Francis Menton
Connecticut is a small state, so you may not be paying enough attention to its heroic efforts to save the planet. Count on Manhattan Contrarian to keep you updated with the latest happenings.
On Friday (July 22) Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed the bipartisan Clean Air Act that just passed to the state. Lamont and other state officials gathered in New Haven in the 90-plus-degree heat to celebrate the great achievement. A State Senator named Will Haskell, who is a member of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, took the occasion to make his main point:
We can’t wait for Washington to step up and save the planet!
But how exactly is Connecticut going to do that? After all, it has a population of only about 3.6 million people. Its greenhouse gas emissions are in the range of 41 MMTCO2e per year, 0.1% lower than the world’s total annual emissions of about 49,000 MMTCO2e. You can zero Connecticut’s emissions completely and it won’t even lead to rounding errors on the world total. Indeed, China’s annual increase in CO2 emissions is a multiple of Connecticut’s total emissions. (According to Our World in Data here, between 2019 and 2020, the latest years given, China’s CO2 emissions have increased from 10.49 to 10.67 billion tons, an increase in a year of about 180 million tons, or more than four times Connecticut’s total annual emissions.)
But our heroes in Connecticut will not let mere statistics discourage them. They have a plan. And the plan, seen as a central feature of the new Clean Air Act, is to electrify the state’s fleet of vehicles, particularly city buses and school buses. Here’s State Transportation Commissioner Joe Giuletti speaking at the July 22 event, quoted in the New Haven Register:
“There are about 800 buses that we are responsible for at DOT that are being replaced by zero-emission electric models. They are quieter, emit no emissions and last longer,” Giulietti said Friday.
Governor Lamont also released a statement emphasizing that the new law will convert all state buses to electric within a few years:
In addition to state-run electric buses, public school buses will also switch to an electric model, according to the governor’s statement. The Clean Air Act will also ban the procurement of diesel-powered buses after 2023, according to the statement.
I especially like this statement from Transport Commissioner Giuletti, this time quoted at the WTNH broadcaster’s website:
Transport Commissioner Joe Giulietti commented, “it’s nice to hear a bus behind you that isn’t making any noise or emitting any airflow, either propane or diesel.”
The note clearly implies that Giuletti has never actually driven one of these city buses himself, nor would he ever refuse to do so. City bus for the little ones. It’s just that when he gets close to a person, he wants it to be more in line with his elite aesthetic.
The New Haven Register added that the new electric bus program represents a pilot program that will begin with the delivery of about 12 electric buses in 2020. The Register quotes Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman Josh Morgan:
“The first battery-powered electric buses came into operation in the fall of 2020. “Today, there are 12 electric buses in Connecticut. . . . “
And then luck will come, the very next day, July 23, one of 12 electric buses in Connecticut’s fleet suddenly exploded while sitting in a parking lot in the town of Hamden. Below is a picture of the event provided by the Hamden Fire Department:
It was actually quite a surprise when one of those large lithium-ion batteries suddenly exploded into flames. As usual with these lithium fires, they couldn’t put it out with water or anything else, and they just let it burn on its own.
“Lithium ion battery fires are very difficult to extinguish because the thermochemical process generates large amounts of heat and keeps re-igniting,” Hamden fire officials said.
Fortunately, there was no one on the bus, and it was not operating on Saturday morning.
Connecticut officials responded to the incident by immediately withdrawing the entire fleet of electric buses from operation. Subscribe to quote CT Transit spokesman Josh Rickman:
“The importance of driver safety is demonstrated by removing these buses from service and ensuring a thorough investigation is completed prior to fleet redeployment,” said Rickman.
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