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Lacking Natural Energy Resources, Nutmeggers Embrace Efficiency

Bruce Guenter
/
Creative Commons

Look around Connecticut. We don't have fracking for natural gas. There aren't underground oil deposits, and solar energy is just now starting to get popular. All that means when it comes to managing energy that’s often produced out-of-state, Nutmeggers have historically been pretty thrifty. 

"Energy efficiency is about doing the same amount of work, with less energy," said Bill Dornbos, director of the Acadia Center in Connecticut, a non-profit that among other projects is helping to design energy efficiency plans for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. "But if you kind of think of it another way, it's also about preventing energy waste, which is costly, right? People needlessly paying for more energy than they need to buy to power their homes is a drag on the economy."

The new scorecard was released by ACEE, a non-profit energy efficiency research group. It tries to look at how well states are preventing that costly energy waste.

Connecticut ranked sixth on the scorecard, and Dornbos said it's impressive the state has maintained its high rank.

"In each of these scoring categories, whether it's transportation or utility energy efficiency programs, or building energy codes, Connecticut's turning in very solid policy efforts," Dornbos said.

Still, Dornbos said the state could do more. He wants Connecticut to adopt updated, more modern, energy-efficiency building codes. He also wants the state to push more combined heat and power: encouraging more industrial facilities to generate their electricity on site and use the waste heat from that to warm up their buildings.

Patrick Skahill is the assistant director of news and talk shows at Connecticut Public. He was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show and a science and environment reporter for more than eight years.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT is an initiative from Connecticut Public, the state’s local NPR and PBS station, to elevate Latino stories and expand programming that uplifts and informs our Latino communities. Visit CTPublic.org/latino for more stories and resources. For updates, sign up for the SOMOS CONNECTICUT newsletter at ctpublic.org/newsletters.

SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.