16 February—For a change, all three pieces on today’s Hearst RepublicanAmerican “Opinion” page have it right. First, there’s the editorial “Towns should have a say.” It deals with two compressors the Iroquois Natural Gas Transmission System wants to add to its existing Brookfield station.

Briefly, the only pro is that the new compressors would increase the pipeline’s capacity by some eight percent, while two of the cons are the danger of explosion and the compressors’ location fairly close to a school.

A third con is, as the editorial tells us (without specifically calling it a con), that “the fate of the $272 million Iroquois project rests with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, which is expected to rule in March. [And that] Gov. Ned Lamont has offered tentative support for the project.”

It goes on to lament, “Not for the first time, Connecticut’s policy of limiting local influence on DEEP decisions on energy projects is coming into play. Last summer, Gov. Lamont vetoed a bill enabling small towns to veto DEEP rulings. [Litchfield Monitor emphasis] Brookfield and the environmental group Save the Sound have sued DEEP, stating the agency ‘failed to provide opponents to the project with adequate opportunities to raise concerns before the agency reached a final decision.’

“As towns struggle with proposals for massive solar farms, wind turbines, battery storage facilities, dual-fuel and nuclear power stations, and other projects likely to emerge to serve the state’s increasing demand for energy, it would behoove the legislature to reconsider bills like the one Gov. Lamont vetoed last summer. The people most affected by these projects deserve a voice. For example, Brookfield residents should have a say in the location of the compressor station, the use of electric rather than gas-fired motors to operate the compressors, and other technical aspects of the project. A state with a centuries-old tradition of home rule should do no less.”

The editorial’s title has it right, of course. But while the editorial tells us that Lamont vetoed the bill, it doesn’t tell us that HB 7004 passed the General Assembly with potentially veto-proof margins, with no negative votes, only “non-voting” votes: 25 yes, 11 non-voting in the Senate; 104 yes, 43 non-voting in the House.

So why all the non-voting and why wasn’t it called for veto override? Easy. HB 7004 reeks of the Connecticut Democrat trifecta’s ongoing crusade to usurp home rule from cities and towns.

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The op-ed essay, written by Tyler O’Neil, an editor at the Daily Signal (an invariably noxious organ of the execrable Heritage Foundation), is titled “Trump administration unleashes American energy with key regulatory move” and written by. It’s about Trump and his EPA administrator-lackey Lee Zeldin having done the right thing by administratively revoking the Obama-era ruling that greenhouse gases endanger public health. And, notwithstanding all the hype in the essay and on the White House website, it was indeed the right thing to do. Because despite the “consensus” of alleged experts in whatever fields, there’s just no real proof that greenhouse gases endanger public health. It’s all supposition and fear mongering.

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And the best for last: There’s a letter from Joanne Nelson in Southbury titled “Republican Congress is complicit in undermining the American experiment.” The title tells the story, but one delightful sentence needs to be repeated: “They’ve abandoned their sworn oaths and responsibilities to the Constitution and their constituents in deference to a lying, infantile, vengeful, cruel, corrupt, violent and unstable vulgarian who is leading our country by whim.” [Litchfield Monitor emphasis]

Absolutely true. And beautiful . . .