2024 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Each year Sunrise CT sets legislative priorities that we fight for during the CT legislative session. This year our members used ranked choice voting to select three legislative priorities to fight for during the 2025 legislative session.
FOSSIL FUEL MORATORIUM
To stop the climate crisis we must first stop putting more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. A fossil fuel moratorium would simply not allow CT to construct any new fossil fuel power plants, ensuring that we instead transition to renewable energy.
EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY
Right now, municipalities are forced to foot the bill for expensive recycling operations, leading to less sustainable disposal in communities without the necessary resources. Meanwhile, manufacturers are allowed to continue pumping toxic, harmful waste into our state that most often ends up getting dumped or incinerated in frontline, low-income, and BIPOC communities. Effective EPR holds producers responsible for the entire life cycle of their products, from cradle to grave, by requiring that they pay fees adjusted to the recycled content, safety, and sustainable design of their products. Connecticut has already successfully implemented forms of EPR for paint, mattresses, electronic waste, and more - it’s time that we expand this model to include wasteful consumer packaging, gas cylinders, and other hard-to-recycle consumer goods across Connecticut.