March 26, 2012

REP. MUSHINSKY TESTIFIES IN SUPPORT OF
ENERGY CONSERVING LEGISLATION

State Representative Mary Mushinsky testified before the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee in support of two proposals that would reduce customers’ high heating oil bills while improving efficiency, promoting clean air and energy independence and speeding up the widespread use of electric and hydrogen fueled vehicles.

Rep. Mushinsky testified that Senate Bill 450 would be beneficial to consumers and the environment. The legislation would exempt cutting edge vehicles like electric and hydrogen fuel cell cars from sales taxes until 2014, establish a fuel-blind approach to efficiency that would include customers who live in municipal utility territories, establish and fund a fuel oil account and promote collaboration between oil dealers and customers to increase efficiency.

Additionally, Connecticut’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEEP) would have the authority to examine the cost/benefit of developing programs to convert fuels and increase the efficiency of oil-burning appliances.

Rep. Mushinsky said if oil dealers do not join in the effort to help customers become oil-efficient, the DEEP should help customers switch from oil to natural gas and alternative energy.

Another proposal, SB 451, The Establishment of a Heating Furnace and Boiler Replacement Program, would add boiler replacement to the list of eligible expenditures.

“I would like these bills to be combined because many of my constituents live in old housing stock, heated by oil,” Rep. Mushinsky stated. “Without an energy audit followed by furnace replacement and plenty of insulation, they face impossibly high energy bills. People who never applied for heating assistance in their lives applied this year and in 2011 because their small monthly incomes cannot keep up.”