Bill targeting climate change education in Connecticut

Connecticut's House Bill 5955 would, if enacted, "eliminate climate change materials" from the Next Generation Science Standards as used in Connecticut, incorrectly describing climate change as "a controversial area of information." Connecticut adopted the NGSS in 2015.

The bill, introduced on January 24, 2019, and referred to the Joint Committee on the Environment, is sponsored by John E. Piscopo (R-District 76). Ten years ago, Piscopo introduced a bill to "repeal global warming legislation that was passed based on the assumption that global warming is caused by human action," telling the Connecticut Post (March 2, 2010), "The public has been hoodwinked ... I have serious doubts about whether this is man made." As a member of the board of directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, he reportedly worked with a staffer of the climate-change-denying Heartland Institute in 2017 to call for a review of the EPA's 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare.

Piscopo is also the sponsor of House Bill 5922, which would, if enacted, prohibit Connecticut's Department of Education from using the NGSS at all and require it to revert to the previous standards. No rationale for the prohibition is provided in the text of the bill.