Business owners can look forward to cheaper energy costs as changes to state and national policies are enacted, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told attendees at the 21st annual Stamford Downtown Special Services District (DSSD) dinner.
“North America is about to be energy independent ”¦ not in a matter of years but in a matter of months,” Malloy told property owners June 25 at the dinner held at the Stamford Marriott Hotel and Spa. “Wrap your heads around the fact that we”™re going to have relatively cheaper energy, relative to other countries.”
As the United States, Canada and Mexico combine their hydropower, natural gas, oil and clean energy initiatives, Malloy said the next 50 years would be marked by a reliance on domestic energy and cheaper energy costs than those of Asia, Europe and South America.
“When we start to build the systems to take advantage of that we”™re going to bring back manufacturing, especially higher-value manufacturing, to the United States,” he said. “It doesn”™t make sense to load a lot of raw material on boats, take them to different countries for a slightly added value and then somehow get the product back here.”
Before getting carried away with the notion however, Malloy warned that government must act to invest in education ”” from pre-K to the post-graduate level ”” to prepare the workforce for an increase in jobs. At a time when just more than half of the state”™s urban high school students are graduating and Connecticut”™s workforce is aging at the seventh-fastest rate in the nation, Malloy said the state needs to continue making efforts to change course.
“We can guarantee full employment in Connecticut within a generation,” he said.
As governor, Malloy said he has come to realize that not all of the state”™s cities are like Stamford and have already realized the need for strategic planning. Before becoming governor, Malloy served as the mayor of Stamford for 14 years.
“The more time I spend in other cities in Connecticut and around the nation, the more I realize how very special Stamford is,” said Malloy, saying the city should be used as a model for the state as it plans its future.
With its continued urban redevelopment, population growth and the new Stamford Innovation Center, Malloy congratulated the city and the DSSD on its successes and putting the city on a trajectory for continued growth.
“I grew up in a city that is unlike other cities in this state,” Malloy said of Stamford. “A city that 50 years ago decided to change its course, establish a course and then stay on that course. That has not been the model for Connecticut for a very long time.”
Touting his job creation efforts such as First Five, the Small Business Express loan program, Step Up and the Bioscience Connecticut initiative, Malloy said he was on a mission to create a stronger Connecticut economy for years to come.
“I know there”™s people in this state that just don”™t get it,” Malloy said. “This is about changing the direction, the trajectory, of the state of Connecticut.”
