We recently sent a letter to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection expressing our concern about the proposed 10 megawatt fracked-gas power plant at the ESPN campus in Bristol. While public comments about this project are due today, January 17, we still encourage you to contact DEEP to raise your own concerns about this project or other fossil fuel projects like it. If you would like more information about this issue, please contact us.
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We urge DEEP to deny the air quality permits for the proposed gas power plant in Bristol. We are deeply concerned about the impacts that this proposed project would have on the integrity of the state’s natural resources, and on the health and well-being of the residents of Bristol and surrounding towns.
Climate change is already a present-day reality, and the effects are expected to greatly multiply if we do not take immediate steps to change our policies and behaviors to better care for the earth. Poor communities and communities of color disproportionately bear the burden of the impacts of environmental injustices and the effects of climate change. Adding more harmful emissions to the air through expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure will only add to these burdens.
Connecticut does not need any more dirty power. Connecticut needs to expand renewable energy such as solar and wind. In order to reach the stated goals set forth in the December 2018 report of the Recommendations from the Governor’s Council on Climate Change and Governor Lamont’s Executive Order 3, the state must move away from projects such as this one and instead increase the number of renewable energy projects. We are not going to reach these ambitious, and necessary, climate goals if DEEP continues to approve permits for fracked-gas power plants. As Commissioner Dykes stated in her remarks at the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters Environmental Summit on January 15, 2020, natural gas is not a bridge fuel; it’s a fossil fuel. We applaud this statement, and we urge the Department to take actions that support this declaration.
DEEP has an opportunity in this moment to exhibit courageous leadership in working with ESPN and other stakeholders to develop a plan for clean power to meet the needs of this important Connecticut business. While ISO-NE may have a structure that prioritizes fossil fuel projects, that does not mean that DEEP is powerless when it comes to making these important local energy choices. Each of us needs to do what is within our power to address the climate crisis. DEEP could deny the air quality permits for this fossil fuel project, and we urge the Department to do so.
