Good morning and welcome back to the Tip Sheet, a weekly newsletter from Tom Dudchik’s Capitol Report written by Mike Cerulli.

This week, the Tip Sheet rang Gov. Ned Lamont to get the latest on his trip to Washington. The governor dined with President Donald Trump and met with top administration officials.

Here’s what we learned: Lamont is hoping for strong relationships with Trump’s top energy officials, he appears to be embracing an instinct to lean in on natural gas, and an old college classmate of his has just been confirmed to lead one of the most consequential federal agencies.

We’ll also offer some predictions on what to watch as the legislature heads into session this week and recap the drama that played out in the confirmation hearing of Marissa Gillett.

Plus, the governor has made another addition to his comms team. Who is Rob Blanchard’s new deputy?

Let’s dive in.

Mr. Lamont goes to Trump’s Washington

In meetings with President Donald Trump’s top energy officials, Gov. Ned Lamont discussed how cutting-edge nuclear technology and a deposit of natural gas buried in 300 million year-old shale might hold the keys to solving Connecticut’s energy affordability challenge.

Speaking with the Tip Sheet on Saturday before he attended a formal dinner hosted by the president, Lamont said he discussed Connecticut’s energy prospects with two Trump cabinet officials, Doug Burgum and Chris Wright. Burgum is Trump’s interior secretary and has been granted czar status over energy policy. Wright is the energy secretary and a former energy CEO.

In his signature shorthand oratorical style – a style that sometimes obscures specifics in favor of punchy lines – Lamont seemed to hint at the prospect of expanding existing natural gas infrastructure.

“We have some of the lowest cost gas in the country at Marcellus,” Lamont said – referring to vast deposits of natural gas beneath Pennsylvania.

“There’s an existing pipeline but it’s at pretty full capacity,” Lamont said. “What are some of the ways that we could at least have some optionality to say, ‘More natural gas is available to our region’?”

Lamont said he’d discussed this issue with the two secretaries and with Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania. He stopped short of announcing any specific plans to widen or otherwise expand the existing pipeline infrastructure, saying simply, “I think I’ll just leave it at that.”

The governor is much less ambiguous when it comes to the issue of nuclear energy.

Lamont has long expressed interest in doubling down on nuclear power, and he has expressed optimism that Trump’s instincts to cut bureaucratic tape might lead to a faster timeline for Connecticut to adopt the latest reactor technologies.

Getting to the “front of the line” for emerging modular reactor technology is a priority, Lamont said, while acknowledging that bringing that additional capacity on-line could be a time-consuming endeavor.

“Permitting and permitting reform was front and center down here – how to speed up that process,” Lamont said.

So, would the governor like to see the new administration take the “DOGE” axe to the federal government’s notoriously complex nuclear regulatory regime?

“Speed up the process without lowering standards, yes,” Lamont replied.

Lamont also signaled optimism that the president’s desire to “drill, baby, drill” would not come at the expense of existing wind energy projects that Connecticut could one day draw power from.

“I think the secretaries are ‘all of the above’ and that includes wind,” Lamont said. “At least the projects we have in motion, don’t pull the plug mid-contract. I think there’s general agreement on that.”

Agreement was in shorter supply at a Friday afternoon meeting at the White House, when Lamont had a front row seat to a sharp exchange over transgender rights between Trump and Maine’s governor, Janet Mills.

“I was sitting next to her,” Lamont said. “She was minding her own business.”

The president singled Mills out over Maine’s policies on transgender athletes in youth sports.

“See you in court,” Mills said.

Lamont is known to have a strong professional and personal relationship with the governor of the state that is home to his ancestral summer estate.

“She’s a pretty feisty 70-something governor,” Lamont said.

Where Mills took a “feisty” approach, Lamont is less outwardly confrontational.

“Look, I’m gonna have plenty of battles with the president,” Lamont said. “Let’s find areas where we can work together.”

Working together with the new administration might come easier for Lamont than some of his higher-profile fellow Democratic governors – in part because of his existing relationships with members of the Trump cabinet.

Burgum, the interior secretary and energy czar, is a man with a background familiar to Lamont. The former North Dakota governor jumped into politics from the world of business, defeating the party-endorsed candidate in a statewide primary. Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for education secretary, is a longtime Greenwichite. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, is an old college classmate of Lamont’s.

“We reminisced about that for a grand total of two minutes,” Lamont said of a brief interaction with Kennedy. The two also overlapped in the years before Kennedy became a leading voice of the new right. The governor said he hopes to reason with Kennedy over funding for Medicaid and other public health programs.

The governor was wheels up for a trade mission in India on Sunday morning. He is slated to return to the state this upcoming weekend.

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Special ed, hospitals, drones, and student athletes. What’s on the agenda for this week’s session?

An ample supply of Celsius, Diet Coke, coffee, and Zyn will be on hand this evening to help staff and lawmakers power through a late-night session of the state House of Representatives.

The 151 members of the General Assembly’s larger chamber are being called to session at 5:00 PM to vote on a broad agenda of legislation.

Last week, House Speaker Matt Ritter and Senate President Marty Looney announced their intentions to pass a $40 million spending bill for special education in an effort to shore up local school budgets.

Legislative leaders are also expected to put forth e-certs containing a host of other measures including one that would limit the future use of Chinese-made drones by law enforcement agencies and one that would effectively green-light UConn to directly pay its student athletes.

UConn’s athletic director, Dave Benedict, testified in support of legislation that is expected to be included in some form in the agendas for Monday and Tuesday.

In his testimony, Benedict outlined his belief that a recent Supreme Court ruling which opened the door for direct compensation of student athletes will make it inevitable that schools will begin doing just that.

“It is imperative that Connecticut once again be among the first states to act so we do not find ourselves in a detrimental situation in terms of student-athlete recruitment and retention,” Benedict wrote.

The State Senate is scheduled to go into session Tuesday afternoon.

Fireworks and a deal cap PURA drama…for now

The great Kenny Rogers once said, “There’ll be time enough for countin’, when the dealin’s done.”

Gov. Ned Lamont, his senior staff, and legislative Democrats appear to be students of The Gambler’s wisdom.

Last Thursday, when the time came to count the votes for Marissa Gillett’s nomination to continue to serve on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, the dealing had already been done.

The governor who in his February budget address touted his administration’s efforts to make sure “not just the usual suspects” are in the loop to receive coveted state jobs entered into a deal to add two Capitol stalwarts to the state’s utility regulator.

At this point, the details of the deal have been reported on extensively. PURA will eventually become a quasi-public agency. Two new commissioners, State Sen. John Fonfara and former State Rep. Holly Cheeseman, are expected to be appointed to the authority next year.

The reactions to the deal ranged from muted to apoplectic.

Senate Minority Leader Steve Harding expressed deep outrage.

“In my ten years in the legislature, there’s few days where I’ve been angrier and more upset about the process and how we ultimately got here today and how things were negotiated in dark rooms,” Harding said.

Some Democrats noted that the terms of the deal were in line with changes the Republicans have long advocated for. Moving from three commissioners to the required five and taking PURA out from underneath the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection are both elements of the Republicans’ signature energy plan. The appointment of Cheeseman was publicly floated by House Minority Leader Vinny Candelora last year.

But none of the reporting or public comments from legislators seriously supported the notion that the terms of the deal were designed primarily to appease Republican desires. Rather, the deal’s components were widely interpreted as an effort to shore up support on the Democratic side – especially Democrats like Fonfara who serve on the Executive and Legislative Nominations Committee.

Lamont released a statement shortly after the vote applauding her success, while barely alluding to the arrangements that his spokesman had confirmed to the press.

For his part, Fonfara told News 8 he decided to support Gillett after reviewing her record and that he “never, ever made my vote contingent upon anything.”

“Completely separate and distinct from that is this discussion about going to five [commissioners] which I understand the governor supports,” Fonfara said. “If I’m one of those, I’d be honored to serve.”

Asked what his approach to the job would be if he is given the chance to serve on PURA, Fonfara said, “I’m there, I will work with the chairman and other members to advocate for making electricity cost reductions a priority, the priority, while maintaining the system. We can do that.”

The Tip Sheet asked Lamont about the behind-the-scenes drama that culminated in last week’s deal.

The governor who has at times expressed an aversion to the ways of the Capitol said, “It was a negotiation. We’ve got a co-equal branch of government. I’ve got to work with those folks.”

“Hopefully, with this behind us we’ve lowered the temperature and everyone can get back to work,” Lamont said.

A new addition to Lamont’s comms shop

Kevin Rivera has been named deputy communications director in Gov. Ned Lamont’s office.

Rivera has done stints with Rep. John Larson and Sen. Richard Blumenthal. He’s been pinch hitting for the governor’s comms team in the last few months, on loan from the Department of Developmental Services.

Rivera joins Rob Blanchard as the second new addition to the governor’s press operation this year.

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We’ll be back next week!