Lamont pitches electric cars, new regulations

By Mark Pazniokas The Connecticut Mirror

On the sales floor of the A-1 Toyota dealership in New Haven last week, Katie Dykes was selling a vision of Connecticut’s car-buying future: A rapidly increasing number of electric vehicles, a network of fast chargers and incentives that Dykes jauntily called “cash on the hood.”

Dykes, the commissioner of energy and environmental protection, has a mixed record of closing deals with a General Assembly that readily acknowledges the reality of climate change and transportation-related pollution but often has dragged its heels on giving her powers enjoyed by peers in other states.

The occasion Wednesday, July 26 was a relatively esoteric public-policy milestone: The publication of proposed regulations ensuring Connecticut continues to meet evolving California standards for passenger-car emissions, a commitment made 20 years ago during the administration of a Republican governor, John G. Rowland.

More recently, the Connecticut Clean Air Act passed in 2022 at the urging of Dykes and her Democratic boss, Gov. Ned Lamont, requires increasingly cleaner emissions for trucks through 2032. By 2035, auto manufacturers must offer only zero-emission electric vehicles in the state.

“We cannot meet our goals to do our part to reduce emissions and slow climate change if we do not reduce emissions for the transportation sector, and a big part of the solution is offering more electric vehicle and clean vehicle options for Connecticut drivers,” Dykes said.

With weather extremes ranging from drought to deluge, interspersed with periodic heat waves, the summer of 2023 is emerging as a potential catalyst for climate legislation.

The press conference featuring Dykes, Lamont, New

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