As Green As Granny Apple Pie
From Al Gore’s crusade to the political debate about global warming, environmental issues have dominated headlines for the past several years. However, with criminal justice reform and the recession topping state legislators’ concerns in recent weeks, where will that leave green advocacy during the spring session?
In particular, how will the hot-button issues about criminal reform and the foreclosure crisis affect efforts to pass two key environmental bills in the coming session: reducing carbon emissions and doubling the state appropriation to protect the state’s natural resources.
“It’s not really clear yet what impact the economy is going to have on environmental issues,” said lobbyist Mary Guinan, president of MP Guinan Associates.
Guinan represents a handful of clients, such as Connecticut Fund for the Environment, who want legislators to adopt more stringent environmental laws.
As such, her clients have benefited in recent years from the publicity garnered by environmentalists. Getting on the green bandwagon also helps lawmakers get their names in the news. From Guinan’s experiences, lawmakers like seeing their names in print — and she believes that won’t change.
Easing Fiscal Concerns
“When you talk about protecting or investing in the environment, that’s an issue that will always be tremendously popular,” Guinan said. “You can’t open the newspaper without reading about companies going green or alternative energy. I still think it’s very timely.”
The pitch that Guinan gives to ease fiscal concerns is that environmental funding goes a long way. “Investing in the environment is an investment in the future,” she said. “It doesn’t have the impact now, maybe, but it can mean a lot in five to 10 years. We have to start planning now.”
Looking at the future is the key point of two environmental bills that are expected to make their way to the state Capitol — a carbon cap on emissions and the Face of Connecticut campaign to nearly double environmental funding.
The carbon cap, pushed by the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, would mandate that emissions in the sate be cut by 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and by 80 percent by 2050. Connecticut enacted a voluntary carbon cap in 2004, but environmental activists are concerned the state is slipping.
The proposal by Face of Connecticut — a coalition of roughly 70 organizations, from the Connecticut chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club to the Norwalk Historical Society — wants the state to fund all preservation and environmental programs with a $100 million annual lump sum for the next 10 years. The coalition estimates that roughly half of this sum would be new funding.
Lobbyist Michael Dugan, vice president of government relations for MP Guinan Associates, said the Face of Connecticut is unique because its aim is for the state to fund all aspect of environmental and preservation issues at once, instead of doling out specific grants to different groups from year to year.
“It’s an impressive group, a mixture of grassroots organizations and bigger companies,” said Robyn Gengras, media relations with Duby McDowell Communications, which is working with the group.
The prevailing belief is that a coalition of environmental groups will provide a united front for lobbying efforts. The hope is that enough voices in unison will be enough to sway legislators to cough up an additional $50 million a year to protect the state’s natural resources.
Sean O’Leary is a Hartford Business Journal staff writer.
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