting records.  CTLCV applauds those individuals for standing firm in their support for a clean, healthy environment.

In contrast, the number of legislators who scored C’s, D’s, or F’s increased this year, from a total of 33 (18%) in 2009 to a total of 61 (33%) in 2010.

Although the outlook for the environment was grim at the start of the 2010 legislative session, CTLCV worked with other environmental advocacy groups to stop or at least minimize anti-environment efforts.  In the end, the General Assembly adjourned without doing serious damage to environmental protection laws, and even extended them in some cases.

“We managed to thwart the worst of the rollbacks this year.  But I have no doubt the anti-environmental forces will be back in 2011.  That is why we should be very selective about who we elect this November.  The people we elect will be making those key policy decisions and we want them on our side,” said Brown.

Download the Full Scorecard at www.ctlcv.org/scorecard

For Senate scores, House scores, explanations of the environmental bills analyzed for the scorecard, a rundown on the 2010 legislative session and other analyses, please visit www.ctlcv.org/scorecard. 

- Posted by Kelly Kennedy, CTLCV Communications Director