Processing Your Payment

Please do not leave this page until complete. This can take a few moments.

July 16, 2012

Hoffman shapes Connecticut environmental policy

Photo / Pablo Robles Lee Hoffman, attorney with Hartford law firm Pullman & Comley, has been behind the scenes on nearly all of the major Connecticut initiatives made toward the environment and energy in the past two years.

Attorney Lee Hoffman knows people need motivation to help the environment.

At Hartford law firm Pullman & Comley, Hoffman advocates for a smart energy, environment and transportation policy — lending his expertise to government and trade groups.

To get businesses and individuals to make smart choices, Hoffman said Connecticut needs to make the decision easy.

“The theme overall is people — whether you are talking about an individual, business or government agency — when the choice actually comes up, people do not put their money where their mouth is,” Hoffman said.

The state needs to provide with motivation such as property assessed clean energy financing, where businesses realize the savings of energy upgrades immediately, rather than shoulder large capital costs upfront.

“Where we have to go — people, government, businesses — we have to look at solutions … where there is money to be made by doing the right thing,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman served as a Connecticut enironmental lawyer for the last 17 years. As policy grew more comprehensive, Hoffman's expertise grew to include energy, utilities and transportation.

“My business is now reflecting where Connecticut has gone,” Hoffman said. “Where Gov. (Dannel) Malloy is trying to move Connecticut.”

When Malloy was elected governor in 2010, he appointed Hoffman to the Energy Policy Working Group transition team. Hoffman shaped the recommendations that became energy reform, creating the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection and various incentive programs.

When Tropical Storm Irene in August and the Oct. 29 snowstorm each knocked out power to the majority of the state in 2011, Malloy tapped Hoffman as a member of the Two Storm Panel to recommend how to prepare for potential disasters.

“Lee was an extremely valuable member,” said Joseph McGee, who co-chaired the Two Storm Panel. “He is a guy that rolls up his sleeves and gets things done.”

Hoffman's expertise was vital to the panels' recommendations on how to motivate utilities, McGee said. Hoffman's writing prowess was an important contribution as well, as he wrote a sizeable portion of the final report.

“The majority of those recommendations either became law or are just happening,” McGee said. “I would be happy to have him on any other panel I work on.”

This year, Hoffman worked as one of several dozen stakeholders as DEEP developed the state's first comprehensive energy policy, looking at approaches to generating power, heating homes, and fueling vehicles. Hoffman advises DEEP on tackling bigger issues such as energy-efficient buildign and natural gas for cars, homes and power plants.

Natural gas is a perfect example of providing people with the motivation to help the environment, Hoffman said. With prices low, businesses and homeowners can heat at half the price of fuel oil with 30 percent less carbon emissions.

Hoffman serves as a member of the Connecticut General Assembly Brownfields Working Group. For the past five years, the group advised legislators on redeveloping brownfields, benefitting businesses, the environment and government by returning contaminated properties to useful purposes.

The group's work resulted in meaningful reforms in 2011, changing the way state agencies treated brownfield property owners and funded redevelopment projects. The reforms turned brownfield revitalization into money-makers for developers.

“As people see those kind of creative solutions, we will see those types of solutions happening,” Hoffman said.

Hoffman was born in Allentown, Pa., and went to Tulane University in New Orleans, where he majored “in being an alcoholic,” he said. He then went to law school at George Washington University where he received his juris doctorate and his master of law degree in environmental law.

Upon law school graduation in 1995, Hoffman and his wife, Carolyn Hoffman, said they wanted to move someplace neither of them had lived before. The choice came down to Hartford or Boise, Id.

The couple, now married 17 years, lives in South Windsor with Julia, their 10-year-old daughter, and Michael, their 6-year-old son.

Sign up for Enews

Most Recent

Most Recent

0 Comments

Order a PDF