Transmittal Letter to Governor Ned Lamont

Summary               Introduction               The Climate Challenge

April 30, 2025

The Honorable Ned Lamont
Governor of Connecticut
State Capitol
Hartford, CT 06106

Governor Lamont:

As we have for the fifty-three years since Earth Day, the Council on Environmental Quality (Council) presents to you Environmental Quality in Connecticut for 2024, as authorized by Connecticut General Statutes Section 22a-12.

This year is different.

Our federal government is at serious odds with Connecticut’s environment as it haphazardly slashes government funding, manpower, environmental protection regulations and access to justice. In this context, our annual report records a significant baseline for where we stand before the impacts of this re-writing of the national social contract take effect.

It is important that Connecticut ardently resist the urge to appease the zero-sum environmental policy that is taking hold. While there exist real and urgent goals like providing dignified accessible housing and employment for the broad array of Connecticut citizens, we should take care not to reverse access to justice for the environment and environmental quality standards as an expedient shortcut to meeting those goals. As our federal government recklessly drives toward a distorted federalism, it will be up to the states like Connecticut to rise, to fill the gap, and lead by example on environmental quality as it has done for the last half century.

This report uses over forty indicators of environmental health and human activity to illustrate environmental trends, both positive and negative, primarily for the 2024 calendar year. As required, the Council has also included recommendations for “remedying the deficiencies of existing programs and activities, together with recommendations for legislation.” The Council’s annual report indicates both improvement in some areas of environmental quality and regression in others.

Though this report can be printed, it is designed to be read as an online document on the Council’s website. Online, the values on the charts will appear under the reader’s cursor and the reader can access the many supplemental documents which are hyperlinked within it. “Quick Summary” boxes above most of the charts show the data trends for the past year and past decade.

In sending this report, the Council wishes, also, to acknowledge your efforts and leadership to address the State’s serious climate challenge. The Council’s annual report notes that greenhouse gas emissions from in-state sources, such as the electric power sector and the transportation sector, continue to be a significant concern.

Respectfully submitted,

Keith Ainsworth, Esq.
Acting Chair