Rep. Christine Palm, D-Chester, the vice chair of the Environment Committee, said the case and coalition for climate-change has shifted.
“It’s really a multiracial, multigenerational movement,” Palm said. “Now, the days of having it be about white privilege or hippiedom are long gone. It’s about environmental justice. It’s about asthma. It’s about mental health. And it is being led primarily by young people.”
Senate Bill 4 drew Republican opposition over concerns that the bill was committing Connecticut to technology that may not be ready, particularly a goal of relying on electric school buses by 2030 in environmentally vulnerable communities and 2040 elsewhere.
“It’s just going too far, particularly with school buses,” said House Minority Leader Vincent J. Candelora, R-North Branford. “I have a concern the technology isn’t there.”
But he was relatively measured in his opposition, saying he agreed with the bill’s goals and much of its substance.
The bill empowers the commissioner of energy and environmental protection to adopt regulations implementing California’s medium- and heavy-duty truck standards in Connecticut — essentially a timetable for pushing that fleet towards fewer and and eventually zero emissions.
“The choice is clear, adopting the California framework and the other great initiatives in this bill will be another important step toward cleaner air and better health outcomes for all residents, particularly those who live in our cities and along our transportation corridors, and also gets us headed back in the right direction on our greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals,” Lamont said after passage.
New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts, among other states, already have adopted the standards.
Rep. Mary Mushsinky, D-Wallingford, a long-time environmental advocate and the longest-serving member of the House, said climate change bills like TCI and the measure passed Friday typically take years to ripen.
“These are future-changing bills. We’re talking about a wholesale changeover of transportation technology. And that’s a big leap.” Mushinsky said.
The Lamont administration lost the messaging war on TCI just as it did in 2019 when the governor proposed reestablishing highway tolls without immediately making the case for what the revenue would buy.
“It was the exact same mistake,” Haskell said. “Everybody was focused on where the money was coming from. Nobody was talking about where the money was going to.”
The mistake, he said, was not repeated in 2022.
