The Connecticut legislature is abuzz with new bills on a variety of issues that concern residents of Southeastern Connecticut. Two that could make a big difference are the bottle bill and Community Choice Aggregation (CCA). You can find out more about these and other issues confronting the General Assembly in the annual Major Issues document prepared by the Office of Legislative Research (OLR), http://cga.ct.gov/olr/Majorissues.asp.

For the bottle bill, individuals and advocacy organizations are calling to expand its scope to include wine, liquor, juice, tea, coffee, and sports/energy drink bottles, and to increase the deposit value on each container. To account for inflation and create a proper incentive to have this endless tide of single-use pollution handled responsibly, why not raise the redemption value to a nice round 25 cents?

In New London and vicinity, creating Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) would make it possible to offer electricity to area ratepayers at lower prices, promote renewable energy locally, encourage energy efficiency projects, and create jobs. Have you heard your local or state elected representatives mention this wonderful opportunity? Now is the perfect time to get in touch with them about it.

Andrew Lopez

New London