Move from Fossil Fuel Reliant Peaker Plants to Batteries Could Change Lives, Report Says

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vermont (Jan. 7, 2025) — The Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, along with the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation at the University of Connecticut, have created a new resource to help communities in the northeast better respond to climate change.

The 2024 Policy Guide to Local Energy Resilience for Connecticut looks at  both federal and Constitution State incentives for distributed renewable energy and storage. Distributed renewables can help towns withstand increased natural disasters— something applicable far beyond Connecticut’s borders.

The purpose of the Guide is to help municipalities understand the multitude of incentives existing today to install more solar, storage and microgrids at the local level.  Doing so should allow these towns to become more resilient against increasing storm events, lessen their carbon footprints, and lower their electricity bills. 

“There is a tremendous amount of funding still available at the state and federal level to help Connecticut municipalities with their energy transition, and this publication assists them in navigating the opportunities and avoiding many of the pitfalls,” said Kirt Mayland, a visiting professor for Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Institute for Energy and the Environment.

Mayland wrote the report and is an energy legal fellow with the Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA).

CIRCA’s director of resilience planning, John Truscinski, said, “We hope that this guide provides valuable assistance to Connecticut towns in their efforts to become more energy resilient. With the increasing frequency and severity of storm events along with available state and federal funding, it is an ideal time for towns to start to make this transition.”

Read the full guide online here.

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Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.

The Connecticut Institute for Resilience and Climate Adaptation (CIRCA) is a multi‐disciplinary center of excellence that brings together experts in the natural sciences, engineering, economics, political science, finance and law to provide practical solutions to problems arising as a result of a changing climate. The Institute will help coastal and inland floodplain communities in Connecticut and throughout the Northeast better adapt to changes in climate and also make their human‐built infrastructure more resilient while protecting valuable ecosystems and the services they offer to human society (food, clean air and water, and energy). The Institute will combine the world‐class research capabilities of UConn and the progressive policies and practical regulatory experience of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP) to translate sound scientific research to actions that can ensure the resilience and sustainability of both the built and natural environments of the coast and watersheds of Connecticut. circa.uconn.edu