Energy, Environment & Land Use

Energy

(Jan. 9, 2008) Connecticut's energy costs are among the highest in the United States. Affordable and reliable energy is vital to the long-term health of the state's economy. Expanding energy capacity and the ability to deliver it will help keep Connecticut businesses productive and competitive in today's global marketplace.

Recommendations

Planning and Infrastructure

• Facilitate the expansion of interstate and intrastate transmission lines and natural gas pipelines.
• Increase electricity generation capacity.
• Reduce energy costs and increase energy system reliability by using diverse fuel sources for generating electricity.
  

Efficiency and Conservation

• Expand cost-effective energy conservation and demand-response programs.
• Continue to allow consumers to voluntarily adopt energy efficiency and conservation measures.
  

Energy Marketplace

• Support efforts to develop Connecticut's energy marketplace.
• Reinstitute a modified form of economic development rate contracts.
  

Environment & Land Use

Sustainable environmental and land-use policies can promote economic growth, job creation and improved environmental quality through effective and efficient management of natural resources.

Permitting

Work with the regulated community to identify opportunities for streamlining Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) operations, including those concerning permit application, modification and renewal.

Enforcement

Implement a predictable and consistent enforcement program that measures success based on compliance rates, environmental impacts and the effectiveness of various enforcement tools in achieving timely compliance.

Brownfields

Adopt the recommendations of the Brownfields Task Force to encourage significant additional private-sector investments in the redevelopment of brownfields, especially in key industries such as manufacturing.

Environmental Cleanup

• Revise state cleanup standards to allow for more expedited cleanups with reasonable and defined endpoints.
• Convene a panel of stakeholders to recommend improvements in the state's Licensed Environmental Professional (LEP) and Transfer Act programs.

Spill Reporting
Adopt clear, simple and reasonable state standards for the reporting of chemical spills.

Regulation Development
Use stakeholders, including the regulated community, to help the DEP evaluate both scientific and economic implications when developing regulations.

Land Use

Adopt state standards and criteria for managing growth in Connecticut that foster economic and environmental improvements by:

• Recognizing that development patterns are ultimately determined by the marketplace and that policies to affect those patterns should be designed as incentive-based signals to the marketplace.
• Helping state, regional and local land use officials to better understand and make use of existing tools for managing growth.
• Revitalizing urban centers to make them more attractive places to live and work.