I am taking advantage of the State Capitol's new wi-fi internet access (which, by the way, is available to members of the public) to write you an update while I sit in the audience of hearing room 2C listening to the Energy and Technology Committee panel discussion on electric deregulation.
Different speakers have been talking about just how big of a mistake it has been for Connecticut to enter into the strange world of "electric deregulation".
Electric deregulation is taking away the laws that limit electric prices to what it costs companies to generate the electricity and, instead, letting the owners of power plants charge us whatever the open market will bear.
Connecticut has been, for years, now been phasing-into a deregulated electric market, and this deregulation is what is at fault for the huge increases we have been having in electric rates. All indications are that rates will continue to rise, unless the deregulation is undone.
Economists and consumer advocates have discussed the disastrous effects of electric deregulation in California in which Enron and other companies bilked consumers out of huge amounts of money and the harm to consumers deregulation has caused in Texas. Texas electric customers who are subject to deregulation pay dramatically more than customers in neighboring states. This is true, nationwide. Electric consumers in states with electric deregulation pay more than customers in states that never deregulated.
So, why did this happen? It is because the legislators who were in office back in 1998 were told that Connecticut had enormously costly electric rates and that only the "market reform" of electric deregulation would lower that cost.
Well, deregulation did not cut electric rates, as was promised. Instead, electric rates went up. By the time I was elected to the legislature, even the supporters of deregulation were confessing that deregulation would not lower electric rates. In fact, they even said that they wanted electric rates to go up even more, because higher rates would make Connecticut a more attractive market for marketers of electricity and, therefore, would give us a choice of electric companies.
So, in other words, when they were first getting deregulation approved, its supporters said that it would lower electric rates by creating choice of electricity suppliers. Now, they say that we must pay higher prices so that we can have a choice of electric suppliers. If this does not make any sense to you, don't feel bad. It does not make any sense to me, either.
That is why I am working so hard in support of legislation to undo electric deregulation and lower electric rates.
I will try to write, in the future, some more details about what needs to be done to go back to a common-sense system and lower electric rates.
Different speakers have been talking about just how big of a mistake it has been for Connecticut to enter into the strange world of "electric deregulation".
Electric deregulation is taking away the laws that limit electric prices to what it costs companies to generate the electricity and, instead, letting the owners of power plants charge us whatever the open market will bear.
Connecticut has been, for years, now been phasing-into a deregulated electric market, and this deregulation is what is at fault for the huge increases we have been having in electric rates. All indications are that rates will continue to rise, unless the deregulation is undone.
Economists and consumer advocates have discussed the disastrous effects of electric deregulation in California in which Enron and other companies bilked consumers out of huge amounts of money and the harm to consumers deregulation has caused in Texas. Texas electric customers who are subject to deregulation pay dramatically more than customers in neighboring states. This is true, nationwide. Electric consumers in states with electric deregulation pay more than customers in states that never deregulated.
So, why did this happen? It is because the legislators who were in office back in 1998 were told that Connecticut had enormously costly electric rates and that only the "market reform" of electric deregulation would lower that cost.
Well, deregulation did not cut electric rates, as was promised. Instead, electric rates went up. By the time I was elected to the legislature, even the supporters of deregulation were confessing that deregulation would not lower electric rates. In fact, they even said that they wanted electric rates to go up even more, because higher rates would make Connecticut a more attractive market for marketers of electricity and, therefore, would give us a choice of electric companies.
So, in other words, when they were first getting deregulation approved, its supporters said that it would lower electric rates by creating choice of electricity suppliers. Now, they say that we must pay higher prices so that we can have a choice of electric suppliers. If this does not make any sense to you, don't feel bad. It does not make any sense to me, either.
That is why I am working so hard in support of legislation to undo electric deregulation and lower electric rates.
I will try to write, in the future, some more details about what needs to be done to go back to a common-sense system and lower electric rates.
