Connecticut homeowners, renters, and businesses will see their gas bills go up if two of the state’s utilities get permission to charge customers to build more outdated gas pipelines and infrastructure. Fortunately, this backward proposal isn’t yet a done deal.Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas are planning to spend millions on outdated technology that will take decades to pay off—if it doesn’t become obsolete first. To do this, SCG wants to hike rates by roughly $160 per year for residential customers, while CNG is seeking to have customers foot an additional $80 per year.With many families struggling to pay for basic necessities like groceries and housing those costs would be hard to afford. And to what end?Gas is a dirty form of energy that pollutes indoor and outdoor air, harms human health, and exacerbates the climate crisis. Such investments would undermine the state’s own legally binding climate goals.Worsening the climate crisis is costly to everyone, especially vulnerable communities who are already paying for dirty power with their health due to their disproportionate proximity to power plants. Increasing high heat days also results in more heat-related deaths and hospital visits. Warmer winters disrupt ecosystems, that in turn affect agriculture and seasonal growing, impacting food systems and potentially driving up the cost of food.As clean electricity becomes increasingly accessible in Connecticut, new gas infrastructure will become obsolete well before it’s paid for—with spending on abandoned pipelines saddling the state’s utility customers with even higher bills.There’s a better way forward. Instead of spending on pipelines, Connecticut can invest in upgrading to clean energy in homes, which can reduce energy bills while addressing a major source of air pollution.Electrification, the process of switching over from gas-powered HVACs and water heaters to renewable-powered, electric technologies like heat pumps, is already reducing pollution from buildings. The technology can be purchased affordably using state incentives. Energize Connecticut offers up to $15,000 in combined rebates for a residential air-source heat pump, which could cover the entire cost of this heating and cooling system for some homes.If households with heating oil or propane upgrade to a heat pump, their utility bills can decrease by up to 35%. The average household in the state can save up to 10% in utility bills by switching a fossil fuel water heater to an electric heat pump water heater.Connecticut’s air quality will also see a massive improvement, as gas, oil and propane burned inside of buildings generates eight times more smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution than all of the state’s power plants combined. In addition, fossil fuels are responsible for roughly 30% of Connecticut’s total climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions—which new gas infrastructure would only increase.Since unpredictable weather, including cold snaps and heat waves, is becoming more common, the electricity grid needs to be resilient. Heat pumps are perfect for that purpose, as they use an average of 29% less electricity to maintain the same level of cooling as traditional air conditioning units. Heat pump water heaters are two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. Less energy usage means a more resilient grid during intense weather.Whether Connecticut’s gas utilities can increase rates for customers in order to fund new pipeline spending is up to the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, which must take into account the perspective of Connecticut residents. You can voice your opposition to the gas utilities’ proposed rate increases on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s online filing system, or by emailing Pura.ExecutiveSecretary@ct.gov.Connecticut has the potential for an affordable, clean energy future that benefits all the state’s residents. Allowing gas companies to increase utility bills for customers so they can spend on outdated, expensive, and dirty energy infrastructure is not the way.Tenaya Taylor is the executive director of Nonprofit Accountability Group.
sekar nallalu Commentary,Cryptocurrency,Op-Ed,Opinion Opinion: CT regulators must reject utility bill hikes for fossil fuel system spending