Connecticut environmentalists are disappointed that major climate change bills failed to win approval in the just-concluded 2024 state legislative session.
One of the bills was aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses by 2050. Another focused on improving the state’s resilience to climate change.
The bills were killed by the threat of a Republican filibuster on the final day of the legislative session.
Democratic Representative Christine Palm, the House vice chair of the Environment Committee, blamed democratic legislative leaders for allowing this to happen.
“It’s been said we ran out of time. No, we didn’t. We squandered it. The filibuster squanders time, and it gives power to the opposing side,” she said.
But Palm, who is retiring this year, assured the state’s environmental activists that she’ll lobby from the outside to get the bills across the finish line next year.
“We are going to get this bill done next year. And we are going to get it done over my dead body,” Palm said.
Gov. Ned Lamont had also supported the failed bills — including one that called for the study of a state electric vehicle mandate.
