Town Halls Across Connecticut Rally Support for Environmental Rights Amendment

Connecticut Residents, Environmental Groups hold Town Halls with Maya van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, on a Constitutional Environmental Amendment

Representatives Matt Blumenthal and Gregory Haddad, Senator Mae Flexer, Community Members, and Activists Call for the state legislature to pass an Environmental Rights Amendment during the 2026 Legislative Session

Scroll to the bottom of this press release for a message from CT NOFA Director of Policy & Advocacy, Dr. Kim Stoner, with actions items that you can take today to support the movement for an Environmental Rights Amendment to the Connecticut State Constitution.

Mansfield, Stamford, and Middletown, Connecticut — Residents, environmental advocates, and state lawmakers gathered for three public town halls featuring Maya K. van Rossum, founder of Green Amendments For The Generations, to discuss the urgent need for a Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment in the state constitution.

The town halls were held in Mansfield, in the district of Government Administration & Elections Committee Co-Chair Sen. Mae Flexer; in Stamford, in the district of Government Administration & Elections Committee Co-Chair Rep. Matt Blumenthal; and in Middletown. More than 95 people attended across the three events, demonstrating growing public support for establishing constitutional protections for clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment in Connecticut.

The proposed Environmental Rights Amendment would enshrine in Connecticut’s constitution the fundamental right of all residents, including future generations, to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment. The amendment would also establish a clear obligation for the state government to protect these rights as trustees of Connecticut’s natural resources.

Attendees had the opportunity to engage directly with legislators—including Senator Mae Flexer and Representative Gregory Haddad in Mansfield, Senator Pat Billie Miller in Stamford, and municipal leaders, including Karen Camporeale of the Board of Representatives in Stamford—about environmental justice, climate change impacts, and the role a constitutional amendment would play in strengthening state and municipal environmental protections. Conversations highlighted concerns over increasing extreme weather events, water pollution, and threats to public health and the need for proactive legal tools to protect communities from environmental harm. 

Supporters emphasized that powerful constitutional environmental rights amendments, called Green Amendments, have already been successfully adopted in Pennsylvania, Montana, and New York, and have provided strong legal frameworks to prevent environmental harm and hold decision-makers accountable.

Organizers are urging legislative leadership to bring the Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment forward for a vote during the 2026 session, and Attorney General William Tong to declare his support for strong and effective language for the Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment. 

“At a time when people are seeing their democracy and environment under assault, people who came to the open houses were genuinely excited to learn that they can be part of making history and securing a legacy of protection that will truly protect a healthy environment as a genuine right of all the people of Connecticut,” observed Maya K. van Rossum, Founder of Green Amendments For The Generations and author of The Green Amendment: The People’s Fight for a Clean, Safe, and Healthy Environment. “The level of turnout and engagement at every one of our town hall events for the Connecticut Environmental Rights Amendment has demonstrated that people are looking for solutions when it comes to environmental protection. People are recognizing that pollution is damaging the water, air, climate and environments that communities need to not just survive, but to thrive, and they are tired of piecemeal legislative solutions that are not solving the problem,” added van Rossum.

“Every Connecticut resident has an inalienable right to live in a safe and healthy environment, including clean water, air, and soil, and a stable climate. Enshrining that right in our state Constitution will ensure Connecticut’s long-term dedication to environmental health and safety, and that every Connecticut resident, in every community—including farmers, hunters, outdoors-people, and others—can trust we will preserve the environment for this generation and the ones to follow. I’m committed to working with advocates, stakeholders and our state Attorney General to protect these rights in perpetuity by amending the state Constitution,” said State Representative Matthew Blumenthal.

“Human health, and even human life, depends on the health of our environment. All our efforts to grow clean and healthy, nutrient-rich food will be in vain if we don’t have clean and healthy air, water, and soil. Farmers and farmworkers struggle to adapt to the extremes of weather we have now with climate change, and these extremes will get even more difficult to predict and manage if we don’t take action on climate. Our environmental rights are necessities and need to be protected at the highest level in our state constitution,” added Kimberly Stoner, PhD., Director of Policy & Advocacy for CT NOFA and Coordinator for the CT Environmental Rights Amendment Alliance.

Additional commentary was provided by notable attendees:

Clean air, water, soil, and a safe climate are necessary to human health; The League of Women Voters fully supports the Environmental Rights Amendment which would ensure these fundamental human rights for all Connecticut residents.

Patricia Rossi, Co-President of LWVCT

The CT ERA is a pathway to true environmental justice. By raising the status of environmental rights to become legally and morally foundational, the CT ERA would be profoundly empowering for our residents — particularly our youth — to achieve a deeper level of bioregionalism awareness and activism, and enjoy a deeper level of freedom.

Aaron Goode, New Haven Bioregional Network

Connecticut Citizens’ Climate Education and Connecticut Citizens’ Climate Lobby supports the addition of a Green Amendment to the Connecticut Constitution. We support this for all people, including future generations, to have a constitutional right to clean air and water, a safe climate, and a healthy environment.

Roger Kuhns & Susan Chapin, Connecticut CCE/CCL Co-coordinators

Sierra Club Connecticut is proud to stand alongside advocates and policymakers in support of the Environmental Rights Amendment. Every Connecticut resident deserves the right to a clean and healthy environment. Every Connecticut voter deserves the opportunity to weigh in on this constitutional amendment, and it’s up to our legislators to give voters a chance.

Julianna Larue, Sierra Club Connecticut

From Dr. Kim Stoner, CT NOFA Director of Policy & Advocacy:

In our recent series of Town Hall events, we heard from the co-chairs of the Government Administration and Election Committees, Senator Mae Flexer and Representative Matt Blumenthal, that they remain committed to bringing forward the CT Environmental Rights Amendment in their committee this year. 

However, we also heard from several legislators that we need to neutralize opposition to the CT Environmental Rights Amendment from the staff of the Attorney General’s office, and the best way to do that would be to contact Attorney General Tong directly.

Take Two Actions:

Action #1

Email Senator Mae Flexer (Mae.Flexer@cga.ct.gov) and Representative Matt Blumenthal (Matt.Blumenthal@cga.ct.gov), to thank them for their continuing commitment to bringing the CT Environmental Rights Amendment forward in their committee and urge them to work rapidly with the CT ERA Alliance to get the resolution for the amendment to a public hearing and vote this session.

Action #2

Email Attorney General William Tong (Attorney.General@ct.gov) to thank him for his strong support for environmental protection and renewable energy, and urge him to further strengthen his support for clean and healthy air, water, and soil, and a safe climate for all the people of Connecticut by coming out in support of the CT Environmental Rights Amendment.