The Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection (DEEP) is applauding last week’s passage of Senate Bill 1147, An Act Concerning the Environmental Justice Program of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, by the Connecticut General Assembly. This significant legislation, raised at DEEP’s request, reportedly builds upon Connecticut’s longstanding commitment to environmental justice (EJ).
SB 1147 preserves an existing EJ statute’s existing public participation processes for both new and expanded permits while providing a framework to address head-on the cumulative impacts of historic siting practices. Importantly, DEEP notes, the bill acknowledges that environmental impacts are not limited to individual projects or permits. Pursuant to SB 1147, DEEP will develop a tool to measure existing environmental and health stressors in a community. This tool will help applicants for new permits to assess efficiently whether cumulative impact thresholds would be exceeded if their permit application were approved. In turn, they can anticipate if DEEP or the Siting Council might apply additional conditions in a permit or, in rare cases, even decide not to grant one.
