Connecticut needs more energy – it doesn’t have enough - and it needs an energy policy but does not have one.

Connecticut has a host of energy problems.  However, proposed “solutions” are going in the wrong direction.  Fairfield County has an electric energy supply deficit, with demand growing steadily and supply severely constrained.  Only last week Connecticut Light & Power indicated that there is an increased likelihood of blackouts in Southwestern Connecticut. Fairfield County’s slow recovery from the blackout of 2003 highlights the problem. 

However, when two new electric transmission lines were proposed from Bethel and Middletown to Norwalk there was a loud “NIMBY” (Not In My Back Yard) outcry.  Electric deregulation enacted in 1998 has been a failure and has not brought prices down.  Instead the Department of Pubic Utility Control recently approved a 22% rate increase. New and existing electric supply cables between Connecticut and Long Island continue to be an issue.  The state is also heavily involved with nuclear power at the Millstone plant in Waterford.

A proposal is now being floated to place a massive liquefied natural gas supply tanker three football fields long in Long Island Sound, which brings a host of environmental and security problems without any assurance of public benefit.  However, simply opposing this is not enough.  An adequate alternative is needed.

It is clear that Connecticut needs an Energy Department to sort out this jumble and create a comprehensive energy policy.  It should incorporate the policy-making functions of the welter of “alphabet soup” agencies which presently include the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board, the Connecticut Siting Council, the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, the Connecticut Energy Conservation Management Board, the Department of Public Utility Control and the Energy Management Division of the Office of Policy and Management. 

The new department should be given the task of doing analysis of markets, pricing, supply, infrastructure and transportation and coming up with a unified energy strategy.  This would include evaluating the potential role for emerging renewable technologies such as fuel cells, solar energy and wind power.  Without a properly staffed department functioning full time in today’s complicated field, energy decisions are too often made by narrow interest groups, including the utilities themselves.  

The department should be the focal point for maintaining a dialogue with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission which sets market rules on the price of electricity relative to natural gas.  It could also communicate with one voice with our neighbors in New York and New England.  Without that our small state is in danger of being squeezed out of the energy market by our larger neighbors.

None of this is intended to diminish the role of the Governor and the General Assembly as the final arbiter on this or any other issue.  Rather we should recognize the reality that a part time legislature does not have the staff to track the daily changes which occur in this fast moving field, nor does it have the time to step back from the hurly burly of the legislative calendar and develop long term strategic alternatives.

Last session Governor Rell successfully proposed a major transportation renewal plan to address the clear inadequacies in our transportation system.  It is now time to do the same for energy.