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March 12, 2025

After D.C. meeting, Lamont sees path to working with Trump on energy

Sean D. Elliot / Courtesy / The Day of New London Millstone nuclear power station.
By John Moritz, CT Mirror

At least publicly, there aren’t many areas where Gov. Ned Lamont sees eye-to-eye with the new occupant of the White House, President Donald Trump.

The Connecticut Democrat was an early and vocal backer of Trump’s opponent, former President Joe Biden, and he has faulted the current president for both his bombastic mannerisms and his aggressive method of governing, which Lamont recently dubbed “a confusing mess.“

But following meetings in Washington, D.C., last month with two members of Trump’s cabinet, Lamont said he’s found at least one area where his interests and the president’s align: getting more energy from nuclear and natural gas into New England.

“I think their reaction was, ‘We’re looking for places where we can work with you,'” Lamont said in an interview this week. “Maybe we don’t, you know, agree on immigration and Medicaid, but in terms of getting new electric generation into your region, that’s something we should be able to work on together.”

Lamont met separately with the Trump’s Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum while in the nation’s capital in late February for a meeting of the National Governors Association. A spokesman for the governor said each meeting lasted approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

While the meetings generally covered the region’s energy challenges, Lamont said they also waded into specific discussions about federal permitting for state-of-the-art nuclear reactors as well as the future of Constellation Energy’s liquefied natural gas import terminal in Everett, Mass.

Connecticut, like the rest of New England, gets the majority of its electricity from nuclear and natural gas, with the much of the remainder split between renewable sources such as solar and wind, along with imports from Canada.

The governor’s desire to work with the Trump administration on energy policy has not been spared from early frustrations.

On Monday, officials in Ontario slapped a 25% surcharge on electricity imports into three states, including New York, in response to tariffs that were put in place by the Trump. The next morning, Lamont appeared on Bloomberg complaining about the costs Trump’s trade policies could place on utility bills.

“You put 10% [tariff] on there, that would add about $75 million, you put 20% on there, that’d be $150 million in additional fees paid for by our ratepayers,” Lamont said. “Not a great idea.”

Later in the day Tuesday, Ontario suspended the surcharge.

For now, the Trump administration’s tariffs don’t specifically mention electricity, but they do apply to critical energy resources such as natural gas, crude oil and uranium.

Working with the Trump administration also risks alienating climate and environmental advocates in Connecticut, who have already raised concerns after Lamont made prominent mention of both nuclear and natural gas during his State of the State address in January.

“Right now, he’s really signaling that he’s got a MAGA-like policy agenda when it comes to energy,” said Samantha Dynowski, the Connecticut state director for the Sierra Club.

Natural Gas

Trump promised to dramatically lower the cost of energy, largely by increasing the production of oil and natural gas, Lamont pointed out. But in New England — where there are no mines or wells extracting fossil fuels — the high cost of electricity is driven in part by the need to transport natural gas long distances across pipelines running through multiple states.

Increasing the region’s supply of natural gas, therefore, will require expanding pipelines crossing over from Canada or New York, or constructing new facilities capable of offloading LNG from ships. Either of those options would likely require buy-in from Connecticut’s neighboring states.

In addition to meetings with federal officials, Lamont said he’s also reached out to other governors in the region to discuss ideas, including New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. In February, Hochul’s administration approved air permits for new compressors that will increase the flow of natural gas through the Iroquois Pipeline, which crosses upstate New York and Connecticut on its way to delivering gas to Long Island and New York City.

“It’s not easy because of 2040 zero-carbon goals,” Lamont said. “But, you know, [Hochul’s] got some energy needs of her own. Let’s say the discussions have to continue.”

Under the Biden administration, Lamont and his counterparts across New York and New England looked to the seas as a way of cutting through the Gordian Knot of the region’s energy challenges. Offshore wind, then in it’s infancy, promised a bountiful and steady supply of energy once connected to the shore.

But higher-than-anticipated costs and a string of canceled projects left the offshore wind industry reeling last year, even before Trump’s victory in November led to promises to halt the construction of new turbines. Wind was mentioned only briefly in Lamont’s talks with administration officials, he said, adding that the response was not encouraging.

“It’s not the President’s favorite energy source, to put it mildly,” Lamont said.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, J. Elizabeth Peace, declined to comment specifically on last month’s meeting with Lamont, but she said the Trump administration broadly supports the development of energy infrastructure to serve New England.

“Secretary Burgum has been clear that the Trump administration is committed to cutting red tape and accelerating responsible energy infrastructure development to lower costs for American families,” Peace said in an email. “We cannot afford to let outdated permitting processes and regulatory bottlenecks stand in the way of energy affordability and security.”

The Department of Energy did not respond to a request for comment.

‘New’ Nuclear

Another area where both Lamont and Trump officials have expressed a mutual interest is in the emerging nuclear technology around small modular reactors, or SMRs.

Unlike traditional reactors that can produce upwards of 1,000 megawatts, proposals for SMRs estimate an output of around 300 MW, enough to power tens or even hundreds of thousands of homes. The idea also calls for mostly prefabricated equipment that can be shipped and installed on site, lowering costs.

Wright, Trump’s energy secretary, previously served on the board of a company that is working to develop SMR technology, according to Reuters, and he has expressed interest in offering federal support for the industry.

Currently, Connecticut law prohibits the development of new reactors anywhere other than at the state’s only operating nuclear plant, Millstone Power Station in Waterford.

The plant’s owner, Dominion Energy, recently announced a partnership with Amazon to develop SMR technology for potential use at one of the company’s nuclear power plants in Virginia, where it can supply power to Amazon’s headquarters and data centers in the state.

But Susan Adams, the director of state policy for Dominion, said in an email Tuesday that SMR technology will not likely be ready for widescale deployment until the early 2030s. Even at that point, she said, Dominion will focus on deploying SMRs in states that — unlike Connecticut — have fully-regulated electricity markets that allow generators to recoup their costs from ratepayers.

“Nuclear units, both traditional and small modular reactors, have significant upfront costs and low, stable operating costs,” Adams said. “This is the converse of what a deregulated market typically supports and building advanced nuclear would be difficult in a deregulated market.”

Still, both Democrats and Republicans in the Connecticut legislature have expressed support for expanding nuclear power in the state. One piece of legislation proposed this year, Senate Bill 4, would allow cities and towns to vote on whether they want to allow the construction of new reactors.

Lamont said while he’s not opposed to looking at other areas, the “path of least resistance” would be to go through Millstone, which he said has acres of available space and experience handling nuclear waste.

“We can look at other locations, especially when it comes to smaller, modular nukes that may be co-located with a user,” he said. “But I think in terms of the broad energy needs of our state and region, probably Millstone would be at the top of the list.”

He also acknowledged that costs could complicate the development of new reactors, as evidenced by a recent projects in Georgia and South Carolina that took years and went billions of dollars over budget (and in the latter example, were never completed).

By expediting permitting and approvals, Lamont said the Trump administration could bring down the costs for smaller reactors. Even then, he said he would like to see the technology deployed in other states before committing to building it in Connecticut.

“I’m not sure I want to be the first or second one out there, because I would put you on the bleeding edge,” Lamont said.

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