As winter nears, gas prices soaring
Connecticut promoted natural gas, shifting from oil heat — but pipeline construction has stalled
In August 2014, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, officials from the Fairfield County town of Wilton and representatives of Yankee Gas celebrated the start of a large-scale natural gas expansion project estimated to save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Malloy’s Comprehensive Energy Strategy recommended changes in energy efficiency, electricity supply, industrial energy requirements, transportation and natural gas. He promoted his plan to spur economic development, business growth and reduced costs in response to persistent complaints from homeowners and businesses about high energy prices.
A key part of the governor’s plan was to convert heating in homes and businesses to natural gas from oil, a strategy that Wilton embraced. Malloy announced in 2012 an ambitious goal of connecting 300,000 households to natural gas by 2020.
State officials reported in 2018 that 39,104 residential customers converted to natural gas for heating and 12,021 commercial and industrial customers shifted to natural gas for generation or other processes between 2014 and 2016.
But now, soaring natural gas prices are eliminating the rationale to abandon oil.
High natural gas prices promise a costly winter:
In Wilton, all four of the town’s schools were hooked up to natural gas by 2016.
Local officials are now bracing for a costly winter as natural gas prices soar. Wilton has budgeted more than $500,000 for heating, up from $440,000 last year and about $300,000 before that, said Chris Burney, director of public works and facilities.
“In the next month or so we’ll decide if we have to pull money out of other areas to supplement the heating bill,” he said.
they move forward with canceling their non-medical exemption and getting the vaccination,” Simoni said. “So we are seeing the needle move in the right direction.”
Simoni explained that even with many students studying online, safety protocols like mask mandates, weekly testing and physical distancing are still in place.
“In terms of me feeling safe or the campus feeling safe, I think we’re doing the best we can, maybe even a level going above and beyond” with the mandates, Simoni said. The schools will continue the mandates on the campuses unless something “monumental changes in the health landscape” that would also cause the state Department of Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to change their guidance.
“There’s less of an issue with everybody wearing masks, regardless of vaccination status, that adds a level of comfort in the classroom and out of the classroom, which I think is helpful to our campus community,” he said.
While students at the community colleges have to fill out a form, students at the state universities have to upload their vaccination cards for the university health service department to review and confirm. Students who received exemptions at the state universities also have to be tested for COVID-19 weekly.
Sal Cintorino, the chief operating officer at Central Connecticut State University, said that approximately 95% of the residential students at CCSU and 90% of commuter students have been fully or partially vaccinated.
“We’re really excited about where we are,” he said, adding that the goal this year is to continue to educate the campus community about the vaccines. Cintorino said the pandemic’s extension into a third academic year has been a learning experience and helped when it came to preparing for the fall.
“But it’s all about compliance and teamwork,” Cintorino said. “So the students and faculty and staff have been really good in helping us to manage this, and that’s really what would make this work.”
The University of Connecticut also implemented a vaccine mandate for all UConn students this summer.
As of last week, over 90% of all students across all five of UConn’s campuses reported being fully or partially vaccinated. But prior to the start of the semester, The Courant reported that more than 500 students at the University of Connecticut were approved for non-medical exemptions.