by Donald Eng CTNewsJunkie
HARTFORD, CT — A coalition of climate and community groups staged a sit-in outside Gov. Ned Lamont’s office Monday, urging the administration to halt a series of natural gas projects they say contradict the state’s newly adopted climate mandates and place additional burdens on communities already grappling with high energy costs and environmental stress.
Calling themselves Don’t Destroy Our Future, the group included members of Sunrise Movement Connecticut, Third Act, the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network and other advocates who said the action reflected the linked challenges of climate, affordability, public health and community safety.
“I’ve worked on multiple [Lamont] campaigns in the past,” Norwalk activist Diane Keefe told one of the governor’s aides prior to her arrest, “We’ve been loyal supporters and we want to be able to support him again, but he needs to take the initiative.”
About 30 activists marched to the governor’s second-floor office wearing neon pink shirts opposing gas expansion. Capitol Police warned that singing and demonstrating inside offices violated building rules. After a brief conversation with a Lamont staffer, nine activists refused to leave, sat on the floor, and were peacefully escorted away by police on misdemeanor obstruction charges. They were taken to the Legislative Office Building for processing and later released.
The group is demanding that Lamont intervene in several fossil-fuel projects across Connecticut. The first was the contested Brookfield expansion of the Iroquois natural gas compressor station, a proposal that would double the site’s capacity and move an additional 125 million cubic feet of gas each day. The facility sits less than half a mile from Whisconier Middle School and has drawn months of opposition from residents and environmental groups. DEEP issued a tentative determination in July to approve the required air permits, prompting a wave of formal objections.
Organizers also cited the administration’s plan to install new natural gas-fired boilers in the Capitol Area System, the downtown Hartford heating-and-cooling network that serves more than a dozen state buildings. The project is budgeted at $42 million and would replace aging equipment with new gas-burning infrastructure. Advocates argue the decision locks state facilities into decades of fossil-fuel use and conflicts with the state’s climate targets.
Concerns extended to other gas expansion efforts. In Middletown, Eversource’s Southeast Resiliency Project includes a new gas main planned to cross the Connecticut River as part of a multi-phase effort to increase supply options in the region. In Norwich, the City Council voted in September to pursue additional capacity through Algonquin Gas Transmission’s Reliable Affordable Resilient Enhancement expansion. Critics say both efforts increase long-term ratepayer costs and deepen dependence on fracked gas.
Eastern Connecticut organizers added the proposed Plainfield trash-to-energy facility to the list, noting that the project has become a major environmental-justice concern. Lamont vetoed a bill this summer that would have expanded the ability of small towns to challenge such siting decisions, a move that frustrated local officials who argued they lack tools to oppose controversial projects.
“This is not why we voted for Governor Lamont. We didn’t vote for him to make deals with the Trump administration that pollute our environment,” said Martha Klein, an organizer and former nurse of 30 years with a background in public health.
Although the sit-in focused on fossil-fuel infrastructure, organizers underscored broader demands for expanding community solar access, lifting program limits that restrict solar deployment for homeowners and businesses, releasing energy-efficiency bonding for low-income housing, and committing to cleaner long-term energy systems in state buildings.
Some of the 30 members of a group called Don’t Destroy Our Future marched to the governor’s second-floor office at the state Capitol for a sit-in wearing neon pink shirts opposing gas expansion on Monday, Nov. 17, 2025. Credit: Karla Ciaglo / CTNewsJunkie
They also called for strengthening Connecticut’s Trust Act and limiting civil immigration arrests in courthouses, describing immigrant safety, housing stability and environmental justice as linked issues.
Connecticut’s climate law commits the state to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions 65 percent below 2001 levels by 2040 and reaching a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. Advocates argue those statutory goals are incompatible with the administration’s continued support for gas expansion.
Lamont, however, has maintained that Connecticut cannot dismiss natural gas as a tool for managing reliability and stabilizing winter energy prices.
In his State of the State address, he urged lawmakers not to “rule out natural gas” while emphasizing parallel commitments to renewable energy and grid modernization. He has also referenced ongoing regional discussions with the Trump administration about a broader New England energy strategy, talks that have coincided with federal decisions affecting the future of large-scale offshore wind development. Environmental groups worry that expanded gas infrastructure could become part of a political compromise to preserve long-planned wind projects, though Lamont has not publicly endorsed any such tradeoff.
Lamont’s office did not respond to the coalition’s detailed project-specific demands by press time. Spokesperson Rob Blanchard said the administration remains focused on balancing affordability with long-term decarbonization.
“Governor Lamont has been clear that he wants to bring new energy resources into New England to increase our energy supply and lower costs for ratepayers,” Blanchard said.
Organizers said they are working across state lines with other climate advocacy groups and will continue pressing the governor and regulators.