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.

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With gas at an all time high, even in the mathematical 1970’s dollar, Governor Jodi Rell and 21 other Governors sent a letter to Congress demanding an explanation. Oil companies are simply taking advantage of market conditions, which driven by how much gas we use, dictates that the demand is outstripping the supply.

Critics point to the capacity at current refineries, which output is cited as being in the high 80’s instead of full capacity. But that is the beauty of a free market system, there is nothing that says a producer has to produce the maximum output of a product.

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Connecticut State Attorney Dick Blumenthal is hoping to score points with the perpetually frightened, by challenging MySpace.com to either get rid of known “sexual predators” or institute age verification on its web site. Essentially Dick Blumenthal Thinks Web Sites should monitor users.

Attorneys general nationwide issued an ultimatum to MySpace Monday, demanding that the Internet’s largest social networking site make public the profiles of convicted sex offenders and divulge the steps it is taking to eliminate those profiles from its heavily-trafficked site.

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If you’ve been coveting an LCD computer screen, here’s a good reason to get one. They burn at least half the wattage of a CRT monitor. Yep. Someone out there measured the wattage and then posted on a blog about it, here.. You can also change your desktop background color to something that uses less wattage by looking at the following chart.

This is also true of old fashion TV sets, which operate on CRT technology. I have been coveting a flat LCD screen, but stubbornly have held onto my circa 1987 TV set. Maybe I will upgrade in the name of electricity savings.

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The Journal Inquirer is picking up on the ongoing management issues at Connecticut Innovations. From their report:

A key legislative leader says he wants to know more about why Connecticut Innovations Inc., the high technology venture capital firm started with state bonding money, can’t retain for more than a few months executives executives hired to lead it.

Sen. Bob Duff, the Norwalk Democrat who is majority whip in the Senate and co-chairman of the General Assembly’s Banks Committee, said Friday that the sudden resignations of the last two presidents at the quasi-public agency has raised serious concerns among lawmakers.

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Connecticut has the highest electricity rates in the country, at least in the contiguous states, and only Hawaii has higher rates. This is one of the contributing factors to the high cost of living here. So you’d think that Connecticut’s legislature would be trying to do something about that wouldn’t you? Well, as I’ve posted on before, they are content to push 4 bills out of committee that don’t really do anything.

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State Rep Kevin DelGobbo R-Naugatuck said it best, “This package instead of driving us to consensus, sends the signal we don’t know where we’re going.” He was speaking about the decision to send 4 bills out of the Energy and Technology Committee instead of figuring out what to do about fixing the problems with the deregulation of Energy in Connecticut.

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The Courant is reporting that State Attorney General Dick Blumenthal is asking state regulators to approve the Connecticut Light & Power’s proposal to make multimillion-dollar upgrades in eight communities with underground electrical systems. Towns that were identified include; New Britain, Bristol, Greenwich, Norwalk, New Canaan, Westport, Naugatuck and Willimantic.

“This threat to electric service and public safety is unconscionable and unacceptable,” Blumenthal said in a statement. “CL&P’s unreliable underground electric system is a ticking time bomb that has endangered lives, and repeatedly compromised vital electric service to thousands of customers.”

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The debate on Connecticut’s flawed deregualted electricty market wavers between forces that want to reregulate and forces that want to fix the parts of the deregualted market that aren’t working. The Courant reports on State Senator John Fonfara’s position:

State Sen. John Fonfara would seem to be in an enviable position. In 1998, he was one of a handful of legislators who opposed deregulating the state’s electricity generation market.

Almost a decade later, many legislators, including leaders in the House and Senate, view the decision as a mistake. Electricity rates have gone up drastically, and the public is upset.

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The Hartford Courant reports on the increasing failures of underground transformers and powerlines around the state. Last summer Stamford suffered outages attributed to failing transformers. More recently an electric worker was killed in Waterbury performing routine maitenance work. From The Courant:

The state’s two largest electricity providers, Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating, both have multimillion-dollar projects under way to replace and upgrade equipment above and below ground.

Officials from both companies said Thursday that demand for more electricity is driving the projects, although aging equipment is also a concern.

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