Terrence Eddy Backer was born in 1954 in Stamford, Connecticut. He is a part of the Connecticut House of Representatives.
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He is the son of Henry Jacob Backer Jr. and Cathrine Lagana Backer. He attended Norwalk, Connecticut public schools and later earned a license as a Merchant Marine Officer from the United States Coast Guard Examining Unit at New York City. Backer also received an Arborist license from the Connecticut Tree Examining Board [1] certifying him as an expert in the care of trees. Backer was engaged in lobster and shellfishing with his father, Henry, in the Long Island Sound for many years.
Terry Backer was elected to the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1993 as the Representative from the 121st Assembly District in Stratford, Connecticut.[2] He is currently serving his eighth term having been re-elected in 2008 to another two year term.[3] Backer has served in numerous positions, including; Vice Chairman of the Appropriations Committee,[4] Chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee,[5] Assistant Majority Leader and Assistant Majority Whip [6]
Backer has also held the position in the Connecticut General Assembly of House Chairman of the Appropriation subcommittee on Conservation and Development. He has chaired the subcommittee from 1993 to 2008 and again for the 2009/2010 term. The subcommittee is tasked with crafting the budget for several state agencies which includes; the Department of Environmental Protection, the state Labor Department, the Department of Economic Development and Housing and the Culture and the Tourism Board and the Department of Agriculture, as well as other state agencies.
During his tenure as Chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee (2002–2003), Backer, oversaw and wrote the clean up legislation to the State of Connecticut's 1998 Electric Deregulation and Restructuring law. He added improvements to the environmental and renewable energy components to the law. Backer expanded the Renewable Portfolio Standards,[7] created Project 100;[8] a renewable energy program design to implement renewable generation in the state and passed the Energy Efficiency Standards of Commercial Appliances bill.[9]
Representative Backer's Committee assignments for the 2009-2010 legislative session are; the Appropriations Committee, the Environment Committee and the Energy and Technology Committee. Backer has focused his activities in the Environment Committee on water quality improvements and reduction of pollution from storm water. His activities in the Energy and Technology Committee have focused on renewable energy and energy security with a special interest in Peak oil concerns. House Speaker for the 2009/2010 legislative session, Chris Donovan (D-Meriden) appointed Representative Backer to chair a newly created sub-committee on Clean Energy and Energy Efficiency.
In February 2005, Backer wrote an article for State Legislatures Magazine, a publication of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), titled "Freedom From Fossil" Fuel[10] in the article he criticized the federal government and passed administrations for their failure to prepare the nation's infrastructure for a contraction of the conventional fossil fuel supply and the resulting impact on the nation. In the article he proposed that the states take the lead rather than relying on Congress or the administration. In July 2007, Backer founded the Connecticut General Assembly's, Peak oil and Natural Gas Caucus. The Caucus was formed to investigate the status of world petroleum based fuel supply, the impact of escalating cost on the society and the economy, as well as, post carbon fuel implications for the current government planning process.
In November 2008, Representative Backer released a report,[11] of which he was the principal author, to the Connecticut General Assembly and the Governor titled "Peak Oil Production and the Implications on the State of Connecticut". The report was an outgrowth of the work of the Peak Oil Caucus Backer formed earlier in the year. The report was the first of its kind to state legislatures.
During the 2008 legislative session Representative Backer authored the Energy Scarcity and Security Act which was passed in to law. The act begins a scenario planning process and establishes two functions. A report and study on energy concerns and the formation of a task force. The Energy Scarcity and Security task force was formed to make recommendation regarding the findings of a report that will investigate the impact of rising energy cost and both major and short term supply disruptions on the state's ability to provide services and the impact on the state's economy and cost to citizens. Representative Backer was appointed by the speaker of the house as co-chair of the task force along with Senator Bob Duff of Norwalk, CT who was appointed by the President Pro Temp of the Senate.
In September 2008, Representative Terry Backer was awarded the "Congressman Roscoe Bartlett Speaking Truth to Power" award from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil [12] USA (ASPO-USA). The award was given at Sacramento, California during the ASPO-USA annual meeting. Representative Backer was awarded the honor for his work on two landmark reports to the Connecticut legislature and the state's Governor regrading diminishing flows of oil due to resource depletion and geopolitical problems facing global oil production. The reports focused on global conditions and addressed impending cost and availability, as well as, potential shortages to the state.
In 1984, after witnessing degrading water quality in Long Island Sound, Backer, along with Chris Staplefelt, another local fisherman, co-founded the Connecticut Coastal Fishermen's Association. The fishermen's association was modeled after the Hudson River Fishermen's Association based in Garrison, New York. Staplefelt and Backer had been buying Buck Shad in the spring of the year for lobster bait from Bob Gabrielson, a Nyack, New York, shad fisherman. After hearing complaints of continued pollution problems in Long Island Sound, Gabrielson, introduced Backer and Staplefelt to John Cronin, then the Hudson Riverkeeper, who with the help of the New York City based law firm of Berle, Kass and Case, now dissolved, established the Connecticut Coastal Fishermen's Association. Once established, Backer, Cronin and Staplefelt laid out an aggressive plan to track down municipal and corporate polluters of the Sound, and bring them to court to abate the pollution of the Sound.
Terry Backer became the group's president, investigator and public point man. The Fishermen's Association, under Backer, brought federal Clean Water Act lawsuits against several Connecticut municipalities for violations of their National Pollution Discharge Elimination Systems Permits [13] The suits included; Norwalk, Bridgeport, Stratford and Milford, as well as other cities in Connecticut. The Fishermen's Association's set the tone for the hard nosed legal defense of the Long Island Sound. Backer would later bring these tactics to the role of Soundkeeper.
In 1987, Backer founded, along with John Cronin, the Hudson Riverkeeper and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Chief Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper the Long Island Soundkeeper Fund Inc.. That year Terry Backer became the first Soundkeeper for Long Island Sound [14] and executive director of the not for profit environmental protection organization based in Norwalk, Connecticut [15] The Long Island Soundkeeper Fund, was the second "Keeper" based organization and was preceded only by the Hudson Riverkeeper Fund. Long Island Soundkeeper was started by using a portion of stipulated penalties of $87,000.00 from a settlement based on a Clean Water Act lawsuit with the City of Norwalk, Connecticut.[16] With Terry Backer as Executive Director/Soundkeeper, Soundkeeper Inc. has since brought many Clean Water Act lawsuits against polluters of Long Island Sound including New York City,[17] as well as, a federal lawsuit challenging the United States Environmental Protection Agency's rule making regarding cooling water intakes from power plants [18]
In addition, to its legal activities Soundkeeper Inc. has, under Backer's leadership, restored salt marshes in the Bronx, NY[19] and has pioneered the use of catch basin flters[20] to clean polluted storm water of bacteria, metals and hydrocarbons before it enters Long Island Sound, as well as numerous other projects.
Based on the successes of John Cronin, Riverkeeper and Terry Backer, Soundkeeper many "Waterkeeper" organizations were forming from the grassroots. The "Keeper" concept of protecting the environment as defined by the work of Cronin and Backer, was spreading quickly. John Cronin, the Hudson Riverkeeper introduced the vision of a national alliance of "Keepers" and after several experiments the Waterkeeper Alliance emerged in 1999.[21] Terry Backer played a leading role in forming the Waterkeeper Alliance[22] in its formative years along with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., currently Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, Andrew Wilner, the New York/New Jersey Baykeeper,[23] Joe Payne the Casco Baykeeper,[24] Micheal Herz the former San Francisco Baykeeper[25] and Terry Tamminen[26] the former Santa Monica Baykeeper.[27] John Cronin's vision of a national Waterkeeper Alliance has grown into an international movement.
Terry Backer, remains in the leadership of the Waterkeeper movement. He was elected as the first Vice President of the Waterkeeper Alliance and has been re-elected to that position since the inception of the organization, including the 2007-2009 term.[28] In 2007, the office of president and vice president of the Waterkeeper Alliance were renamed to chairman and vice chairman at the annual meeting of the Alliance. Backer has helped guide and grow the Waterkeeper Alliance to 188 autonomous Waterkeepers on six continents.[29] The Waterkeeper Alliance office is located at 50 South Buckout Street Irvington, New York. The Alliance boast that it is the fastest growing locally based environmental movement in the world.
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