Update of Lawsuit about State Seizure of Energy Efficiency Funds; Millstone Tries to Pose Nuclear Energy as ‘Renewable’

by Paula Panzarella, Fight the Hike

This year, a large portion of the efficiency and clean energy funds that we pay through our electric bills was appropriated by the legislature to go into the state’s General Fund. $87.5 million was taken in 2018, and $77.5 million is scheduled to be transferred in 2019.

Many organizations, including Fight the Hike and CT Fund for the Environment (CFE), were involved in a lawsuit against the state to have the money returned. U.S District Judge Janet Hall recently filed her decision against us. The following excerpts are from CFE’s announcement on this:

  • Unfortunately, the judge just ruled that the state’s sweep of ratepayer funds did not break contracts between ratepayers and their electric companies because nobody promised ratepayers that their dollars would not be transferred to the General Fund for unrelated purposes.
  • Silly us for trusting what it says on our energy bill.
  • Now, these funds are just another hidden tax, and you’ll still breathe dirty air.
  • The loss of the lawsuit proves how difficult it is to stop lawmakers from stealing and spending millions of dollars earmarked for specific purposes on anything they want unless there are clear requirements in the law.
  • We won’t forget what happened after the raid. The legislature’s sweep of these funds destroyed more than 3,000 jobs in Connecticut, clean energy businesses have closed their doors, and energy efficiency projects across the state have been canceled.

There are plans to appeal this decision. We must let our legislators know we disagree with Judge Hall’s ruling, and demand that all the efficiency and clean energy funds be restored.

Regarding Millstone: If it weren’t tragic, it would be laughable that anyone could consider nuclear power a clean, renewable source of electricity. This is a deadly mistake. Just the excavation of uranium is enough to render it a filthy, polluting source of energy, let alone its risk of exposing millions of people to radiation.

  • A tentative ruling by state utility regulators may boost efforts by the owner of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant to have the electricity it produces considered in ‘zero carbon’ auction that the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection conducts to procure power.
  • Commissioners with Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority ruled that the Waterford-based power plant “is at risk of retirement.” Dominion Energy, the Virginia-based company that owns Millstone, has claimed for several years that economic conditions in the nation’s energy markets are making it difficult for the utility to keep operating the plant if it not be allowed to compete for lucrative long-term contracts that are awarded to the winners of the zero-carbon auction.
  • Joel Gordes, a West Hartford-based energy industry consultant, said PURA’s commissioners erred in their draft ruling.
  • “To treat nuclear power as if it were a renewable resource is completely inappropriate,” Gordes said. “Real renewable resources don’t produce a deadly byproduct that has to be guarded for an eternity.”

(excerpts from the on-line New Haven Register of Nov. 17, 2018, “Connecticut Utility Regulators Say Millstone Nuclear Power Plant ‘At Risk’ of Closing” by Luther Turmelle)

Tell DEEP and PURA that we will not stand for Dominion trying to redefine “clean, renewable resources.” Contact: Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, (860) 827-1553, (800) 382-4586, pura.information@ct.gov. Katie Dykes, Chair of PURA, (860) 827-2805, katie.dykes@ct.gov.

Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, (860) 424-3000, deep.webmaster@ct.gov. Rob Klee, Commissioner of DEEP, (860) 424-3571, robert.klee@ct.gov.

Get Involved with the Greater New Haven Peace Council

by Mary Compton, co-chair, GNHPC

The Greater New Haven Peace Council is a local peace activist group founded in the 70s. We work for peace, universal disarmament, economic and social justice, and international solidarity with the peoples of the world. We recognize that the struggle for peace is indivisibly connected with the rights and needs of working people.

We are currently organizing on a resolution that calls for public hearings on moving funds from the 717 billion dollar military budget to fund human needs. The resolution asks members of Congress to report on their efforts to create a strategy to reduce military spending to fund human needs. The central question we ask is, what could cities and towns do with money redirected from a military budget that takes up 61% of the federal budget.

We are a coordinating member of the Global Coalition Against US/NATO Foreign Military Bases, which took place on Nov. 16-19 in Dublin, Ireland. It calls for the closure of all foreign US/NATO bases. The conference was successful with many groups participating who had not worked together in the past. We are looking forward to our members’ return for reports from other countries and to discuss future actions. The basis for this success was a Unity Statement signed by all coordinators of the Conference. Visit nousbases.org for video coverage.

We meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the People’s Center, 37 Howe St., New Haven. Our weekly vigils take place on Fridays in front of City Hall at noon. Our fliers address current issues of war and peace. Find us on Facebook: @newhavenpeace Website: uspeacecouncil.org. Email: grnhpeacecouncil@gmail.com.

Is the Green Fund the right fit to fund your project?

Need Funding for Your Environmental Project? The Greater New Haven Green Fund May Be Able to Help!

Request for applications (RFA) is now open for the Greater New Haven Green Fund’s 2019 grants cycle. Funding up to $10,000 is available. Visit the website and download the application.
Deadline for submitting your application is Jan. 11, 2019, 5 p.m. Contact us with questions at info@gnhgreenfund.org. http://www.gnhgreenfund.org.

CT Working Families Organization Annual Awards Night 6 p.m. Dec. 12 Hartford

Please join us on Wednesday, Dec. 12, 6-9 p.m. for the 2018 CTWFO Annual Awards Dinner. Every year, our organization recognizes the contributions made by labor leaders, grassroots activists, and rank and file workers — all of whom have helped protect and advance the fight for economic, racial, and social justice in our state.

We’re excited to announce our honorees this year!:

  • State Representative Robyn Porter (Progressive Political Leadership Award)
  • Ana María Rivera-Forastieri (Merrilee Milstein Award for Organizing, Activism, and Leadership)
  • Eva Bermudez Zimmerman (Brian Petronella Labor Leader Award)

And more to be announced! We look forward to seeing you there and appreciate your support.

Hors d’oeuvres will be provided, including vegetarian and vegan options, alongside a cash bar. Please email Kristin at kburgess@workingfamilies.org with any dietary restrictions and allergies.

The suggested contribution is $50, but come no matter what. Wednesday, Dec. 12, 6-0 p.m. at the Mark Twain House & Museum, 351 Farmington Ave., Hartford. RSVP: http://workingfamilies.org/ctawards2018.

Contributions benefit Connecticut Working Families, a 501(c)(4) organization, that fights for an economy that works for everyone in Connecticut so we can all find good jobs, get healthcare when we need it, afford homes, send our kids to good schools, and have a secure retirement. Funds support our community organizing, legislative outreach and lobbying efforts, door to door issue canvasses and legislative communications strategy. Contributions can come from individuals, incorporated businesses, union general fund accounts, PACs, or other non-profit entities.

Save the Date: Coalition for People Annual Meeting April 17, 2019

Coalition for People will hold its annual meeting on Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the main New Haven Free Public Library, 133 Elm Street. Put this on your calendar! All are invited to attend and become members. We hope many PAR members will consider joining the board. One of our major issues this year has been the lack of affordable housing and the need for our policymakers to address this life-and-death concern.

In March we will need your RSVP if you will attend and if you want to be elected to the board. Pizza will be served at our annual meeting. More information will be forthcoming.

Our next board meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2-4 p.m. at the Fair Haven Library, 182 Grand Ave. in the community room, lower level. All are welcome to attend. For more information, email coalitionforpeople@hotmail.com.

Petition: Return Khashoggi’s Remains

Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee

At a meeting in the West Haven library in November, a suggestion became a petition. While the Saudis and the U.S. investigate the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, an idea bubbled up for a simple act of decency that could be concluded right away: the return of the remains of Khashoggi to his family. The Middle East Crisis Committee created a petition that simply says “Saudi authorities should return the body of the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi to his family. They should also return all other bodies of those executed or killed by the Saudi government.” You can get to it by visiting MoveOn.org.

The meeting had been called to discuss ideas to pressure the University of New Haven to break its ties to the Saudi regime. The college assists the Saudi police college, the King Fahd Security College in Riyadh. The nature of the assistance is very vague. MECC’s discovery that one of the members of the hit team sent to Istanbul was a top Saudi forensic scientist who was on a Saudi forensic board with UNH’s Henry C. Lee attracted national and even international attention.

Saudi authorities arrested a score of people and intend to seek the death penalty for five. Surely after two months, the Saudi investigators know the location of the remains or the names of the Turkish operatives they claim disposed of the body. There is no reason the information should not be shared with the family and the public. The petition also mentions other bodies kept by the Saudi government as a continued punishment of families. A Saudi human rights group based in Berlin says over 30 bodies of people executed or killed in raids have been “detained” by the government.

It became apparent that President Trump, for all his talk of “severe punishment” of the killers of the U.S.-based journalist, will do nothing since the murder was ordered by high Saudi authorities and Trump doesn’t want to harm weapons sales. We cannot let the issue die. Please sign the petition.

For more on local actions, visit TheStruggle.org.

Readers want to know — December PAR Deadline Nov. 19

Readers want to know: What is the purpose of your organization? How are you building your group? What campaigns are you organizing? What events are you planning?

We want to publicize the work groups have done and what they’re planning to do. We want to spread the word to others who will be inspired to join you, support your activism and build the struggles. Send us articles (even a paragraph or two) about what your group wants to do and any ideas for organizing!

Please send articles about your group’s recent and current activities and upcoming actions and events to parnewhaven@hotmail.com.

***Help inspire others through your commitment! ***

The deadline for the December Progressive Action Roundtable Newsletter is Monday, November 19.

Call for articles for December Progressive Action Roundtable newsletter

Dear PAR Contributors,

Readers want to know: What is the purpose of your organization? How are you building your group? What campaigns are you organizing? What events are you planning?

We want to publicize the work groups have done and what they’re planning to do. We want to spread the word to others who will be inspired to join you, support your activism and build the struggles. Send us articles (even a paragraph or two) about what your group wants to do and any ideas for organizing!

Please send articles about your group’s recent and current activities and upcoming actions and events to parnewhaven@hotmail.com.

***Help inspire others through your commitment! ***

The deadline for the December Progressive Action Roundtable Newsletter is Monday, November 19.

GUIDELINES FOR ARTICLES

We ask everyone to limit articles to 350 words.

Please include an enticing headline/title for your article so our readers will focus on your work right away.

Be sure to indicate your name and organization as they should appear in your byline.

If you haven’t written recent articles for PAR, please include information about your group’s purpose.

Do not use different fonts or sizes in your article.

Please keep in mind that as layout space permits, we will include photos.

IMPORTANT: Don’t neglect to add your organization’s contact information such as phone number, e-mail address or website, so our readers can get more information about what your group is doing.

ABOUT CALENDAR ITEMS

If you mention an event in an article, please also send a SEPARATE calendar announcement.

Please give street addresses for any events or meetings, even for “well-known” public buildings.

VERY IMPORTANT: Please indicate whether your event location is wheelchair accessible.

You can also send us SAVE THE DATE items about future events, even if you do not yet have all the details in place.

The PAR newsletter will come out approximately Friday, November 30. Please consider this when submitting calendar items.

Here are other suggestions about submitting copy to the PAR Newsletter:

1. If you ask or encourage new groups to submit articles or calendar items to PAR, please give them a copy of these tips.

2. Submit copy by e-mail, either as regular text or as an MS Word or attachment (.doc or .docx).

3. If you are a first-time author for the PAR Newsletter, thank you! We hope you will subscribe and encourage others in your organization to do so.

4. If you know of someone who wants to write an article but does not use e-mail, send an e-mail to us with that person’s name and phone number.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT INSERTS

We prefer to carry articles and calendar listings rather than inserts. But if you have an insert to include in the Newsletter, we ask you to send the information contained in the flyer to this e-mail address as well so that it can be easily added to the PAR calendar.

Your organization must make and pay for the inserts. We will be able to handle only those inserts that are a full sheet (8.5 x 11) or half-sheet (8.5 x 5.5) of paper. We cannot accept postcards or cardstock flyers. There is a fee of $7 for inserts.

***

E-mail us if you’d to join our monthly planning meetings or help with the mailings. We always welcome more helpers and new ideas.

We’re looking forward to your articles! Thank you for your help in creating this community newsletter.

– PAR Planning Committee

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To renew your own subscription or to buy a subscription for a friend, the rate is $13 for 10 issues. Please make the check out to PAR and mail it to:
PAR, P.O. Box 995, New Haven, CT 06504

Call for UNH and Yale Law to Break Ties with Saudis

by Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee (MECC)

[As the PAR print edition goes to print, Newsweek has picked up this story of the universities’ collusion with the Saudi government. By the time you read this in PAR, we expect more investigation will have been done and publicized on an international scale. Congratulations, Stan Heller, for exposing this local world-wide connection!]

Ever more gruesome details emerge daily of the likely torture-murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi on orders of the highest officials of the Saudi government.  The Middle East Crisis Committee (MECC) has for years advised Connecticut institutions with relationships with Saudi Arabia to break ties with the cruel regime.  In view of the Khashoggi murder, we call on the University of New Haven, which has helped create a security studies program at the police college of Saudi Arabia and is apparently teaching forensic skills there, to immediately suspend all cooperation with King Fahd Security College. It should publicly explain what it is doing in its secretive program in the kingdom.

We have asked how they can justify doing work with a police college in a country with an absolute monarchy and a justice system known for prosecuting activists calling for democratic rights and full equality for women, one where suspects are tortured. We’ve been met only with silence.  We’ve also called on University of New Haven administrators to explain if any of the skills they are teaching in Saudi Arabia are being used by the Saudi military which is engaged in a brutal illegal war in Yemen.

The Middle East Crisis Committee also calls on Owen Fiss and Anthony Kronman, directors of the Abdullah S. Kamel Center for the Study of Islamic Law at Yale Law School, to speak out. This murder of Khashoggi is an outrageous violation of any legal precept and demands condemnation. It would be extremely beneficial if the Kamel Center hosted an emergency public conference of Islamic law scholars to examine the woeful state of the Saudi system of justice in a country that claims to strictly follow Islamic law.

The center was funded by Abdullah Kamel’s son Saleh Kamel.  Abdullah Kamel was detained by Prince Mohammed Bin Salman last fall on charges of corruption.  Reportedly $4 billion, most of Kamel’s money, has been forfeited without any due process.  Forbes magazine, which had estimated Kamel’s fortune at $2.6 billion, has removed him from its list of billionaires.

Updates will be posted at thestruggle.org and our Facebook page Middle East Crisis Committee.

Two Ballot Initiatives for the Nov. 6 Election

When you go to the voting polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6, there will be two ballot initiatives that you can vote on.

  1. Connecticut “Transportation Revenue Lockbox” Constitutional Amendment

    Overview: The measure would require that all revenue placed in the state’s Special Transportation Fund (STF) be used for transportation purposes, including the payment of transportation-related debts. The state legislature would be prohibited from spending the fund on non-transportation purposes. The STF is funded by the motor fuels tax, motor carrier road tax, petroleum products gross earnings tax, certain motor vehicle receipts and fees, motor vehicle-related fines, and a portion of state sales tax.

    A “yes” vote supports this amendment to prohibit lawmakers from using the state transportation fund for anything other than transportation purposes.

    A “no” vote opposes this amendment to prohibit lawmakers from using the state transportation fund for anything other than transportation purposes.

  2. Connecticut Legislative Requirements to Transfer State Properties Constitutional Amendment

    Overview: The Connecticut General Assembly has the power to pass land conveyance legislation, which allows the state to transfer or sell specified parcels of public land to other entities, such as local governments for projects or private developers. The ballot measure would require a public hearing on conveyance bills, no matter which state department would make the land transfer. The measure would require a two-thirds vote of each chamber of the state legislature to authorize the transfer, sale, or disposal of land under the control of the state agriculture or environmental protection departments.

    A “yes” vote supports this amendment to (1) require a public hearing on bills to authorize the transfer, sale or disposal of state-owned properties, such as state parks, forests, and con-served lands, to non-state entities and (2) require a two-thirds vote of the Connecticut General Assembly to author-ize the transfer, sale, or disposal of land under the control of the state agriculture or environmental protection departments.

    A “no” vote opposes this amendment to (1) require a public hearing on bills to authorize the transfer, sale, or disposal of state-owned properties and (2) a two-thirds vote of the Connecticut General Assembly to authorize the transfer, sale, or disposal of land under the control of the state agriculture or environmental protection departments.

Working Together for 100% Renewable Energy in Connecticut Nov. 8

by Mark Scully, President, PACE

People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE) invites you to a hands-on workshop to accelerate Connecticut’s transition to 100% clean, renewable energy. The event features a keynote address from Mark Z. Jacobson, Director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program at Stanford University. Mark’s career has focused on better understanding air pollution and global warming problems and developing large-scale clean, renew- able energy solutions to them.

After Prof. Jacobson’s address, the focus turns to CT’s transition to 100% with a panel of local experts to discuss the state’s progress to date, potential of offshore wind, grid modernization and legislative perspective. This panel comprises:

  • Claire Coleman, Climate and Energy Attorney for CT Fund for the Environment
  • Katie Dykes, Chair of the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA)
  • John Humphries, Founder of CT Roundtable on Climate & Jobs
  • Mary Sotos, Deputy Commissioner of CT Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP).

The meeting will take place on Thursday, Nov. 8 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 224 EcoSpace, 224 Farmington Ave. in Hartford. Reserve your ticket today online at www.pace-cleanenergy.org. Tickets: $25; students $10. Ticket price includes a catered lunch and parking.

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