For nearly four years, a team of advocates from across the state and the city of Hartford have joined together to urge a 100% clean and renewable energy update for the Capitol Area System (CAS). 

 

We’ve been sharing updates along the way, but in case you are not familiar with the CAS, here’s some background: The CAS was built in 1988 as a co-generation power plant, located on Capitol Avenue in Hartford. It generated electricity for the grid, and used excess heat for heating and cooling multiple buildings in the Capitol area. It used methane gas and other fossil fuels to operate; therefore polluting the air in Hartford for over 30 years. In 2021, it stopped generating electricity and now only runs to heat and cool the buildings it serves. In 2022, the state purchased the CAS from a private entity as many of these buildings are state buildings.

 

The facility needs updating to keep heating and cooling the buildings. The Department of Administrative Services (DAS), which manages the CAS, completed a decarbonization study in 2024, which overviewed several options for the updates. Some were 100% clean and renewable, but DAS chose to move forward with a fossil fuel update that would continue to pollute the air of Hartford residents that live near the Capitol Area System facility.

 

Sierra Club Connecticut’s CAS team has worked tirelessly to stop the fossil fuel update and demand Governor Lamont and DAS change course. We have held rallies, marches, press conferences, meetings with the Governor, the Mayor of Hartford, the city council, and state lawmakers to move the needle forward for a healthier solution. We published op-eds and made our case in countless community spaces in Hartford.

 

I am thrilled to report that recently, we received news from DAS that they would pause a permanent update of CAS. This news was covered in an article in the CT Mirror, Update of Hartford's underground loop heating system on hold. This opens the door to push forward in a new and healthier direction for the state and the city of Hartford. We are celebrating this exciting development!

 

There is much work to be done to secure a commitment for a 100% clean and renewable solution for CAS, and we are ready. If you would like to be more involved, join us in this fight every Tuesday from 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. virtually. Sign up here! 

 

Alycia Jenkins is an Organizer at Sierra Club Connecticut.