Panel Pushes

Ways To Cut Electricity Rates

HARTFORD (AP) — Connecticut lawmakers, responding to complaints from individuals and businesses about the high cost of electricity, unveiled proposals Monday intended to push down the retail price of energy.

A panel formed by House Speaker Christopher Donovan recommended that the legislature give electric companies more flexibility in how they buy power to take advantage of lower prices, establish a public authority to buy power for small- and medium-sized customers and repower aging fossil fuel plants to burn natural gas rather than oil or coal.

A proposal also would review legal restrictions against building nuclear power plants and conduct cost-benefit analyses of new construction.

“When I meet with businesses in my district, energy is one of the top complaints I hear about,” Rep Donovan said at a news conference.

State lawmakers deregulated electricity a decade ago and, when prices rose steeply as in 2007 and 2008, were inundated with demands for change. Even now, as prices have fallen from their highs, the price of electricity by kilowatt hour is still higher in Connecticut than nearly anywhere else in the United States, according to the US Department of Energy.

It is blamed for robbing consumers of disposable income and forcing businesses to flee to lower-cost states.

Rep Donovan said he hopes to have legislation passed before the legislative session ends in May “and help our economy immediately.”

Lawmakers can, however, expect opposition on a few recommendations. For example, Connecticut Light & Power, the state’s largest utility, opposes the proposed power authority.

“We procure energy under the rules put in place,” said Jeffrey D. Butler, president of the Berlin-based utility. “If you assume a power authority will follow the same rules, I don’t see how it will lower rates.”

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who has been urging for years that a power authority be established, said he is pleased it was included among the recommendations to the legislature.

“We can’t count victory until the vote are taken, but the level of support has grown vastly,” he said.

The state Department of Public Utility Control has told lawmakers to move cautiously with new reforms as the regulatory agency sees how previous changes such as conservation initiatives and onsite power generation by some businesses works, spokesman Philip Dukes said.

“We need to let them play out before we make investments in more changes,” he said.