Mar 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Brian Lockhart The Stamford Advocate, Conn.

A group of lawmakers, including state Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, yesterday called for the creation of a new Department of Clean Energy to help the state reduce its dependence on oil.

"The days of plentiful, cheap oil are drawing to an end," Backer told reporters during an afternoon news conference. "It isn't a question of whether we will switch to a clean-energy economy, but when."

Backer also is executive director of Norwalk-based Soundkeeper, a 20-year-old organization working to protect Long Island Sound.

He has been trying to sound the alarm over the concept of "peak oil" -- when there are no new oil supplies left to be tapped.

In November, Backer and other peak oil converts, including state Rep. Carlo Leone, D-Stamford, and state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, heard from energy experts who testified that the world either reached maximum oil production in 2005, or will in 2012.

That hearing led to the drafting of the bill to create a Clean Energy Department, which would plan a state shift to a greater reliance on renewable energy and improve conservation.

Backer said there are now too many agencies and entities within state government in charge of energy, and a focused department is needed.

"Right now, we do energy policy very piecemeal in Connecticut," he said.

State Rep. Diana Urban, D-Stonington, who joined Backer yesterday, said the initiative also would help the state economy.

"We can baby-sit our dwindling oil supply and continue to fight resource wars, (or) we can move forward with new technologies and look at the economic growth that's going to bring," Urban said. "The state that steps up and says they're going to embrace renewables . . . is the state that leads us into the future."

A public hearing on the Department of Clean Energy bill was scheduled for late yesterday before the legislature's Energy Committee.

The bill also called for creation of a $2 billion pool of state bonding money the department could use over an unspecified number of years to further its mission.

State Rep. Steve Fontana, D-North Haven, co-chairman of the Energy Committee, said he has traditionally opposed creating new departments.

Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell in 2006 and 2007 tried unsuccessfully to convince lawmakers to establish a new Department of Energy to focus on the state's energy future.

"I like this proposal better," Fontana said, adding that Backer's plan appears to be more "narrowly tailored" than Rell's.

A Rell spokesman declined comment on the Clean Energy Department bill.

Fontana said he also is concerned about peak oil.

"It's happening now and faster than I would have predicted," he said.

But Energy Committee Co-chairman Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, did not envision the new department being created this year.

"A lot more people need to get their arms around its mission," he said. "We as a committee can't do that in the short time we have."

Christopher Phelps, spokesman for Environment Connecticut, a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization, agreed the proposal was too ambitious to pass this legislative session.

But he said it is important to make the proposal and begin the conversation.

Freshman state Rep. Kimberly Fawcett, D-Fairfield, a member of the Environmental Committee, said she has great respect for Backer but was also concerned about the $2 billion price tag.

"This is an urgent, vital issue. We have to move on clean energy," Fawcett said. "But when you take $2 billion, you have to take it from something else -- public safety or education."

Backer during yesterday's news conference said he knew that it would be a fight to pass a $2 billion idea on a topic such as peak oil.

He said it is easier for lawmakers to commit equal sums of money to other projects -- from universities to stadiums -- that can have a more immediate impact and help them win votes.

But he cautioned, in the not-too-distant future, residents will begin asking lawmakers what they are doing about peak oil and the looming energy crisis.

"This is not some far-off problem," Backer said.