At a public hearing last week, Connecticut residents expressed concerns about a proposed new state tax on heating oil and propane.
The proposal from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is part of its new energy strategy to reduce carbon emissions and increase supplies of renewable energy.
The Department held a public hearing in Torrington, where about a dozen residents and business owners showed up to protest the heating oil tax.
Roger Mitchell of Oakville said he would not be able to afford the surcharge because he’s a senior citizen on a limited income.
“There’s a lot of people that are a lot worse off than me, and I feel sorry for those people. I don’t know if you can do anything for that, but another tax is going to kill us. We can’t do it.”
Heating oil dealers said the new policy would affect their livelihood. State Senator Joe Markley, R-Southington, said he believes allowing the surcharge would lead to more taxes.
“Once we start down the road of putting charges on home heating oil or on propane, I really feel like there’s no limit to how far it goes. I would hate to see us open the door to it at all.”
DEEP says its goal is to get to a zero carbon economy and the surcharge is needed to raise money to invest in clean energy sources. They say customers who pay for electric and gas heat are already paying a clean energy surcharge.
There are two more public hearings scheduled. The next is September 6 at the Department’s Offices in Hartford, and the last is on September 7 at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven.