GUILFORD – State Senator Christine Cohen (D-Guilford), who is Senate Chair of the legislature’s Environment Committee, outlined some of her environmental public policy priorities for the next two years when she spoke today to the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters’ 2021 Environmental Summit.
The event was held virtually via Zoom and was part of the CTLCV’s three-day summit focusing on waste reduction, environmental justice, PFAS and the chemicals used in packaging, municipal funding for open space, modernizing the electrical grid, wildlife, transportation, and advocacy.
“I look forward to this summit every year as an opportunity to inform people about the work that the Environment Committee is doing and to gain insights and new understandings from conservationists, advocates and community experts,” Sen. Cohen said. “We all share a real passion for reducing the impacts of climate change and ensuring that our state, our country and our Earth can be enjoyed and remain healthy for many generations to come.”
“All of us have a responsibility to act with those interests in mind, and we will do that in the coming months when we introduce and debate vital public policies that deal with reducing waste and materials management, carbon sequestration and an evolution to renewables, and maintaining the purity of our state waterways with various resilience projects and purification methods,” Sen. Cohen added. “As always, I am looking forward to another robust environmental agenda this year, with hearty discussions and a lot of public input. Speaking today to the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters was a great start!”
One of Sen. Cohen’s first environmental priorities for 2020 is to approve the Long Island Sound Blue Plan, which provides an inventory of the natural resources and uses of Connecticut’s Long Island Sound and guides future use of the Sound’s waters and submerged lands. The final draft of the Plan was submitted to the Environment Committee early last year, but the coronavirus pandemic prevented legislative action on the matter.
Sen. Cohen today also praised new pro-environment actions at the federal level under the new administration of President Joe Biden, particularly the cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline and the United States rejoining the Paris Climate Accord.
The first full meeting of the legislature’s Environment Committee is scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, January 22, 2021, beginning at 10 a.m. The committee plans to draft a resolution approving the Long Island Sound Blue Plan, and will also raise the following bills as concepts to be drafted and debated:
About three dozen other bills have been filed so far with the Environment Committee for consideration in the current 2021 legislative session.