DEEP boss takes helm in era of complex challenges
Katie Dykes has sat at the large conference table in the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection commissioner’s office many times. But not the way she does now.
Now she sits at the head of that table as the third person to lead DEEP since it was created from the old Department of Environmental Protection in 2011.
A self-described geek who admits she wears the description energy wonk as “a badge of honor,” Dykes was the deputy commissioner of DEEP’s Energy Bureau from 2012 until 2015 as it created the first-ever energy strategy for the state, including the first organized policy around renewable and clean energy deployment.
She moved into the world of energy regulation in 2015, becoming chairwoman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), until Gov. Ned Lamont, in a move that surprised just about everyone, tapped her to run the department.
Now back — not only in DEEP administration but as the boss — she lives a packed, sometimes double-booked life that has her racing across the state while juggling the care of three young children with her husband, Mackey Dykes, who is equally busy as vice president of commercial and industrial programs at the Connecticut Green Bank.
A wonk family for sure when it comes to the often highly technical, complex, jargon- and acronym-filled vagaries of energy policy — renewable or otherwise.
Dykes takes over as the department arguably moves into its second generation. DEEP’s first commissioner, Dan Esty — Dykes’ professor when she was a Yale undergrad and then a law student — Esty’s successor Rob Klee, and the governor they served — Dan Malloy — are gone.
Their philosophy and very clear marching orders over eight years — to usher in cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy — sometimes succeeded and sometimes didn’t. The department Dykes inherited has been battered by budget cuts and personnel losses and faces a federal government that is openly hostile to many of its own environmental mandates, leaving states like Connecticut to pick up the slack with fewer federal resources.
Meanwhile, the energy and environmental philosophy from Lamont — create jobs and reduce carbon emissions — remains a bit fuzzy. And Dykes faces growing pains that remain unresolved from the Malloy years, as well as divisive new issues. Most of them involve that wonky subject she loves — energy.
But DEEP’s other missions involve classic environmental concerns, encompassing everything from running state parks and wildlife management to tackling more recent challenges associated with climate change, such as the sea level rise that threatens the Connecticut coast.
It’s somewhat new territory for the energy-focused Dykes and she returns repeatedly to her energy comfort zone for paradigms. But the first subject she addresses when asked to contemplate her return to DEEP administration is environmental.
“Climate change clearly has to be at the top of our agenda,” she said, sitting at her big conference table on a recent morning, a sports fleece over her commissioner-appropriate clothes – not unlike her two predecessors, who sometimes turned up at work in suits and hiking boots.
“What is surprising and shocking and sobering, frankly, is how rapidly we are experiencing the effects and seeing the unfolding of climate change,” she added. “So when I think back over the last six years and really what’s changed – that’s really what’s present for me. I just cannot underscore enough how quickly things have changed in this short time period.”
Past versus present
As one of the architects of that first energy strategy in 2012 that focused on a transition to natural gasbased electricity generation and heat as a bridge from oil and coal to renewables, Dykes faced considerable pushback from an unhappy environmental advocacy community and like-minded lawmakers because of the climate implications of continuing with gas. A concerted regional effort eventually thwarted all plans for additional natural gas pipelines in New England and New York.
“I think we have traveled a very long way on that bridge in a short period of time,” she said, indicating there was likely to be no similar push for gas moving forward.
That is likely welcome news to the environmental community which, while not saying I-told-you-so, is not giving Dykes much of a honeymoon given that she is a DEEP veteran.
But she is getting complimentary reviews so far from the many constituent groups that have met with her, including from nonenergy environmental advocates who worry, as they have since DEEP was formed, that Connecticut’s long-standing environmental mission would be a poor cousin to its younger, sexier renewable energy relative.
“There’s always been a tension and a challenge,” said Chris Phelps of Environment Connecticut, who along with others questioned the structure of DEEP from the start. “Katie is well-aware and sensitive to not be the energy DEEP commissioner.”
Eric Hammerling, executive director of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, said he’s had several conversations with Dykes and found her to be a quick study on conservation and land issues.
“She’s generally open, interested, willing to learn,” said Hammerling. “She’s certainly been a very strong advocate for Passport to Parks,” he said of the new dedicated-funding system for state parks.
The Appropriations Committee recently voted to strip some of the money for Passport to Parks, which comes from vehicle registration fees, for other uses. Dykes called that “disheartening,” saying that even in its infancy, the program already had an impact on department planning because of the dedicated funding.
“I believe that our environmental resources in the state are really key to our economic competitiveness,” Dykes said. “They are a very important part of what advantages Connecticut as a place to live and do business.”
But she is on notice. “Energy and the balance with environmental quality – that’s one of the things we’re measuring her and the entire Lamont administration on,” said Curt Johnson, president of Connecticut Fund for the Environment, who made no secret of his frustration with the previous two administrations, particularly when it came to funding for such projects as inland flooding.
On the Energy and Technology Committee, now largely under new and in some cases inexperienced leadership, the relationship is off to a promising start.