PROUDLY SERVING THE 35TH DISTRICT
State Senator Jeff Gordon
Dr. Jeff Gordon, elected in 2022, represents Connecticut’s 35th District. He serves as the Republican Leader on the Planning & Development and Veterans’ Affairs Committees, and is a member of the Appropriations, Public Health, and Public Safety Committees. Jeff is Co-Chairman of the Rural Caucus. As one of only two medical doctors in the Connecticut legislature, “Doctor-Senator” Jeff is known for his work on health insurance reform, prescription drug pricing, patient care access, and healthcare affordability, especially for people in rural communities. Dr. Jeff’s motto is Common Sense, highlights his work as a State Senator.
FEATURED STORY
Sen. Gordon Votes No on Appropriations Budget Over Lack of Needed Education Funding
HARTFORD, CT – State Senator Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) voted “NO” on the Appropriations Committee’s proposed budget because it fails to meaningfully increase funding for the Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant, a critical source of state support for K-12 public education in the 35th District and across Connecticut. He also voted “NO” because the proposed budget is not balanced, was not fully vetted with the state’s revenue estimates, and misses key priorities like education funding support for our towns.
“The people of Connecticut want common sense, a fair deal, and their state government to work for them. They know what is best for their families and them. My goal is to take this message to the Capitol for you, working to deliver solutions that make your lives better.”
Stafford SummerFest is always a fun time. Despite the high heat, this year was no exception. Thank you to everyone who organized SummerFest. I see firsthand the community spirit by continuing to meet in-person with many people, listening to them, and talking with them. I see it by continuing to support many local organzations and businesses. Whenever I am asked what makes the 35th State Senate District special, my #1 answer is the people of our towns. Keep going strong Stafford. Go Bulldogs!
There are many things each day that I work on as State Senator. One item today was working with Eversource advocating for my constituents without power in Woodstock and Tolland.
The Tolland outage was due to a fallen tree. Eversource had crews there to fix it. Thank you to the Tolland Fired Dept for being involved.
The Woodstock issue is more complex. Here’s a run down of my discussions with Eversource.
- Estimated power restoration time is 9:45 PM but Eversource has applied more resources to get the woek done. Thank you to the line crews doing the work in the high heat.
- the increased electricity demand during the high heat has put a burden on the system, not just in Woodstock and not just in CT. I review ISO New England dashboard data because it gives real time info, historical trends, and forecasts about energy supply and demand. During the day, the electricity demand jumped by around 10,000 MWH from early morning to now. The available capacity is reported at approximately 3,000 MWH above the peak demand. So, that is good, but when peak demand rises, the distributiom system of thousand of miles of wires and associated stations do “feel it”.
- There are issues in many towns, including Woodstock, of infrastructure needing to be upgraded. I have had prior and today discussions about it. Eversource has been doing work and planning for work to make the system more capable, reliable, and serviceable. For example, by automating the system, there can be real time data analysis and service that otherwise would require a crew to go to the site, sort out things, and do manual repairs. This will not solve all issues, but it would nevertheless be an improvement in how to handle many things fully and quickly. Eversource has moved up plans in northeast CT , which I am glad to helped push to be done.
- Specific to the Woodstock situation, Eversource has engineering crews studying historical data from all the circuits in Woodstock, finding out what are the root causes and where they are, and taking a look at aging infrastructure/vegetation management needs to address recurring power outage issues. Woodstock is a big geographically sized town, so a lot to look at.
- I will continue my ongoing work with Eversource on these issues, including when I intervene as State Senator to get help for people and communities, including Woodstock, from Eversource, and push for long-term fixes.
- I also continue to fight for “keeping rate payer first” in decision made by the Legislature, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (I had a recent meeting with PURA to directly once again lay put concerns and provode common sense solutions), and the Dept of Energy and Environment Protection.
I do give credit where credit is due to recognize good work that gets done. No matter how you may feel about Eversource, a fact is that whenever the many times I have reached out to Eversource to help constituents get into payment assistance programs they qualify for, get service calls for small businesses, get extra crews to respond to power outages, get lines cleared from town roads, get work moving forward on long term planning needs and upgrades, and other things, I get connected to the right people and Eversource responds. Having this relationship is important to getting things done. I will continue to do this advocacy work and build more relationships.
BTW, I have been asked about from where we get electricty sources. Today as I wrote this post, here is a breakdown from ISO New England:
- 50% natural gas
- 13% nuclear
- 11% hydro
- 10% oil
- 8% imports
- 6% renewables (52% of this is wind)
- <1% battery storage
- The remainder is listed as “other”
As your State Senator, I’m committed to keeping the people of the 35th District informed about important changes coming from the Capitol.
Click the link below for a list of the new laws going into effect on July 1 that may affect you, your family, and our community.
www.cga.ct.gov/asp/content/aeauto.asp