Tagged: Energy

Earth Hour, Tonight, Participate

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:

The web site says:

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.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

And you can see a nice reduction in electricity consumption by unplugging all those chargers that feed the mobiles, cordless and wireless devices we all have. So ask NIKE says, just do it.

h/t JB

Norwalk: Carbon Emissions And The Non Story

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.

But here’s Jared Newman on follow-up:

Of the five state legislators who championed a reduction in carbon emissions during a conference at City Hall last month, only one has co-sponsored the resulting bill.
State Rep. Toni Boucher, R-143, does not serve on the environment committee, which raised the bill, but she said it was important to show her support early in political process.

“You want to attach your name onto things that you believe in, in order to give it more legs to run on — in other words, to get it passed,” Boucher said.

Well, all-righty then, let’s make this an ongoing thing Jared.

The legislators who spoke at the conference who haven’t signed on are state Reps. Larry Cafero, R-142, house minority leader and Christopher Perone, D-137 and state Sens. Bob Duff, D-25, majority whip and Sen. John McKinney, R-Fairfield, senate minority leader.
“I will be a co-sponsor. I just haven’t got around to doing that yet,” McKinney said. As ranking member of the environment committee, he plans to be involved with the bill as it moves forward. He said he will sign on as co-sponsor within the next week.

Perone, another member of the environment committee, said he’s been busy with bills related to earned income tax credits and health care pooling. He also wants to co-sponsor the bill, but said he hasn’t had a chance to do so.

“I support the bill, and I plan to vote for it when it comes to the house (floor), and I plan to be a co-sponsor,” Perone said.

Cafero said he’s also been tied up, but he’s not as steadfast in his support as other legislators. Though he favors a cap on carbon emissions, he doesn’t want to take any drastic steps that could hurt industry.

“I just want to look at the details of the bill, because we are facing really bad economic times right now,” he said.

Duff is also approaching the bill with caution, waiting to see how the language changes over time before deciding whether to sign on.

“It’s a pretty complex piece of legislation,” Duff said, “and it’s probably going to continue to change up until the day it gets voted on.”

source: The Hour, Some local officials no-shows for sponsorship on carbon emissions, By Jared Newman, March 20, 2008

AAA Reports More Drivers Running Out Of Gas

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.”

The state’s Department of Transportation’s CHAMP vehicles, or Connecticut Highway Assistance Motorist Patrol, have been dispatched numerous times to provide a few dollars’ worth of gasoline to those who run out, just enough to get them to the nearest exit.


source: The Hour, More drivers run on empty to avoid high gas prices, by Associated Press, January 28, 2008

Norwalk: Reducing Energy Costs

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 information session is scheduled for Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Common Council chambers of City Hall, 125 East Ave. The session will be open to all.

Representatives of Northeast Utilities Co. and affiliate companies Connecticut Light & Power and Yankee Gas will be present to discuss energy and cost-saving opportunities, according to Hempstead. “I’ve asked Northeast Utilities to cover all the programs,” Hempstead said. “Our (intent) is to set up an hour-long presentation, and then questions and answers.”

At the information session, representatives of the companies will give an update on the latest energy conservation programs for residential, commercial, municipal and industrial electricity customers, according to Christopher Swan, director of municipal relations for the CL&P.

source: The Hour, Forum focuses on saving energy, by Robert Koch, January 26, 2007

Norwalk: Oysters Safe Despite Cable Work

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.

Contractors working with Northeast Utilities “seem to be going out of their way out there” to protect the beds, Bloom said.

NU owns the portion of the 11-mile cables in Connecticut waters. The other portion is owned by Long Island Power Authority.

NU decided to replace the seven cables, installed in 1969, because they were struck over the years by dredges and anchors, and released insulating fluid into Long Island Sound.

NU is pulling up cables from the floor during the first phase of the project. Spokesman Frank Poirot said that phase should be complete by the end of the month.

The second phase, which NU officials said should be finished by April, will replace the old lines with three solid-core cables.

Shellfishermen and city officials were worried that silt stirred up by the work could damage oyster beds, so several conditions were attached to NU’s replacement plan.

Among them was a “silt containment device,” or a PVC-type pipe that fits over the cables as they are pulled up and keeps silt from blanketing shellfish beds.

John Frank, a city shellfish commissioner who pushed for the condition, said the success is encouraging. But he and Bloom cautioned that NU still must finish the project.

source: Advocate, Power cable project pleases officials, By Tim Stelloh, December 11, 2007

Norwalk: Post Holiday Catch Up

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.

Today in the Advocate State Senator Bob Duff is extolling a ban on incandescent bulbs. Well that deservers a whole WTF post, but the day job is unusually busy, so I’ll leave that for another longer post on the follies of going “green” by spending money on supposedly greener technology. Brazil, according to the the NYT is suggesting it has found the biggest oil field outside of the middle east. Good thing there’s isn’t an entire political party totally bent on pissing off the latino world right now.

Check out this handy chart from the Financial Times which explains it visually.
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Treat this one as an open thread, and feel free to comment on any else on your mind.

Norwalk: Generating Our Own Electricty

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.

South Norwalk Electric and Water, as well as the 3rd Taxing District Electric Co., buy their electricity through the Connecticut Municipal Electrical Energy Cooperative and sell it to customers at rates lower than do their private competitors, according to district officials.

CT Jobs George E. Leary, general manager for the 3rd Taxing District, and John M. Hiscock, general manager for SNEW, have agreed to attend Tuesday night’s meeting, participate in discussion and provide information about their electric systems, according to Krummel.

The Public Power Committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Room 101 of City Hall, 125 East Ave.

The Common Council formed the committee last year to explore whether the city should form a Norwalk Power Authority to combat rising electricity costs by private electric companies.

The committee, however, has not met for months, and may lack the dollars needed to perform a feasibility study. Earlier this year, the city approved $50,000 in its 2007-08 operating budget for the study, which has yet to begin. To date, several firms have answered the city’s request-for-proposals, a first step in finding a firm to perform the actual study.

Former Mayor Bill Collins, who raised the idea of the city pursuing municipal power, said the process has been “painfully slow” and that $100,000 will be needed to perform the feasibility study. The 3rd Taxing District has committed $25,000, making $75,000 available. The 2nd Taxing District hasn’t committed any dollars yet, according to Collins.

Collins, however, believes that there is broad support for the city pursuing public power.

“When I first raised this about four years ago, there was a lot of yawning. Now, when you stop and talk to people, there’s so much support, even across party lines, for obvious reasons. People are getting killed with their electric bills,” Collins said. “It’s got public momentum behind it.”

So far, the 3rd Taxing District has agreed to commit $25,000 toward a feasibility study, according to David L. Brown, district commission chairman. Brown some people at the 2nd Taxing District think that public power “probably wouldn’t work” for the city.

“I’m willing to spend some money to see if it can,” Brown said. “I think there’s a lot more benefits to have a citywide electric facility.”

Michael K. Geake, a 2nd Taxing District commissioner and at-large council candidate, has pitched municipal power as a way to save the city money and put those savings toward repairing infrastructure. Geake, however, opposes put 2nd Taxing District money into a feasibility study. Asking the district to do so amounts to asking the “lowest-income taxpayers in the city to subsidize lowering the electric rates for the highest-income rate payers in the city.”

“The 2nd Taxing District is the lowest income district in the city. It will get absolutely no benefit from the Norwalk (Public) Power Authority,” Geake said. “We have our own power. We won’t be getting a cutback.”

Councilman Douglas E. Hempstead, a member of the Public Power Committee, said the city should not give up on exploring public power. At the same time, the idea will require more dollars than have been allocated, according to him.

“At this particular time, unless there’s more money put into the pot, it probably won’t move forward. It’s a question of priorities and funding,” Hempstead said. “It doesn’t mean we should give up on it. (But) without the next step, we’re kind of treading water here.”

As a SNEW customer I disagree with Mr. Geake. SNEW is holding a deposit of my money and plans to pay an uncompetitive interest rate on it. They could certainly spare $50k and join in on a joint public power investigation that would benefit SNEW customers.

source: The Hour, Power Committee seeks input from taxing district officials, By ROBERT KOCH, October 29, 2007

CL & P Files for a 4.6% Rate Increase

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.

But the request comes at an awkward time. Connecticut has the highest electric rates in the continental United States, and the legislature just spent months fighting over how to lower them, passing a new law that focused on conservation and peak demand but provided little immediate relief for consumers.

Yes, rates are expected to decrease about 6 percent for households starting Sunday, but that’s scant relief after a 90 percent increase over the last seven years. That might make the proposed rise in rates difficult to explain to customers.

“I think it is going to be difficult for people to understand the needs,” said Raymond Necci, CL&P’s president and chief operating officer.

So Necci is starting to make his case for why the state Department of Public Utility Control should allow CL&P to charge more to deliver electricity to its more than 1.1 million customers.

Awkward is hardly the word I would use. Watching CL&P tear up roads, and then repave the section they have destroyed, often with lumpy, bumpy, troughs that bear little resemblance to the road that was once there, shows me that CL&P makes little effort to act as a good corporate citizen. They likely sub contract the paving work out, oblivious that their sub contractor are doing a poor to abysmal job. What else are they not paying attention to?

source: The Courant, Electric Bill Relief Could Be Fleeting, By MARK PETERS, June 29, 2007

Rell Vetos Budget Bill And Other Hartford Tales

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:

In zone pricing, a longtime practice used by the major oil companies, retailers in different communities are charged different prices – even when the gasoline is delivered by the same truck on the same day. As a result, a truck could deliver gasoline to a station for one price and then drive farther down the same street that day and charge a different price to another retailer.

Some legislators and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have decried this practice for years, but the oil companies have responded that chain hotels and other businesses act in the same way by charging different prices in different locations.

Lawmakers in Fairfield County have harshly criticized the practice, saying it drives up prices, particularly in the state’s southwest corner.

“It’s not fair that in my communities that the prices are 10 to 20 cents higher than in other areas of the state,” said Sen. Robert Duff, a Democrat who represents Norwalk and Darien. “This is a first step.”

But Sen. Sam Caligiuri, a Waterbury Republican, said proponents of the bill were simply relying on anecdotes and could not prove the benefits of banning zone pricing, even as pump prices have soared to about $3.25 per gallon and beyond.

“There is not a shred of evidence in the record – credible evidence – that banning zone pricing” would cut prices at the pump, Caligiuri said. “You don’t have a single bit of evidence it will help – just a hope.”

The senators debated sharply over a report issued by a Quinnipiac University professor earlier this year that said gasoline prices would not be reduced by eliminating zone pricing. Opponents of the ban said the report – paid for by the major oil companies – was a solid and reputable academic report unswayed by the oil companies.

But Sen. Andrew McDonald, a Stamford Democrat, ripped the report as a useless piece of propaganda.

“That’s not science. That’s paid-for advocacy,” McDonald said on the Senate floor. “That study is worth nothing, except for the petroleum industry that paid for it. … It lacked credibility when it was brought to this General Assembly.”

Zone pricing basically just increases the profit margin of the wholesale gas distributors, not the retail gas stations. It’s an artificial market price at wholesale and it should be banned. House speaker Amann let a similar bill die without coming to a vote on the floor last year. Let’s see what he does this year. Lieutenant Governor Fedele cast the tie-breaking vote. This was the high-point of drama for political reporters.

source:, The Courant, Lt. Governor Tips Tie: Senate Votes To Bar Gas Price Tactic; House Mood Unclear
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, June 1, 2007

Why No Energy Bill?

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.

The result is competing bills being introduced by the committee’s co-chairmen.

State Rep. Steve Fontana, D-North Haven, said he wants to back away from deregulation and allow utilities to return to the game. State Sen. John Fonfara, D-Hartford, said he believes deregulation was the right way to go.

In interviews last week, Amann and Senate President Pro Tem Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, pledged to reach a consensus so a comprehensive energy package could be passed before the session ends June 6.

But yesterday, Williams and Fonfara held a 10:45 a.m. news conference and Fontana a 1 p.m. news conference to make the cases for their respective bills.

Patrick Scully, spokesman for Senate Democrats, said Williams and Fonfara’s main goal was to point out that the two sides agree on 95 percent of the energy issues and that the bills are not that far apart.

Scully said both bills would modify deregulation by allowing utilities to get back into electricity generation.

“But the Senate bill insists it be on a level playing field. I think the House bill leans a little bit more toward guaranteeing utilities a certain amount” of the energy market, Scully said.

source: Norwalk Advocate, State lawmakers seek to fuse competing energy packages, By Brian Lockhart, Published May 25 2007