Each day climate destruction becomes clearer as it moves closer to home. From the devastating fires in Los Angeles and orange skies in New York City following Canadian wildfires, to destructive hurricanes in North Carolina and roads splitting from intense flooding right here in Connecticut. As a senior at the University of Connecticut, the question of what we can do to stop the climate crisis has been top of mind for me, especially with the threat of expanded fossil fuel infrastructure right here in Storrs.
While students such as myself fight for climate action through groups like EcoHusky and Fossil Fuel Free UConn, both of which I’ve organized with for years while also working at UConn’s Office of Sustainability, those in positions of power continue to make decisions that sacrifice our futures and heighten the destruction that we see daily.
In January, Governor Ned Lamont stated his support for the continued use of “natural” gas, more accurately called methane gas. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas that is over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide for over 20 years. This is of extra concern because of a recent proposal from the fossil fuel company Enbridge: the expansion of a methane gas pipeline known as Project Maple. This project would expand a pipeline that runs from New York to Massachusetts, including through most of Connecticut.
This pipeline also runs through Mansfield and to the UConn Storrs Campus. Unfortunately, UConn also continues to feed into the demand for methane gas, even as they claim to be a climate leader. It’s unclear which, if any, buyers in Connecticut have expressed interest in the expanded gas capacity from Project Maple, although Eversource in Massachusetts has. However, UConn has bought gas from previous expansions of this same pipeline. That means that they are directly buying into the destruction of the climate and harming communities along the pipeline route.
The expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure signifies our state’s total capitulation to the monied interests of fossil fuels and a complete betrayal of its citizens’ health, safety and future. UConn must separate themselves from this and commit to not buying any added gas from the Project Maple expansion.
We have seen what it looks like when one of these pipelines breaks; it destroys communities and there are little to no consequences to the corporate actors who have brought nothing but harm to the communities they occupy. Furthermore, pipelines leak at an estimated rate of about 3% of all gas transported, with devastating effects on the climate.
Instead of constantly bowing down to fossil fuels even when we know their destructive effects on our health and our environment, Connecticut must become a leader in the energy transition. The state’s last coal power plant closed in 2021 and made commitments to expand grid capacity at the Clean Energy Summit hosted at UConn in September 2024. Those were critical steps, but we cannot stop there.
It’s time for meaningful change. Our state must invest in clean energy and leave fossil fuels in the past. Act now by signing this petition and urging Governor Lamont and Katie Dykes, the Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, to Stop Project Maple and the expansion of methane gas across Connecticut. You can also join the Stop Project Maple coalition for an educational forum about the impacts of this pipeline on local health and climate change on April 16 at the Mansfield Town Hall. More information is available at tinyurl.com/mansfieldforum.
Dylan Steer is an eighth-semester student at the University of Connecticut studying political science and environmental studies with minors in middle eastern studies and WGSS, and an organizer with the Stop Project Maple Coalition.