Stop the gas pipeline extension in Wilton

Don’t get fooled. Despite what Eversource is telling Wilton residents, new gas pipelines are adding costs to ratepayers and are bad for our health and the climate. Take action to stop the gas pipeline extension project that has started along New Canaan Road/Route 106.

Planning for the pipeline began in 2020 by the Town Engineer and DPW staff, and the community was not informed until April 13 and given only two weeks to respond. This limited community input on a critical decision will impact all our futures.

On June 3, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), ruled that ratepayers will no longer have to pay for future gas line extensions because it is bad for ratepayers. PURA found that as a result of gas expansion projects from 2014-2019, ratepayers in Connecticut have paid approximately $64 million in higher gas costs. Additionally, PURA fined Eversource $1.8 for false advertising; Attorney General William Tong also settled with Eversource for $1.8 million saying “Eversource misled homeowners to get them to switch to natural gas.” The Wilton project, started before this decision and the fines, it is grandfathered in, but Wilton residents will all be paying for it with increased rates, and health and environmental costs.

There’s nothing natural about “natural gas,” a marketing term designed to mislead consumers. The principal ingredient is methane, a highly volatile chemical that is 100 times stronger than CO2 at trapping heat over a 10-year period. This form of methane is more concentrated than naturally occurring methane in wetlands. Methane is also explosive, causing an accident somewhere in the U.S. every few days, and notably in New York City and Merrimack Valley, Mass., it destroyed homes and caused injuries and deaths. Leaking methane into the air, polluting water bodies and watercourses affect the health of ecosystems and our water supply. Direct exposure, such as from cooking on gas stoves, leads to fatigue, dizziness, headaches, and increases the severity of asthma and other respiratory diseases, with higher levels causing nausea, agitation, displaced speech, asphyxiation and death.

The proposed Wilton route of the pipeline borders the SNEW South Norwalk Reservoir, servicing the Silvermine neighborhood of Wilton, and most of the City of Norwalk. About 2,000 linear feet of New Canaan Road borders the reservoir treatment facility, reservoir and earthen dam.

It’s time to move away from more gas and towards readily available climate-friendly all-electric buildings, and the first and easiest way is to stop new gas pipelines. What can you do? 1) Don’t sign up to purchase gas from this costly and damaging pipeline, 2) Ask the Town of Wilton to stop new gas hookups, and 3) Ask the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in its upcoming Comprehensive Energy Strategy to recommend an end to all gas pipeline expansion and instead create a plan for all-electric buildings. To find out more, visit https://bit.ly/3JKFaQA

Rem Bigosinski

Wilton