Bill Seeks Regulatory Balance

Policymakers regularly tell us they see surveys and hear from businesses that Connecticut is a challenging place to do business, in part due to the state’s regulatory climate.
But lawmakers often express the difficulty of boiling that concern down to specifics, and in January the leadership of the Environment and the Energy and Technology committees challenged members of CBIA’s E2: Energy & Environment Council to be specific about regulations that are vexing for businesses.
Passage of SB 998 will ensure the regulated community identifies, and that policymakers will be informed of, specific environmental regulations that are high-priority concerns to businesses in Connecticut.
Additionally, the bill ensures that affected businesses will meet directly with appropriate staff from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to explain their concerns and offer solutions—and that DEEP will consider those and other alternatives for addressing the concerns.
Specifically, the legislation calls for the commissioner to solicit up to three high-priority regulatory concerns from the business community, meet with affected businesses within 90 days of concerns being submitted, and within 90 more days, report to the legislature on any plans the agency has to address those concerns.
CBIA supported this bill at a March 13 Environment Committee public hearing and urged the committee to approve the measure.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Eric Brown (860.244.1926) | @CBIAericb