Hartford Business Journal

4 Hartford Business Journal • May 21, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Briefs Supreme Court prompts state to reconsider sports gambling The Supreme Court cleared the way for supporters of the legalization of sports betting in Connecticut to make another attempt to authorize this type of gambling in the state. In a 6-3 ruling, the court said federal law prohibiting sports gambling in most states violated constitutional principles controlling state policies. That decision prompted Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to say he would support a special session to consider a sports-betting bill that stalled in the legislature's regular session, which ended last week. Connecticut House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz (D-Berlin) said he also supported another attempt to approve a sports-betting bill. Ana Radelat | CT Mirror New ownership for Middletown power plant The private-equity owner of the 620-megawatt Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown said it has sold a majority stake to four Japanese companies. Ares EIF, a unit of California-based Ares Management, said it's formed a new investment vehicle to manage Kleen Energy Systems LLC on behalf of the new investor group, which includes three Japanese utilities and a Tokyo-based global trading company. Financial terms were not disclosed. New investors include subsidiaries of The Chugoku Electric Power Co., Kyushu Electric Power Co., Osaka Gas Co. and Sojitz Corp. According to information announced by Sojitz, the new ownership structure of Kleen is as follows: Sojitz owns 20.25 percent; Osaka Gas owns 24.3 percent; Kyushu Electric Power Co. owns 20.25 percent and the Chugoku Electric Power Co. owns 16.2 percent. That would leave 19 percent remaining for Ares EIF. Ares has owned a majority share in Kleen since 2014, when it acquired Energy Investors Funds, a company that bought an 80 percent stake in Kleen in 2008, around the time construction on the plant began. Two years later, a natural gas explosion at the plant killed six workers and injured dozens of others. Lobby: Pot legalization raises U.S. workforce drug use American workers are using drugs at the highest rate in the last decade due in large part to several states legalizing the recreational sale of marijuana, according to an anti-marijuana legalization group. Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), of Virginia, citing a study by New Jersey- based Quest Diagnostics, which has a large presence in Connecticut, says positive tests for marijuana in the workforce surged 4.2 percent across the U.S. in 2017. The largest increases in workers using pot occurred in states that legalized the drug since 2016: Nevada (43 percent), Massachusetts (14 percent) and California (11 percent). Positive marijuana tests surged in 2017 by nearly 8 percent among safety- sensitive workers, the study says. Federal law requires drug testing for workers who have an impact on public safety, including airline pilots; rail, bus and truck drivers; and nuclear power plant workers. A total of 4.5 percent of Connecticut's workforce tested positive for either heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, opiates or PCP. About 2 percent of the state's workforce tested positive for marijuana, a rate that has remained flat since 2007. Connecticut has a medical marijuana program, but has not legalized recreational use of the drug. MDC customers to pay for state water assessment Regional water provider The Metropolitan District (MDC) said it will begin billing customers in June to fund a new state water assessment mandate. Required under the recently adopted state budget, the state Department of Public Health (DPH) is assigned to collect an assessment from water companies that own non-transient, non-community public water systems and community public water systems. Week in Review TOP STORY Efficiency coalition lawsuit: Funding raid is unconstitutional A group of five Connecticut energy efficiency contractors, ratepayers and not- for-profits is seeking to block the state's planned sweep of $155 million in ratepayer funds, on the grounds that the raid is unconstitutional. The coalition, which includes the Connecticut Fund for the Environment (CFE) and Connecticut Citizen Action Group, filed a lawsuit in federal court May 15, naming Gov. Dannel Malloy, Comptroller Kevin Lembo and Treasurer Denise Nappier as defendants. The lead plaintiff is Leticia Colon de Mejias, founder and CEO of Windsor-based Energy Efficiencies Solutions LLC. The coalition wants a judge to nullify the portion of the state budget approved last October that authorized the budget-balancing sweeps. Time could be of the essence. The suit says plaintiffs believe that the sweep for the current fiscal year will occur in June, with a second sweep a year later. The lawsuit argues that the funding raids are unconstitutional for several reasons, including that they violate contractual relationships between utilities and ratepayers, who agree to pay conservation or systems-benefit charges in exchange for efficiency services and clean-energy investments. BY THE NUMBERS 16.5% The average individual health insurance rate hike Democratic defenders of Obamacare are predicting for 2018 in Connecticut. 12 The number of plaintiffs who recently sued the state of Connecticut, challenging last year's $155 million energy funding raid by the legislature. $1.13B The amount of money gamblers fed into Connecticut slot machines in April, down 2 percent from a year ago. 4.5% The percentage of Connecticut's workforce that tested positive for either heroin, amphetamines, cocaine, marijuana, opiates or PCP in 2017, according to Quest Diagnostics. TOP 5 MOST READ On HartfordBusiness.com • 1. Major CT union taps Barr as executive director • 2. New ownership for Middletown power plant • 3. Efficiency coalition lawsuit: Funding raid is unconstitutional • 4. Glastonbury's Smith Brothers Insurance acquires Mass. firm • 5. Lobby: Pot legalization raises U.S. workforce drug use STAY CONNECTED For breaking and daily Greater Hartford business news go to www.HartfordBusiness.com HBJ on Twitter: @HartfordBiz HBJ on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HartfordBiz HBJ on Linkedln: www.linkedin.com/company/ the-Hartford-Business-Journal Daily e-newsletters: HBJ Today, CT Morning Blend www.HartfordBusiness.com/ subscribe Weekly e-newsletters: CT Health Care Weekly www.HartfordBusiness.com/ subscribe Leticia Colon de Mejias, CEO of Energy Efficiencies Solutions in Windsor, is suing the state over its planned clean-energy fund raid. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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