What’s Wrong with Gov. Lamont’s Energy Policy?

by Melinda Tuhus, environmental activist and journalist

The first thing to know about Gov. Ned Lamont’s energy policy is that it’s an All of the Above strategy. He loves methane gas; he loves renewables; and especially recently, he loves nuclear. In the past few months, his Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (a contradiction in terms and misleading name) has hosted four two-hour workshops to learn all about “new” nuclear energy – basically, the small modular reactors (SMRs) that don’t exist yet and would have many of the same problems as the existing big stand-alone reactors, and, according to some experts, would be less efficient.

Recently all six New England governors agreed to pursue at least investigating building more nuclear, because energy demand is rising for the first time in at least 20 years, due to data centers, electric cars and other electric infrastructure.

Lamont’s DEEP has also been greenlighting or considering several methane projects across the state, and the fact that they haven’t moved forward faster is thanks to the tenacious opposition from local communities and climate and environmental activists in Connecticut. One example is the proposed expansion of the compressor station in Brookfield, near Danbury, on the so-called Iroquois pipeline. Compressor stations push the gas through the pipeline, so the bigger the compressor station, the more gas it can push through. Methane leaks at all stages, from production to the gas stove in your home, and is toxic, especially to those most at risk, like children and those with respiratory ailments.

Lamont was quoted in a New York Times article in April about the push to increase both methane (“natural”) gas and nuclear power: “I think, generally speaking, if it’s affordable, New England governors are now willing to consider it.”

Nuclear boosters say nukes provide the “baseload power” that solar and wind can’t, but with battery storage growing, renewables are faster to build, cleaner, safer and cheaper than nuclear power plants, and combined with energy efficiency (making electricity go further) and conservation (not using the energy in the first place), renewables could be the main energy source in Connecticut.

The big push by Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts for offshore wind stalled because of the pandemic and Trump’s extreme aversion to it. After winning legal challenges, at least some of the projects are now up and running or under construction.

For more info, contact Efficiency for All (www.efficiencyforall.org) or People’s Action for Clean Energy (pacecleanenergy.org).