Solar Over Gas: One Candidate's Plan to Lower CT Electric Bills

Connecticut’s electric bills have been a sore subject for years. But the conflict in Iran pushed energy costs back to the top of kitchen table conversations this spring, and at least one candidate for state office says the answer isn’t more natural gas. It’s more sun.

Anne Weisberg is running for state representative in the 108th District, which covers Sherman, New Fairfield, and portions of New Milford and Danbury. She’s made lowering energy bills a centerpiece of her campaign, and her pitch is straightforward: solar works, and Hartford keeps making it too hard to get.

What doors told her

When Weisberg knocked on doors during her 2024 campaign, electricity bills came up constantly. Nearly every household had a complaint. The exception, she said, were homeowners with solar panels already installed. That contrast stuck with her.

The problem isn’t just the cost of the panels themselves. Connecticut’s solar permitting process piles on thousands of dollars in fees and delays before anyone even flips a switch. The Environment America Research and Policy Center has documented how permitting red tape inflates installation costs across the country, and Connecticut is not an outlier in the wrong direction.

So Weisberg is backing two bills moving through Hartford right now.

The first is HB 5340, the Act Concerning Renewable Power Generation. It would legalize what are sometimes called “plug-in” or “balcony” solar panels, small-scale units that renters and homeowners can set up without complex permits or rooftop work. No contractor required. No months-long approval process. Just plug it in and start cutting your bill.

The second is HB 5036, the governor’s own proposal to streamline residential solar permitting more broadly. Two bills, same direction.

The subsidy argument, turned around

Critics, primarily Republican lawmakers, have pushed back on solar incentives, arguing they distort the energy market. Weisberg doesn’t buy it. She points out that the oil and gas industry has drawn federal subsidies since 1913, and that Congress added $40 billion more in fossil fuel subsidies just last year. That’s the market solar is supposedly distorting.

The fight has spilled into debates over the “public benefits charge,” a line item on every Connecticut electric bill that some Republicans have singled out as a driver of high costs. Weisberg calls that a scapegoat.

Not a great one, either.

The charge funds programs that actually reduce energy costs. EnergizeCT, for example, helps households and businesses cut consumption through energy audits and efficiency repairs, things like sealing drafty windows. Even Eversource, the utility that bills you, has said EnergizeCT is “the most cost-effective policy tool to reduce energy bills, promote economic development, protect the environment, and provide energy security.” The program returns three dollars to ratepayers for every dollar spent. That math is hard to argue with.

The Green Bank angle

Another slice of the public benefits charge funds the Connecticut Green Bank, which provides low-interest loans for homes, businesses, and houses of worship looking to add solar or make energy upgrades. The Green Bank claims a sixfold return on investment across its portfolio. For Fairfield County homeowners eyeing solar but put off by upfront costs, it’s worth a closer look.

Weisberg’s argument, reported in depth by CT Mirror, is that Connecticut has already built tools capable of bending the cost curve downward. The problem is that permitting barriers, political resistance, and fossil fuel inertia keep those tools from scaling fast enough to matter on your monthly bill.

What to watch

HB 5340 and HB 5036 are both in play in Hartford this session. If either clears the General Assembly, Connecticut could see faster solar adoption and lower soft costs for installation, the kind of structural change that shows up as real savings over time rather than a one-time rebate.

The 108th District race itself is one to track this fall. Sherman, New Fairfield, and the New Milford and Danbury precincts involved skew suburban and cost-conscious. Those are exactly the voters who pay close attention to utility bills and property values and have the roof space to actually benefit from easier solar permitting.

The Iran conflict won’t end tomorrow, and gas prices won’t stabilize on a predictable timeline. But Connecticut’s solar policy is something Hartford can actually change. That’s the bet Weisberg is making.