Key climate change proposal dies in CT legislature — for now - CT Insider
Key climate change proposal dies in CT legislature - for now
Connecticut met one of it's climate goals in 2020 by reducing emissions 10 percent over levels set in the 1990s. However, the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere rose the next year as drivers returned to the road following the pandemic. Lawmakers are debating what is the best way to get the state back on track toward meeting its larger goal of cutting 80 percent of emissions by 2050. File photo / Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media
A bill that would empower Gov. Ned Lamont’s administration to take a heavier hand in regulating climate-altering carbon emissions is in jeopardy this week after members of the legislature’s budget-writing opted to pass over the proposal.
On Monday, lawmakers on the Appropriations Committee failed to consider Senate Bill 1145, a controversial bill that advocates said would help get the state on track toward meeting its goal of cutting emissions to 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050, but which critics had lambasted as an attempt at bureaucratic overreach.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate legislation
The federal government and states are in the process of implementing two laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act — an investment of more than a trillion dollars to address climate change.