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The comprehensive energy strategy legislation is designed to restructure the state’s support for renewable sources of electricity, expand access to natural gas and provide cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy throughout the region and the state.
“I am very proud of the work we have done this year to make the state’s energy supply cleaner, cheaper and more reliable,” Duff said in a statement. The senator, who represents Norwalk and Darien, joined Malloy and other officials Monday at a ceremony at the Capitol in Hartford where Malloy signed the bills into law.
“Every home and business in Connecticut requires energy on a daily basis, making the affordability of energy essential to the health of our state’s economy. There will now be more affordable and alternative energy options available than ever before, and efforts to conserve or be more efficient in the use of energy will have an even greater pay-off.”
Duff serves as the state Senate’s chairman of the Energy & Technology Committee with co-chair state Rep. Lonnie Reed (D-102nd District), whom he thanked – with Malloy – for General Assembly’s success in moving the legislation forward.
The laws incentivize businesses and homeowners to weatherize their facilities and homes and to make equipment upgrades. They also promote renewable energy “through low interest financing and advanced metering technology.”
Additionally, the laws also facilitate tree trimming to make Connecticut’s electric grid more reliable during major storms and make converting to cleaner, cheaper natural gas an more affordable proposition for homeowners and businesses.
The bills also reaffirm the state’s goal to derive 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and makes it easier for the state to harness competitively priced hydropower and slowly begin to reduce support for biomass and landfill gas generated energy plants.
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