Lamont signs climate resiliency bill

“We have to address and reduce greenhouse gas emissions or else we’re never going to be able to afford the scale of investment that we’ll need to keep our communities safe.” Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

GUILFORD — On a low-lying beach in a major flood zone, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation Tuesday aimed at giving towns and cities better resiliency in coping with storm runoff and other near-term effects of climate change by leveraging $30 million long-term state borrowing with federal, local and private funds.

But it’s just a down payment on what Connecticut will need in coming decades, after the General Assembly’s recent failure to endorse the state’s participation in a regional agreement called the Transportation and Climate Initiative.

Lamont vowed the controversial issue “will come up again.”

“Don’t take it for granted,” Lamont said, looking out over the manicured sand and secluded cove at the municipal Jacob’s Beach, noting that storm tides present major obstacles in the southern part of this town of about 23,000. “People talk about climate change and global warming. I don’t think that it does justice to what is happening. These are man-made events that are happening, accelerating every day, getting worse. It’s extraordinary, the risk we have, certainly in our waterfront communities and more broadly than that.”

Lamont signed the legislation before a few dozen activists and witnesses, including lawmakers, state officials, and Katie Dykes, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

The governor said he was relieved to live in Connecticut at a time when states around the country are dealing with extremely adverse weather events along with wildfires, drought and erosion linked to rising temperatures and climate change. “I’m proud that Connecticut is in a lot better shape,” Lamont said. “We’ve been taking this seriously for a long time.”

The $30 million will be linked to the availability of federal support as well as private investment. The new law allows towns and cities to create municipal storm water authorities, raise revenue and identify local projects, such as the plan here to elevate a roadway for residents can better access their neighborhoods in floods; and another to relocate municipal vehicles from a flood zone to a drier, morenortherly location, said First Selectman Matthew T. Hoey III.

Lamont recalled that during Superstorm Sandy in 2012, a major electricity substation was nearly flooded out in Bridgeport.

“When it comes to resilience, that means protecting ourselves from floods,” Lamont said, stressing the need to make the electric grid and transportation system more carbon-free, which was a major goal of the TCI. The initiative would impose costs on petroleum suppliers for air emissions worth about a nickel a gallon, that would help the state fund cleanenergy projects.

The Democratic majority in the legislature, amid pressure from Republicans who charged that TCI would raise gasoline prices, wilted during the recent legislative session and failed to vote on the regional agreement. The TCI program was estimated to bring close to $90 million to the state in 2023.

Dykes said the effort to implement the $30 million in capital expenditures through the State Bond Commission, is in the planning stages.

She said that the recommendations of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change on resilience planning emphasized the impact of the consequences of a warming planet on all towns and cities in the state. Forty percent of the spending will be targeted at most at-risk communities along the Long Island Sound, including New Haven and Bridgeport.

“We have to address and reduce greenhouse gas emissions or else we’re never going to be able to afford the scale of investment that we’ll need to keep our communities safe,” Dykes said, stressing that a forthcoming DEEP report on quality will show that transportation-related emissions, linked to respiratory and childhood asthma cases in cities such as Bridgeport and New Haven, continue to grow.

Speaking to reporters after the bill signing. Lamont said the resiliency legislation was aimed at helping towns and cities cope locally. He is hopeful that the legislature will approve the regional TCI bill next year. “It we had TCI, if we were able to get our transportation system all-electric, that would be the best thing going forward. In the meantime, we have some immediate needs, right now, on our coastline in particular. That’s what this resilience bill is all about.”

Lamont said that the Transportation Climate Initiative recently passed one chamber in the Rhode Island legislature, and is moving forward in Massachusetts and Washington, D.C. “We weren’t able to get that passed, but it will come up again,” he said.

In reaction, state Senate Minority Leader Kevin Kelly of Stratford, said Tuesday that while he supports cleaner air and investments in better transportation, the higher gasoline prices would be “a significant burden on working and middle-class families” and would particularly hurt poorer families with older cars. He said that without the participation of states to our west, from where the prevailing winds bring emissions, Connecticut air quality would not improve.

Lamont’s administration claims that with gasoline prices fluctuating on a monthly basis, a nickel increase would be nominal and might not even be reflected at the pump if petroleum distributors were competitive.

According to AAA Northeast, the average per-gallon gas price in Connecticut on Tuesday was $3.13. In June it was $3.08 and a year ago, $2.28.