What higher natural gas prices mean for CT’s clean energy push

With the price of natural gas sending electric bills soaring across New England, some climate activists are pointing to Connecticut’s pledge to wean itself off of fossil fuels by 2040 as a means of lowering the state’s stubbornly high energy costs, too. While the cost of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar have plummeted in recent years — especially when compared to the cost of operating traditional oil-and-gas fired power plants — those technologies continue to produce a small fraction of electricity used within the six-state power grid that covers Connecticut.  The grid, ISO New England, gets roughly half of its electricity from natural gas, with nearly one-quarter coming from nuclear reactors. The largest source of renewable energy, hydroelectric power, accounted for about 6% of the region’s electricity needs in 2021, with wind and solar…

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