Climate Bill Dies and Will Not Get Called in the Senate - CT Examiner

Climate Bill Dies and Will Not Get Called in the Senate - CT Examiner

HARTFORD – Word moved fast around the Capitol Wednesday afternoon – the last day of the session – that the massive climate bill spearheaded by State Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, was all but dead.

Reached outside of the House Chambers, Palm, vice-chair of the Environment Committee, put the blame at the feet of Republicans and the filibuster.

“Who killed it? The filibuster killed it,” said Palm, who worked feverishly on the specifics of the bill and getting it passed in the state House last week. The House voted 94-56 on May 1, primarily along party lines.

State Rep. Tom Delnicki, R-South Windsor, voted against the climate bill in the House, telling CT Examiner Wednesday afternoon that he had several concerns.

“I was concerned about the way the bill was written, and whether or not it was achievable,” Delnicki said. “Because, if you are going to do something, it’s got to be achievable, right? It has to be something people can rely on. I hear some people are buying into it [the climate bill], while others are saying this is impossible, by that I mean the infrastructure of it. Let’s take a look at what is reasonable. You do not want to go into it without having the ability to make it work.”

“Connecticut is one of 13 states that allows this kind of running down the clock,” Palm told CT Examiner Wednesday. “Yeah, and it’s not a UConn Husky game. You can’t run the shot clock dribbling. The people are suffering because of that filibuster, that is time wasted and it is abominable selfishness. We gave the Republicans the power of the filibuster and they abused it… Our tradition of allowing, quote unquote, endless debate wastes time at the most critical point in the session. That’s why the bill died. And, it wasn’t because the Democrats didn’t want this, the Democrats wanted this bill.”

Palm, who is not running after this term, added: “I don’t want to hear Republicans talk about how they care so much about the business community. The business community would love this bill. CBIA [Connecticut Business & Industry Association] liked it. They were fine with it. I had individual business people coming up to me for months saying I can’t wait to apply for that waiver.”

“They [Republicans] told the business community to go pound sand because they were so determined to kill this bill that they threw their own businesses under the bus and they need to hear that,” she said.

Palm added: “I just think we have to call it what it is, which is political muscle flexing ahead of what human beings want.”

The climate bill would have declared that Connecticut is in a climate crisis, and would have required the state to lower its greenhouse gas emissions to at least 65 percent below its 2001 levels by 2040, and 85 percent below by 2050. The bill also included provisions addressing energy efficiency, fee waivers and a tax rebate program.