Hartford — The state Senate voted Tuesday to pass a sweeping climate change mitigation bill, which is meant to reduce emissions and expand the use of electric vehicles in the state.

The bill passed by a vote of 24-11 along party lines. House Democratic leaders said Tuesday they plan to raise the bill.

Senate Bill 4 was amended Tuesday to include House Bill 5039, which aims to limit pollution from the state’s biggest vehicle polluters, such as buses and diesel trucks. This measure would institute stricter emissions rules by adopting California's standards.

Senate Bill 4, a transportation bill, also is focused on air quality. According to the bill’s joint favorable report, it’s meant to launch the state toward its clean air goals by “setting dates at which Connecticut’s fleet of cars and light duty trucks” must be composed of 50%, 75% and 100% battery electric vehicles.

The bill also would call for the installation of electric vehicle charging stations throughout the state, aim to make electric vehicles more affordable to people, municipalities and businesses and would create regulations for transportation projects in order to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, among other actions.

State Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, said the state is “missing the mark with respect to our emissions goals” and “going in the wrong direction with respect to air quality.” She said the legislation will leverage federal funds to combat climate change, “help our businesses looking to electrify our fleets” and provide a positive impact to "our communities who are disproportionately impacted by emissions.”

State Sen. Will Haskell, D-Westport, who along with Cohen took questions from legislators for more than six hours of debate on the bill Tuesday, said the bill is about preparing for the state’s electric future by encouraging the installation of charging stations in new construction projects and offering a rebate program to help families afford electric vehicles.

State Sen. John Kissel, R-Enfield, took the lead on questioning Haskell and Cohen, as Transportation Committee Co-chair Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, was out sick. He took issue with the idea that Connecticut residents could afford electric vehicles even with the proposed rebate program.

Kissel also questioned the urgency of the bill and the effects of climate change. “Do we have a brief window to act? Probably, but what is brief in the history of the world? 1,000 years? 200 years?” he asked. “I don’t think it’s five years, and I don’t think it’s a year-and-a-half to get these transit vehicles all electrified. Sometimes our aspirations, we get, I think, carried away with. My constituents can’t afford all the bells and whistles with moving in this direction.”

A report — released this month by Save the Sound, a nonprofit environmental organization, and the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health — warns that the state isn’t doing enough “to meet its greenhouse gas reduction mandates.”

“Which means not only have we not taken enough strides on climate in the last 15 years, but we will need to play catch up with bolder initiatives in this year, and the years to come,” the report says.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also released a report this month, warning that unless greenhouse gas emissions are cut severely by 2025, the world will suffer calamitous consequences from climate change.

"By shifting away from fossil fuels and toward cleaner technologies, we can rectify Connecticut's high rates of transportation emissions and clean up our state," said Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex. "By shifting to electric school buses, children are no longer inhaling diesel emissions every morning on the way to school; it's the same for public transportation. By emphasizing and expanding availability of electric vehicles, this renewable and low-emission technology can be adopted by more drivers than ever. We need to rise to meet our current moment; cutting down on emissions will do just that."

Several Republican senators opposed the bill because they said it would be costly. They echoed concerns shared by business interests, including the Propane Gas Association of New England, which opposed the bill in public testimony, saying it excludes other clean fuels that could assist Connecticut in meeting its climate goals and hoping for an amendment to include propane-powered vehicles.

The National Waste and Recycling Association, the Connecticut Farm Bureau, the Motor Transport Association of Connecticut, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, the American Petroleum Institute and the Lumber Dealers Association of Connecticut, among others, opposed the new emissions guidelines due to cost concerns.

"Medium- and heavy-duty trucks are used in a wide variety of applications with a diverse set of equipment specifications and performance requirements," the American Petroleum Institute wrote in its public testimony. "A policy centered on a 'one-technology-fits-all approach' could result in stranded investments and lost opportunities to reduce emissions on a faster timeline."

The Motor Transport Association of Connecticut said California's emissions requirements would result in an overwhelming cost for trucking companies.

In a news release from Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly, R-Stratford, and Senate Republican Leader Pro Tempore Paul Formica, R-East Lyme, criticized the bill, saying it wouldn’t be effective unless surrounding states adopt the same measures.

"Every Connecticut resident deserves clean air. But the provisions regarding truck emissions added to Senate Bill 4 will not achieve that goal,” the senators said in the release. “More than 90% of ozone levels in southwest Connecticut and more than 80% of ozone levels in some remaining parts of the state result from pollution that originates in areas located out of Connecticut’s jurisdiction and control. We could take every truck off the road and it still wouldn’t stop the massive pollution that blows into Connecticut from states to our west.”

s.spinella@theday.com