Sorry for the short notice on this one, but tonight is Earth Hour. Earth Hour is one of those you can make a difference choose your own adventures. In keeping with my philosophy of environmentalism, Earth Hour is an attempt to get people all over the world to turn off the lights. And here’s the youtube clip:
On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.
At first, I looked at this story and skipped through quickly because the tantalizing DPW budget and sewer pipe cleaning beckoned. But then, I realized this was a story, because The Hour, was covering it, like, well, like a newspaper should. Political flunkies hold a press conference and then vanish into the still of the night is all too common. Someone, ahem, the media, is supposed to be keeping an eye on them. Naturally, we’ve forgotten how that once worked, unless we revisit His Gal Friday for details.
With gas prices what they are, it’s no surprise that people are reluctant to fill gas tanks. It’s being noticed too. From the Hour:
Troopers noticed a dramatic jump in the number of vehicles that ran out of gas during the December snowstorms, and a local AAA branch reports an increase in similar service calls in the last three months of 2007.
“People are riding around with less gas in their tanks,” State Police spokesman William Tate said. “When they don’t expect to sit idle on the highway behind a crash or wait in the snow for a plow, they run out of gas. It was an eye-opener to see how many were stranded.”
While the recent decision by the DPUC trimmed the rate increases requested by CL&P, the rates are still going up. Which means that its very much in vogue to look at all the things that can help stem energy costs. Next Wednesday, the Building & Land Use committee is hosting a public forum on saving money on electric bills.
“We’re hoping to provide the public and commercial users an opportunity not only as a way to reduce their energy usage, but also at the same time find out what incentives are in place to help them reduce the cost of putting (energy saving measures) in place,” said Douglas E. Hempstead, committee chairman. “My intention is to have a series of these public information sessions as a way of basically reducing our carbon footprint and making Norwalk a green city.”
The ever vigilant oystermen of Norwalk are keeping an eye on the electrical cable work being done across the sound to Long Island. Imagine if they knew commentators here were proposing
power cable replacement project that began last month and slices through oyster beds in Norwalk Harbor on its way to Northport, N.Y., has not damaged the beds, shellfishermen and city and power company officials said.
“We had big concerns about the natural beds they go through - that’s where we get our seed oysters from,” said Norm Bloom, owner of Norm Bloom & Son shellfish company.
In short order, the municipal budget is surely going to be a hot topic heading into the end of the year for a few reasons. One, the cost of everything has gone up. Think oil, think asphalt, think energy and you get a good picture of what DPW and building operations are facing. Then there’s the $145 million of BOE money. Corda still hasn’t figured out he needs a CFO type on his staff and he needs it yesterday, so once again we’ll get the arithmetically challenged presenting budgets not based on any reality and a lame attempt at a PR campaign. The bonus this year is a new council, already off to a fractious start because, well, recurring theme here, some people can’t count.
Bill Krummel, as chair of the council’s Public Power Committee, is calling for a meeting the last week before the election to discuss how to get from point A, the idea to point B, doing something about it.
The chairman of Norwalk’s Public Power Committee has invited 2nd and 3rd Taxing Districts officials to City Hall Tuesday night to share their experiences in the municipal power realm.”I want to find out more about the two districts in the city that distribute their own power and generate some power, and see if we can’t work out something that would use their base and expand it to the city,” said Councilman William M. Krummel, chairman of the committee.
It must be all those rising costs associated with bad road patching or something. The Courant reports:
Connecticut Light & Power will ask regulators in a filing today to increase what customers pay by 4.6 percent - about $6.25 a month for a typical household - starting Jan. 1.
The utility company says it needs the increase to offset rising costs, boost company profits and pay for improvements to the state’s aging electric system.
After the House passed their version of the budget on Wednesday, the Senate passed that version along the same vote lines on Thursday, and within hours Governor Rell vetoed it. One of the provisions, according to the Courant, that I found odd about the budget was the addition of a sales tax on funeral expenses under $2500. I guess dead people or people grieving don’t hire lobbyists or something.
Lobbyists have had much to do with the legislature’s reluctance to get rid of zone pricing. From the Courant:
With the legislative session ending on June 6th, you would think that the House and Senate would be on the same page regarding an energy bill that would do something. Instead there are two bills with no compromise in sight. None of the recent newspaper articles ahve delved into why, other than personality clash, that this is the case. Perhaps a run down of the differences in the bills would be helpful. Instead:
But with energy prices continuing to spike, many in the General Assembly have deemed deregulation a failure. Others say the state did not go far enough and must open the market further to begin saving consumers money.
