FOR THOSE THAT NOT HAD THE CHANCE YET TO CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW PLEASE DO SO AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. LETS MAKE A BIG PUSH OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS GOING INTO THE WEEK
Everyone please take the time to follow the link below this is extremely important.
Legislative Alert
The Connecticut House of Representatives may be voting on a solution to fix the Special Transportation Fund as early as next week. Use this link https://www.votervoice.net/CCIA/campaigns/58617/respond
to call your State Representative tell them to vote in favor of using the existing car sales tax to fix the funding shortfall in the Special Transportation Fund.
Make the call. Leave a message. $4.3 billion of projects are at stake! Please forward this message to as many people in your organization as possible!***ADVISORY***
HARTFORD – Move CT Forward’s Don Shubert will appear on 1360AM WDRC’s Brad Davis radio program to discuss the current deteriorating state of Connecticut’s infrastructure and how Hartford needs to act now to fix it.
Don will be appearing on the show, which can be heard online here, tomorrow, Wednesday, April 25 at 7:50 a.m. Move CT Forward seeks to bring public attention to and resolve Connecticut’s infrastructure crisis. The organization began a seven-figure paid media campaign last month to highlight just how badly the state’s infrastructure has been allowed to deteriorate and ensure that representatives in Hartford take immediate action. A video, “Headlines”, can be viewed at movectforward.com Move CT Forward consists of the Connecticut Construction Industries Association, I.U.O.E. Local 478 and the Connecticut Laborers’ District Council.
Connecticut’s infrastructure is crumbling and the Special Transportation Fund (STF) has run out. $4.3 billion in transportation projects have been suspended. According to the national transportation research group TRIP, the Reason Foundation, and the America Society of Civil Engineers, Connecticut roads are among the worst in the country.[i] TRIP found that 57% of Connecticut roads are in “poor condition and 33% of bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The TRIP report also notes that the abysmal condition of the state’s infrastructure costs motorists $864 a year in needed vehicle repairs.[ii]
Additionally, this deteriorating infrastructure has a detrimental impact on the overall quality of life in the state. Residents spend over 45 hours per year stuck in traffic, valuable time that they could be spending with family and friends. Moreover, as a corridor state, our local economy is reliant on a strong transportation system.
For more information on Move CT Forward and need to fix the state’s crumbling infrastructure, log on to MoveCTForward.com, like us on Facebook (Facebook.com/MoveCTForward) and follow us on Twitter (@MoveCTForward).
Aresimowicz promises House vote on tolls
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said Tuesday he intends to call a vote next week on legislation making an initial commitment to implementing electronic highway tolls, despite Republican opposition that could brand Democrats as the party of tolls.
Many Democrats are nervous at the prospect of an election-year vote on a still-developing bill that would provide no immediate financial relief to the depleted Special Transportation Fund, instead authorizing the Department of Transportation to begin what is expected to be a multi-year process.
“I’m not willing to walk away from this session with doing nothing to solve this problem,” Aresimowicz told Capitol reporters. “Our job is to rep the citizens of the state and make very difficult decisions for the betterment of this state. This falls into that category for me.”
The Democratic majority in the House has fallen from 114-37 after the 2008 election to 79-71, saddling Aresimowicz with the smallest working majority in decades. Opposition by just five House Democrats to tolls would scuttle the effort.
Aresimowicz said he did not fear Republican campaign mailers accusing Democrats of opening Connecticut motorists to tolls on every major highway, saying the counter message would be to label Republicans as choosing higher commuter bus and train fares and a freeze on transportation repairs as preferable to tolls.
“Are they prepared for the mailers of they’re the party of no tolls and crumbling infrastructure that makes us not competitive with neighboring states?” he asked.
The legislature’s constitutional adjournment deadline is midnight May 9. One of the challenges facing Aresimowicz is drawing a bill with sufficient detail to convince Democrats to risk an election-year vote.
Aresimowicz said he wants to see legislation that provides a significant discount — as high as 50 percent — to in-state drivers. This could be provided in several ways, including through an income-tax credit, or a reduced price for commuter highway passes.
Aresimowicz said he believes that even with in-state discounts, tolls could raise up to $1 billion per year once fully implemented, with close to half of the revenue coming from out-of-state motorists.
“Those are the discussions that we need to have,” he said, adding that the alternative is to accept a series of wide-ranging cutbacks in Connecticut’s transportation program.
House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz, D-Berlin, said Tuesday he intends to call a vote next week on legislation making an initial commitment to implementing electronic highway tolls, despite Republican opposition that could brand Democrats as the party of tolls.
Many Democrats are nervous at the prospect of an election-year vote on a still-developing bill that would provide no immediate financial relief to the depleted Special Transportation Fund, instead authorizing the Department of Transportation to begin what is expected to be a multi-year process.
“I’m not willing to walk away from this session with doing nothing to solve this problem,” Aresimowicz told Capitol reporters. “Our job is to rep the citizens of the state and make very difficult decisions for the betterment of this state. This falls into that category for me.”
The Democratic majority in the House has fallen from 114-37 after the 2008 election to 79-71, saddling Aresimowicz with the smallest working majority in decades. Opposition by just five House Democrats to tolls would scuttle the effort.
Aresimowicz said he did not fear Republican campaign mailers accusing Democrats of opening Connecticut motorists to tolls on every major highway, saying the counter message would be to label Republicans as choosing higher commuter bus and train fares and a freeze on transportation repairs as preferable to tolls.
“Are they prepared for the mailers of they’re the party of no tolls and crumbling infrastructure that makes us not competitive with neighboring states?” he asked.
The legislature’s constitutional adjournment deadline is midnight May 9. One of the challenges facing Aresimowicz is drawing a bill with sufficient detail to convince Democrats to risk an election-year vote.
Aresimowicz said he wants to see legislation that provides a significant discount — as high as 50 percent — to in-state drivers. This could be provided in several ways, including through an income-tax credit, or a reduced price for commuter highway passes.
Aresimowicz said he believes that even with in-state discounts, tolls could raise up to $1 billion per year once fully implemented, with close to half of the revenue coming from out-of-state motorists.
“Those are the discussions that we need to have,” he said, adding that the alternative is to accept a series of wide-ranging cutbacks in Connecticut’s transportation program. CLICK TITLE TO CONTINUE
Natural gas essential to New York's energy mix
Thomas F. O'Mara, Commentary
There was a time not long ago that natural gas was hailed by environmentalists as a cleaner energy solution. During his first Earth Day speech as President, Barack Obama lauded domestic natural gas as a critical bridge fuel to a renewable energy future. Towards the end of his presidency, Obama credited the use of natural gas for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reminding the audience of a climate change event at the White House that "we've got to live in the real world." Somewhere along the line that message got lost, and if we don't start remembering that we live in the real world, the cost of heat and electricity will be unaffordable for most New Yorkers. In the real world, demand for natural gas is at an all-time high — and that's been a good thing for the environment and the U.S. economy, particularly in our neighboring state of Pennsylvania.
Since 1990, U.S. natural gas production is up 37 percent and greenhouse gas emissions are down 17 percent. From 2005-2015, natural gas consumption increased 24 percent — contributing to dramatic drops in a number of air pollutants, including sulfur dioxide (down 66 percent), fine particulate matter (down 34 percent), and nitrogen oxide (down 20 percent). One of the important benefits of natural gas is the way it works in concert with renewable forms of energy. The main challenge with relying on renewable sources of energy, such as wind or solar, is their inherent unreliability. Storage capacity simply is not ready for prime time yet and cannot meet our energy demands. Continued innovation and investment in this area is critical to the future viability of renewables.
Electric power needs to be used when it's generated, so if the sun's not out or the wind isn't blowing, a wind turbine or solar panel isn't much use to the electric grid. Natural gas is a strong compliment to renewables because it can be brought online quickly, ensuring reliability in systems when renewables aren't producing. A recent report released by the Business Council for Sustainable Energy highlights this important link between domestic natural gas and renewables. According to the report, natural gas and renewables together generated 50 percent of U.S. electricity in 2017, up from 31 percent in 2008. At the same time, greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. power sector fell to their lowest levels since 1990. Furthermore, while we have made some gains in renewable electricity supply, our heating fuel remains at about 95 percent fossil fuel-based and natural gas is by far the cleanest of that heat source. nUnfortunately, a group of vocal activists refuses to accept the very real limits to renewable energy and are actively working to put a stranglehold on the development of much-needed energy infrastructure. Policymakers in New York State are blocking critical projects that are needed to supply energy to the entire New York and New England region — with very real world consequences for consumers who are cut off from access to affordable energy. The zealots may be successful in assuring that we don't freeze to death in the dark, but ignoring natural gas may mean that we freeze to death with the lights on.
This past winter, which seems to be dragging on and on, New England was faced with constraints to its energy supply caused in part by the blockade of domestic pipeline construction, which Governor Cuomo has singlehandedly blocked. Faced with harsh winter weather and limited access to domestic natural gas, New England imported liquefied natural gas from Russia just to meet basic heating and electricity needs. So rather than tapping plentiful gas supplies in nearby Pennsylvania, New England consumers were forced to depend on Vladimir Putin and a bunch of Russian oligarchs to heat their homes.
In New York, the Governor has laid out a very ambitious set of goals to transition the state to renewable energy. I agree that we should be leading the way in renewable energy development, but we also have to make sure that residents and businesses have the energy they need right now to live and thrive in New York. We can keep the lights and heat on and emissions down, but only if we stop this senseless opposition to natural gas and critical energy infrastructure.
Eversource, UI hit hard in new customer value survey
Connecticut’s two largest investor-owned electric utilities didn’t fare well in a customer value ranking released Tuesday by a Colorado-based industry consultant. The United Illuminating Co., which is based in Orange, and Eversource Energy, which has its headquarters in Hartford, finished in the bottom half of the rankings in four of the five categories used by the Wired Group to rate electric utilities around the country. The ratings draw upon data from filings with two federal agencies as well as findings of J.D. Power and Associates, a California-based marketing company that studies customer service satisfaction.
Paul Alvarez, president of the Wired Group and the author of the rankings, said the company used proprietary software to create an assessment designed to help state utility regulators and consumer advocates from around the country determine whether ratepayers are getting adequate value for the amount that investor-owned electric utilities are spending on infrastructure upgrades
“Given exceptional growth in utilities’ grid investments in recent years, concern about the benefits customers are getting in return is growing,” Alvarez said.
Eversource finished 97th out of 103 electric utilities in the category of customer satisfaction while United Illuminating came in 11 spots higher.
United Illuminating finished 118th out of 128 utilities in operations and maintenance spending. That category rewards utilities that spend less on distribution, billing and customer service costs as well as administration on a per-customer basis, according to information reported to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Spending in this category is adjusted for customer density per distribution line mile and each utility’s number of customers. Eversource finished 104th in this category.
In overall customer value ranking, United Illuminating finished at 96 and Eversource came in at 87. And in capital spending, Eversource was ranked 79th and United Illuminating came in at 101 out of 121 utilities. The one category in which both Eversource and United Illuminating did well was service reliability. Using data obtained from the federal Energy Information Administration, the ranking for United Illuminating was 29 while Eversource was just three places behind.
Mitch Gross, a spokesman for Eversource, said company officials “are not familiar with this survey and have concerns about its accuracy given the brand errors included.” Gross noted that in some categories the rankings include Western Massachusetts Electric, Connecticut Light & Power and Public Service Co. of New Hampshire. Those companies still exist as legal entities, but customers in all those service territories are served under the Eversource brand.
“We will be happy to take a closer look to see what we can learn from it,” Gross said of the rankings.
United Illuminating officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the rankings.
I-84/Park Road Construction In West Hartford To Pick Up Next Month, Lane Closures Expected
Motorists who frequent the I-84 entrance and exit ramps in the Park Road area will see some temporary lane closures on Park Road over the next month, according to West Hartford officials.
Construction to align the I-84 exit ramp with the entrance ramp started in October. The project has largely been contained to the area between the two existing ramps. A retaining wall has been set up between the future on- and off-ramps. West Hartford civil engineer Greg Sommer said the contractor for the project, Paramount Construction, will begin work on storm drains on Park Road in May, and some lanes will be closed and changed as they make the road improvements. Sommer said work will begin on the north side of Park Road, in the area of Raymond and Thompson roads.
Sommer said while the road will remain open, officials are encouraging the public to seek alternate routes.
The repositioning of the I-84 off-ramp and work to the on-ramp is expected to be completed in spring 2019.
Construction costs are estimated at $6.8 million, 80 percent of which will be paid for through federal funding, with the state and town each contributing 10 percent to the cost.
Town Engineer Duane Martin has said the Park Road and I-84 intersection is “the busiest interchange in West Hartford,” averaging 30,000 vehicles a day.
In addition to the Park Road and I-84 project, the town is looking to reconstruct Wilfred Street, Bonny View Road, Smallwood Road and Bainbridge Road from Ballard Drive to Foxcroft Road, according to the town’s engineering website. Those projects are scheduled to be completed during the 2018 construction season, but are subject to change. While those roads are being reconstructed, they will be closed to through traffic, Martin said. Local traffic — such as emergency responders, property owners, trash haulers and school buses — will be allowed within work limits, Martin said. Martin said those projects cover about 1.3 miles and cost about $1.5 million.
Repaving is also scheduled for three different rounds during the 2018 season, in May, July and September.
According to the engineering department’s website, Boulevard from Trout Brook Drive to Quaker Lane South, Ravenwood Road, Wendy Lane and Westmont from Clark Drive to Mountain Road will be addressed during the May repaving, but schedules are subject to change.
The Boulevard repaving project will be closed to through traffic and motorists will be detoured while paving is done, Martin said. Martin said these projects cover about 1.4 miles and cost about $450,000.
For more information on the I-84 project or road reconstruction and paving updates, go to the town’s engineering page on www.westhartfordct.gov.