After All Things

Addressing electric

Thousands of Connecticut residents demand reforms in the electricity market. Babylon brings in more than a million dollars in marijuana revenue in the last nine months. Amazon is now Connecticut’s largest employer. Did you catch the Northern Lights this weekend? And young people in the region discuss their fears about climate change.

Duration:: 14m
Broadcast on:: 12 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Support for "After All Things" comes from the listeners of WSHU, a public radio station serving Connecticut and Long Island. For daily news and culture from around the sound, listen to WSHU.org or download the WSHU app. You're listening to "After All Things," WSHU's daily news and culture update from the Long Island Sound region. Thousands of Connecticut residents demand reforms in the electricity market. Babylon raked in more than a million dollars in marijuana revenue in the last nine months. Amazon is now Connecticut's largest employer, and young people in the region discuss their fears about climate change. Their stories and more are ahead. I'm Sabrina Garone. ♪♪♪ More than 30,000 people have signed an online petition calling for reforms to Connecticut's electricity market. WSHU's Molly Ingram reports it was started by residents who say their electric bills skyrocketed in July. The change.org petition calls on Governor Ned Lamont and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to get rid of the public benefit charge on their bills. That charge supports renewable and efficient energy and assistance for low-income customers. Officials say almost 80 percent of the money goes toward buying power from Milstone, the only nuclear power plant in Connecticut. United Illuminating says the state is responsible for the 12 percent increase in public benefit charges, and their investors won't see any of the money. Members of the Democratic moderate caucus say they're looking at ways to reform energy sales. Republican leaders say they want the governor to call a special session to handle the issue, but Lamont says he won't do that until they have a specific proposal. Molly Ingram, WSHU News. Babylon New York officials say the town has made more than a million dollars in the last nine months from recreational marijuana. WSHU's Shelly Hasman-Cadish reports. Babylon has two marijuana dispensaries in East Farmingdale, a hamlet that's part of the town. Another tour scheduled to open later this year. Some of the revenue from retail sales goes back to the town according to state law. Babylon is one of only four towns on Long Island in Suffolk County that have opted into recreational marijuana sales. It's the only town where marijuana stores have actually opened. According to Newsday, Babylon is the first town in the county to report its revenue from marijuana sales. Town officials say they plan to use the money to open a substance abuse treatment center in North Amityville. Shelly Hasman-Cadish, WSHU News. Amazon is now the largest corporate private sector employer in Connecticut, according to a new report from the company. WSHU's Janice Roman has more. The e-commerce company released its 2024 US Economic Impact Report this week. Amazon says it employs approximately 17,000 people in Connecticut. Amazon says it has invested about $9.5 billion in Connecticut since 2010. The company factored into its data employee compensation as well as other categories such as infrastructure. The company has two fulfillment centers in Windsor, one in Cromwell, and North Haven. Along with sorting and delivery stations across the state. It says it has plans for other distribution centers. Janice Roman, WSHU News. Young people across the country and in our region say they're super worried about the future of our planet. A conversation on climate anxiety is ahead, first a message from our supporter. As a result of COVID-19, we've got a lot of information on climate change and climate change. Local support comes from Hartford HealthCare, the only health system in the Northeast, with all its hospitals receiving A grades for safety from the LeapFrog group, the nation's leading independent safety watchdog group, HartfordHealthCare.org. Did you catch the northern lights in Connecticut last night? U.S. weather officials say the display was seen further south than usual thanks to a strong geomagnetic storm. A perseid meteor shower will also peak in our region this week. Nassau County is the country's safest place to live according to a study by U.S. News and World Report. The county earned a perfect score of 100 for its low crime rate, number of emergency facilities and more. Suffolk County ranked number 22 on the list. Dozens of dogs, cats, and other animals living in poor conditions have been seized from a home in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Officials rescued 23 dogs, 20 cats, 7 rabbits, and a guinea pig from a residence on Saturday. And then an additional 30 cats were collected from the home on Sunday. Long Island railroad officials say they'll explore a plan to store more trains at a Port Washington rail yard. The agency is also considering expanding service on its Port Washington line. Newsday says the branch had the L.I.D.R.'s third highest ridership in 2023. Connecticut Brewing Company has struck a deal with British soccer club Arsenal. Milford-based Athletic Brewing Company is Arsenal's first non-alcoholic beer partner. Andrew Katz is Athletic Brewing's chief marketing officer. We were actively searching for a U.K. football club to partner with. And Arsenal is obviously a North London club and London is home to many of the pubs and venues where Athletic is available. So we just thought it made a tremendous amount of sense. Athletic is ranked America's number one non-alcoholic beer brand according to the company. Young people across the U.S. say they're experiencing high levels of climate anxiety. W.S.H.U.'s Abong Udama spoke with Jan Ellen Spiegel of the Connecticut Mirror who's done in-depth reporting on this issue. It's part of the collaborative podcast, "Long Story Short." Hello Jan. Hi there. You've covered environmental issues for many years. And in the U.S. young people seem to be most moved by concerns about climate change. Is that why you decided to dig a bit deeper into this? I have been looking to do something with young people in climate change for a long time, but trying to get to it. Essentially posed an issue how to do it. I had heard something about literally climate anxiety among young people and decided that was a way to go. Once you talked to people it was not hard getting them to talk about it, but it's not like you could go to some sort of psychological group and actually do it. So I basically reached out to people individually and discovered a lot of interesting things. Now one thing you discovered is this 2021 study, "The Climate Anxiety and Children Study." Could you just tell us about that study? It is a big study. And it was done in about 10 different countries with the main writer was a researcher from Britain, Caroline Hickman, who I did not speak with. But I certainly spoke to people who were very familiar with it and everybody pointed to this. The interesting thing was in terms of the countries there was a whole variety from, you know, some of the poorest countries to the U.S., which obviously is going to be the wealthiest. And one of the key findings of it that struck me was that in the U.S., young people seem to have less anxiety than in other countries. Now you can take a guess as to why it may have to do with the political climate here, where it gets downplayed by certain industries. It may have to do with just simply the wealth in this country. But certainly other countries that have experienced some very, very severe climate impacts, those young people were feeling it even more than those in the U.S., and there were tons in the U.S. But there are some people here that are looking into this. You talk to a psychiatrist at Yale, the Connecticut Institute of Living, and he's on the faculty at Yale. What did he find and what's his research on? Well, the interesting thing with that particular person, Josh Wartzel, who is actually just coming into the state to the Institute of Living and will be on the faculty at Yale, is that there has been a push for a while through a number of organizations for psychiatrists and psychologists to get this on a front burner. And he deals with young people in adolescents, so that was certainly in his sweet spot. Others like him deal with older people, but we're also finding it as well. What they were finding is that the issue of anxiety about climate seems to be a secondary issue to other bigger psychological and psychiatric type issues, and that if you don't ask young people about it, you might not know that. It's not something they will say right away. You have to be out there asking about it, and that's where they found the information was most compelling. There is also the potential for literal physical impacts. Younger people can't deal with certain heat stress on their brains as well, and their bodies don't warm and cool as well. There are known stressors from heat in particular at all levels. People are more irritable in hot weather. They get in more fights. There's more violence. That sort of thing. How that compounds into the psychological realm and the psychiatric realm is still being worked on. The other really interesting thing, and this was across the board. It wasn't like one guy found this and another guy found something else. They were all sort of headed in the same direction, is that if for young people to deal with some of the psychological impacts of climate change, action seemed to be the best solution. Not just action, but action with other like-minded people, action in terms of a group effort. Channeling those anxieties into some type of social setting helps. Where they can take some action or even just talk about it among themselves. Action is better because you feel like you're doing something, but then you get into another level of interest, which is, well, if you're taking action, let's say the governmental entities that have more power aren't taking action, is that going to make you feel better or worse? This stuff is all fairly nascent, so we haven't really seen how it totally plays out yet. There are a number of studies underway. Group support seems to be a major issue here. Yes, absolutely. But you can also ask the question, well, if you do all this group work and you're trying to do stuff, but you're not succeeding, then what? We don't really know how that's going to play out, but at least the young people I've talked to. And here was the most, I thought, the most amazing thing, the young people I talked to, they weren't seeking psychological help for any of this. They were figuring this out on their own. Well, well, thank you so much, John Allen. John Allen Spiegel is the Connecticut nearest regular freelance environment and energy reporter. I'm Abon Udama. Thank you for listening to After All Things, supported by Hartford HealthCare. From more stories from the Long Island Sound region, listen on the radio, stream online at WSHU.org or download the WSHU app, which is also where you can find more great podcasts from WSHU, like long story short, or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And as always, reach out with any thoughts or story ideas. Our email is news@wshu.org. I'm Sabrina Garone. Enjoy the rest of your day. I'll talk to you tomorrow. [Music]