Fight over EV regulations brings threats, allegations before Tuesday meeting.
The state legislature’s bipartisan Regulations Review Committee will meet Tuesday to discuss and vote on controversial regulations that set the state on a path to banning the sale of gasoline powered vehicles by 2035. Interested parties in support and opposition to the rules predict the new rules will bring a catastrophe whether they are adopted, rejected or deferred. The phase-in of the mandatory switch to electric vehicles would begin in 2026.
The rhetoric continued to add to climate change during the holiday weekend. Veteran state Representative Bob Godfrey (D-Danbury), a member of the committee, told recipients of a message he sent that the Koch brothers are behind Republican opposition to the regulations. Republicans deny the allegation.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) sent the proposed regulations to the committee with an ominous threat to committee members. “In addition to the public health impacts of Connecticut’s continued noncompliance with federal health-based air quality standards,” the memo states, “continued failure to meet these standards complete DEEP to impose ever more stringent and costly emission reduction requirements on stationary source owners and operators.” This could also become a disruptive policy for state businesses.
The committee has seven Republicans and seven Democrats. The co-chairs are House Democrat Lucy Dathan and Senate Republican John Kissel. If the committee rejects the proposed regulations they will go before the General Assembly in the next regular session, which begins in February. Some legislators may be reluctant to vote on a measure that begins to squeeze the sale of gas powered vehicles in two years.
Published November 27, 2023.
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