If you’re going to burn carbon to use AI, make the lift worth it. One convenient way to use AI for good is to set it up to act as a writing assistant to facilitate activism. Given Connecticut’s recent announcement of a tentative permit approval for a methane expansion project in Brookfield, I thought it appropriate to submit yet another comment to the state in opposition.
Thanks to strong groundwork by the state chapter of the Sierra Club, the factual basis for the comment was solid. Our role was to echo, amplify, and localize their work.
Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. is proposing to install new turbines at its Brookfield compressor station. The site, already responsible for degrading local air quality, sits less than 2,000 feet from the town’s middle school. The new turbines would significantly increase the amount of methane compressed and shipped into the pipeline system. The target market? Not Connecticut, but anticipated new demand in New York.
The pollution, however, stays here.
Connecticut gives thirty days from the date of the public notice to submit comments. If you’re following the project in anticipation of the news, it’s still a tight timeline. So, why not use a LLM to help with the turnaround?
With the paid version of ChatGPT, you can set up a custom GPT or persistent project folder. I created one for XR Southwest CT. My system instructions read:
Act as a research assistant and copywriter for a climate activist organization. The goal is to analyze documents or links for hypocrisy, greenwashing, astroturfing, or misleading narratives around environmental issues. Think like Alexei Navalny would.
The primary purpose of this work is to build comprehensive knowledge of changes being made to regulations by a new presidential administration.
The goal is to engage diverse stakeholders to think, not just, convene systemically. This means supporting people to recognize that optimizing a system means optimizing the relationships among the parts – not each of their parts individually – which in turn frequently requires individual compromise on behalf of the whole. In order to develop this recognition, help people distinguish systems from conventional thinking and uncover often non-obvious interdependencies among different parts of the system.
Try to focus goals to align with the XR SWCT Constitution in the documents.
To help draft a comment, I started by providing ChatGPT 4o with a link to the public notice. The model returned a helpful summary of the project and how it relates to the foundational document for our group. It also provided potential action items, starting with a public comment.
I followed the initial prompt with research documents and language sourced from the Sierra Club, and then asked ChatGPT to craft a public comment with the following prompt: Please prepare a full public comment letter with references and citations.
While the model advised sending the email to the wrong recipient, it did a great job of consolidating the information and structuring a comment. It saved significant drafting time, and the pre-set instructions enabled me to tailor the comment to my areas of focus. With only minor tweaks, I had the below statement ready to send along with references to the source materials used:
Expand for full comment…
Dear Mr. Grillo,
On behalf of Extinction Rebellion Southwest Connecticut (XR SWCT), I am writing to formally oppose the air permit application for the Brookfield Compressor Station expansion proposed by Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. as part of the so-called Enhancement by Compression (ExC) project. This proposal not only contradicts Connecticut’s climate and environmental justice goals—it actively endangers the health of nearby residents, undermines air quality in a nonattainment zone, and provides no public benefit to Connecticut.
1. Proximity to Sensitive Receptors Poses Serious Health Risks
The Brookfield Compressor Station is located a mere 1,900 feet from Whisconier Middle School, the only public middle school in Brookfield, and within one mile of approximately 800 residential homes, housing 2,000 people, including children, elderly residents, and medically vulnerable individuals.[1] This violates the recommended 1.8-mile minimum safety buffer around gas compressors, cited by public health experts and environmental engineers, to limit chronic exposure to toxic pollutants and the risk of explosion events.[2]
Compressors emit a cocktail of hazardous air pollutants including methane (CH₄), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitrogen oxides (NOₓ), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), carbon monoxide (CO), sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and nitrous oxide (N₂O). These compounds are linked to elevated rates of asthma, heart disease, cancer, neurotoxicity, and early mortality, particularly in developing children and elderly populations.[3]
2. Brookfield Is Already a Severe Ozone Nonattainment Area
Fairfield County, where the station is located, is classified as a “severe ozone nonattainment area” by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[4] This means the region already fails to meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone—a pollutant exacerbated by compressor emissions. Connecticut also received an “F” grade for ozone pollution in the 2025 American Lung Association “State of the Air” report.[5] Adding more pollutant burden in this context is irresponsible and, in our view, violates both the intent of the Clean Air Act and DEEP’s mandate to protect public health.
3. The Project Offers No Benefit to Connecticut
According to filings and operator statements, the 125 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) expansion in gas throughput will serve markets in New York City, not Connecticut. There is no demonstrated need within Connecticut for this expansion. All the public risk—health, safety, and environmental—will be borne by our communities, while the private profit flows elsewhere. This is a textbook example of environmental injustice and sacrifice-zone logic.
4. Violation of State Climate Goals and Executive Commitments
Connecticut has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2001 levels by 2050 under the Global Warming Solutions Act. This project increases fossil gas infrastructure lifespan, locking in upstream emissions at a time when rapid decarbonization is needed.[6] Governor Lamont has spoken of Connecticut’s climate leadership, but this project directly contradicts those claims. As recent IPCC reports make clear, new fossil fuel infrastructure is incompatible with a livable future.[7]
Conclusion and Recommendations
We urge DEEP to:
- Deny the air permit application for the Brookfield Compressor Station expansion.
- Hold a public hearing in Brookfield to ensure democratic accountability and community input.
- Conduct a cumulative health impact assessment, including noise, vibration, and explosion risk.
- Adhere to Connecticut’s statutory climate targets, and consider the full lifecycle emissions of the gas infrastructure in permitting decisions.
This is a moment of truth. DEEP must decide whether to act as a steward of public health and ecological stability—or as an enabler of corporate fossil fuel expansion at the expense of Connecticut’s people and future.
We stand ready to support public engagement, independent analysis, and grassroots accountability to ensure the right decision is made.
Citations
[1] Sierra Club & Breathe Project. Health Impacts of the Proposed Expansion of the Brookfield Compressor Station. July 2024. PDF
[2] Russo, E., & Carpenter, D. (2017). Health Effects Associated with Compressor Stations. Institute for Health and the Environment.
[3] ATSDR. (2022). Toxicological Profiles for Hazardous Air Pollutants.
[4] U.S. EPA. (2025). Green Book: Nonattainment Areas for Criteria Pollutants.
[5] American Lung Association. (2025). State of the Air Report: Connecticut County Grades.
[6] CT DEEP. (2021). Comprehensive Energy Strategy.
[7] IPCC. (2023). AR6 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers. United Nations.
In less than thirty minutes, we drafted and submitted a comment that will now live on the public record—thanks to the right prompt and the right tools. AI is already reshaping the world. Let’s make sure it reshapes it in our favor.
Do you have an issue you care about? Try setting up your own activism supercharger. A well-instructed AI can help craft hard-hitting comments, highlight hidden conflicts, and organize ideas faster than ever. If more of us start using these tools as responsible citizens, we just might start digging ourselves out of the climate hole.
The Cultural Easton 