{news} May 17 "energy summit" at the Capitol?

[David Bedell]

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-spsession0505.artmay05,0,2728552.story

On Energy, A Challenge
Blumenthal, Others Seek Special Legislative Session On Rising Gasoline, 
Electricity Prices

By PAUL MARKS
Courant Staff Writer

May 5 2006

Hours after the 2006 General Assembly adjourned, Attorney General Richard 
Blumenthal and several consumer groups called on lawmakers to return in 
special session and pass bills addressing soaring gasoline and electricity 
prices.

Bills halting the practice of zone pricing of gasoline - which Blumenthal 
says is anticompetitive - and revising the state's system of generating 
power died Wednesday for lack of a vote.

"We saw no vote in the House of Representatives on any substantive energy 
proposal - none. Not even debate," Blumenthal said Thursday. "Connecticut 
taxpayers and ratepayers have the right to a vote so they can hold their 
legislators accountable."

He said energy company lobbyists carried the day by thwarting action on any 
of the heavily lobbied energy bills. "What happened in this session," he 
said, "is Big Energy beat the clock."

The call for a special session got a cool reception from House Speaker James 
Amann, D-Milford. He and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, 
D-Brooklyn, plan a May 17 "energy summit" at the Capitol at which lawmakers 
will hear energy experts argue the pros and cons of policy choices.

That might lead to a comprehensive energy plan and a special session, Amann 
said.

Amann said Blumenthal's criticism is not justified. A 76-vote majority was 
needed in the House to pass energy legislation, he said, and "there was no 
consensus" in the Democratic caucus on what to approve.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell was receptive to a special session.

"Governor Rell agrees with the attorney general that these critical 
energy-related bills deserved an up or down vote," her spokesman, Judd 
Everhart, said. "If the legislative leadership does not call a special 
session on its own, the governor will seriously consider calling a special 
session herself."

House Minority Leader Robert M. Ward, R-North Branford, voiced support for a 
special session on energy restructuring.

"Connecticut needs an energy strategy, or in a few years we are in a crisis" 
because demand for electricity will outstrip supply, Ward said. "The 
solutions are long-term, not short-term. And we shouldn't put it off for 
another year."

Blumenthal was joined by representatives of AARP Connecticut, the 
Connecticut Public Interest Research Group and Clean Water Action, which had 
lobbied for the energy bills. Also there was the president of Connecticut 
Light & Power, which had promoted a bill allowing the company to resume 
limited electricity generation.

AARP spokesman Dave Thomas, a retiree from West Hartford, said relief from 
rising energy costs is important to the group's more than 600,000 members.

Retirees surviving on a fixed income "don't like ... `budget breakers,'" he 
said.

Among those, he said, are the 22.4 percent jump in electric rates imposed 
this year by CL&P.

The Senate passed a bill banning zoned pricing of gasoline, in which big oil 
companies charge higher wholesale gas prices to retailers in some locales. 
But in the House that bill died without being debated.

A broader bill addressing high electricity costs failed to reach a vote in 
either house. That would have allowed CL&P to get back into the 
power-generating business, with its profits capped by the state Department 
of Public Utility Control.

The bill did not include Blumenthal's proposed "windfall profits" tax on 
power plant owners reaping high returns as fossil fuel costs climb on the 
spot market.

CL&P President Raymond Necci has joined Blumenthal in calling for a partial 
repeal of the electric power deregulation enacted in 1998.

Both favor letting electric distributors such as CL&P and United 
Illuminating own a limited number of power plants.

Those would be allowed a set rate of return on their investment, but 
millions in profits now claimed by unregulated generators would be returned 
to consumers.

Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant