Lamont signs bills to reduce vehicle, power emissions in CT
Gov. Ned Lamont signed two major pillars of Connecticut Democrats’ climate change agenda into law this week, with the hopes of ushering in a fleet of thousands of new electric vehicles along with power plants that do not run on fossil fuels.
The passage of legislation to curtail the two largest contributors of greenhouse gases in Connecticut — vehicles and power generation — marked a significant turnaround for Lamont, who suffered defeat in 2021 over his attempts at joining a regional climate pact to reduce tailpipe emissions with surrounding states.
The response by lawmakers to that failure was to draft legislation codifying Lamont’s own goal of obtaining all of Connecticut’s power from clean energy sources by 2040, while also proposing their own sweeping set of initiatives to bolster sales of electric vehicles and mandating that the state transfer much of its fleet of cars, trucks and buses to electric models over the next decade. Both pieces of legislation, Senate Bills 4 and 10, were signed into law by Lamont on Tuesday, according to his office.
Lamont did not officially announce the bill signings and his office is considering whether to hold a ceremonial signing at a later date, according to a spokesman.
Lori Brown, executive director of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, hailed the work by lawmakers and Lamont in the session that ended May 5, pointing to the emissionreduction bills as well as other measures to lift caps on solar power and require climate-change education in schools.
“There’s no question, the legislators were very frustrated just like the advocates were last year that we did not make any progress on climate,” Brown said. “This year was just a banner year; we got every climate bill we asked for. It would have been more but toward the end things just got tight.”
While Republicans gave bipartisan support to some pieces of the Democrats’ climate agenda — such as the 35-0 Senate vote to codify Lamont’s 2040 clean-power goal — other proposals became mired in lengthy debates over costs and inflation.
One provision that particularly rankled conservatives was Lamont’s proposal to adopt California’s tougher emissions standards on medium and heavy-duty trucks, which was folded into SB4 before it passed both chambers.
While Connecticut already uses the California standards on cars and smaller trucks, business industry lobbyists estimated that California-compliant diesel trucks could cost up to $57,000 more per vehicle.
“Obviously with inflation what it is at record highs, the last thing we should be doing is implementing further costs on small businesses,” said state Rep. Stephen Harding of Brookfield, the ranking Republican on the Environment Committee.
In a statement last week hailing the passage of SB4, Lamont noted that Connecticut is already behind on its commitments to drastically reduce carbon emissions by mid-century, and that the state’s air quality has consistently failed to meet federal standards.
“The choice is clear, adopting the California framework and the other great initiatives in this bill will be another important step toward cleaner air and better health outcomes for all residents, particularly those who live in our cities and along our transportation corridors, and also gets us headed back in the right direction on our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals,” Lamont said.
With promises to reduce emissions now enshrined in law, much of the work turns to state agencies such as the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to draft regulations and enforcement mechanisms to put those policies in place.
“There’s a lot to figure out,” Brown said. “The ink isn’t even dry (on the legislation), and DEEP is trying to put these plans together.”
The Department of Administrative Services, meanwhile, now has a deadline of 2030 to transition its fleet of 3,600 cars and trucks to electric vehicles, while other deadlines are in place to phase out diesel-powered buses from state and local use.
Republicans, meanwhile, remain concerned that Connecticut lacks the necessary infrastructure to accommodate such a switch over the next decade, particularly on state-owned parking lots that will need to be able to charge large numbers of vehicles overnight.
“I think it’s great that we’re moving to electric vehicles, I think we should be working to eliminate our carbon footprint,” Harding said. “However, I don’t think there’s been enough collaboration and discussion on what kind of infrastructure is available to take on that responsibility of moving to essentially a majority of electric vehicles. We have a grid that can barely take on the responsibilities it has today.”
While legislative analysts did not publish a complete estimate on how much the bills would cost to implement, the legislation included several provisions to help businesses and local governments deal with the costs, such as a $15 million voucher program for the purchase of medium and heavy-duty trucks, along with $20 million in grants to help school districts purchase carbonfree school buses.
The legislation signed by Lamont this week also includes $75 million in bonding to upgrade traffic lights to reduce traffic and idling.