Governor Malloy said, “The president’s latest executive order signifies a lack of leadership from Washington on climate change and is a dangerous detour from the progress our nation has made to protect the quality of the air we breathe and the health of the American public.  I strongly believe that advancing clean energy is about advancing the success of our future.  In Connecticut, we have coupled this forward-thinking vision with first-in-the-nation initiatives that are not only dramatically reducing carbon pollution, but also embrace new ideas and technologies that are expanding our economy.  This is the approach our entire nation should be taking in order to be a leader in the global clean energy sector and produce American prosperity and jobs.

“Unfortunately, today’s executive order leaves it to the states to lead, which will create a patchwork system that ultimately will reduce the impact we are trying to have on combating climate change.  In fact, Connecticut is already paying a steep public health and economic price for the failure of upwind states to our west and our south whose air streams are dumping their pollution on us because they’re not making the necessary investments to operate power plants and industrial facilities in a clean and efficient manner.  The future belongs to those who recognize a challenge and develop realistic and cost-effective solutions to meet it.  Connecticut and other like-minded states will continue doing just that in an effort to fill the vacuum now created by this executive order rolling back the Clean Power Plan.”

Commissioner Klee said, “It is hard to pick a more inauspicious moment to beat a retreat on climate change, when temperatures on our planet have now surpassed the previous record high three years in a row and when weather patterns of severe storms and drought are more erratic than ever.  Right here in Connecticut, we experienced severe heat this summer and have been living for many months with unprecedented drought conditions.  As a coastal state and a state with watersheds along several major rivers, the impacts of climate change are real and can be severe.  We will continue to do our part as a national leader to reduce carbon emissions that contribute to climate change, and look forward to a time when our federal government re-embraces the important goals and objectives of the Clean Power Plan.

“We remain committed to the aggressive goal set forth in our state’s Global Warming Solutions Act to reduce carbon emissions from all sectors by 80 percent below 2001 levels by 2050.  And through the work of the Governor’s Council on Climate Change, we are developing specific plans to meet that target.”