A Malloy administration energy bill aimed at making it more cost effective for Connecticut homeowners to install solar panels on their rooftops won the approval of a key state legislative committee on Thursday.
The bill establishes a fixed rate for Connecticut’s residential solar rooftop program to ensure that developers can cover their costs and earn a fair rate of return. It also calls for 40 percent of the State’s energy to be generated from renewable sources by 2030. And it reverses previous state policy by pushing for increased fuel diversity to protect Connecticut residents from the sometimes volatile natural gas market.
Many members of the Energy and Technology Committee had concerns with the bill but voted to get it out of committee. One of them is Democratic Representative Jonathan Steinberg of Westport. He says he’s worried about the accuracy of the future energy forecast being made by the State.
“This bill isn’t where I want it to be. I’m always reluctant to take something on faith that has such great consequence. But I always want to stress we don’t really have a choice. We must have a bill come out of this Committee and get voted on the floor.”
Governor Dannel Malloy applauded lawmakers for getting the bill out of Committee. He says it gets Connecticut one step closer to taking real and substantive action to secure the State’s clean energy future and combat the effects of global climate change.
Copyright 2018 WSHU
