An Energy Strategy For Connecticut

Nothing focuses our minds on energy consumption in our homes and businesses quite like the onset of long nights and cold weather as lights click on early and furnaces burn late. The cumulative bill for our collective energy appetite not only weighs down our personal budgets, it weighs on the economy of the region as a whole. That is why there was standing room only at an energy forum of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association in Cromwell October 5 when Governor Dannel P. Malloy unveiled the state’s first Comprehensive Energy Strategy.

While the initiative emphasizes efficient, renewable, and clean sources of energy, electricity supply, and the state’s industrial and transportation needs, most of the discussion generated by the plan centered on the governor’s call for the widespread conversion of homes and businesses to natural gas, leveraging savings from natural gas prices, which now stand at historic lows, to bring savings and economic advantage householders and business men and women alike.

The plan was developed by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), and it faces a long review by the legislature and regulatory agencies. But already, the strategy has come under fire from fuel oil dealers and distributors, who stand to lose a substantial share of the energy market if the vision embraced by the governor comes to fruition. They argue that the wholesale conversion of fuel oil consumers to natural gas consumers in the name of cost savings is prone to backfire, noting that oil has been cheaper than natural gas for 18 of the past 20 years. Predicting the price of any form of energy in five or ten years is impossible, they say, and basing a state’s energy policy in such predictions is folly. As with so many other state prescriptions for the future, this one comes without any funding attached; the conversion costs ($7,500 for the average residence) would be paid by consumers. In the end, market forces and not state initiatives will determine who uses what form of energy.

While a statewide energy strategy may be settling into place, the many details of its implementation are still very much up in the air. So many interest groups and industries have a stake in the game. The state’s electricity generators, for example, still do not have a commitment from the state that it will implement the scheduled “sunset” of its tax on generators. The tax is adding to everyone’s electrical costs, according to the industry, and yet its continuation may be key to balancing the state’s next two-year budget. It is the nature of capitalism and politics to pay close attention to who wins and who loses.

The Comprehensive Energy Strategy, however, is a big step forward for Connecticut in that it frames energy planning discussions in both the public and private sectors around an agenda of energy efficiency, conservation, and innovation — themes that can be embraced and supported by environmentalists, the business community, and energy producers and distributors. We hope the process yields both more plentiful energy and ideas from all quarters.