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Hike Fought, Cont’d

by Melinda Tuhus | Mar 19, 2008 1:21 pm

(1) Comment | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Arts

“I’m glad you guys are here… and you’re effective.” With those encouraging words from a New Haven state representative, Fight the Hikers began plotting their next moves to roll back electricity rates that shot up 50 percent in the past year.

New Haven Rep. Bob Megna, who first won office on a clean energy platform, was at the Tuesday night meeting in City Hall of the citizens group Fight the Hike when he told members that other legislators have noticed their efforts.

Those efforts include attendance and testimony by many of their members at a marathon 14-hour hearing March 7 before the Energy and Technology Committee, which endorsed three bills the group supports. Their key bill (H.B. No. 5819) would create a Connecticut Energy Authority. The authority would, in essence, re-regulate the electricity market in the state. Since deregulation went into effect in the late 1990s — a move that was supposed to reduce costs through competition — prices have gone steadily up.

Another bill (H.B. No. 5783) limits the profits companies can garner to “a reasonable rate of return.”

These bills are among 19 that were heard by the committee. “We’ve been warned that some of them may come become unrecognizable by the time they get through the legislative process,” said Paula Panzarella, one of the leaders of Fight the Hike.

To keep the pressure on, and try to ensure that bills do come out as close as possible to how they went in, activists have been putting pressure on their elected officials and legislative leaders. For instance, Frank Panzarella said members of the group had leafleted in Milford, home of Speaker of the House Jim Amann.

“Everywhere we’ve gone and leafleted we’ve gotten overwhelming response. I’d say over 99 percent of the responses we’ve got have been adamant and angry about electricity. But, like so often on many of these things, people are not active and not doing things about it, except complaining about it.”

One item on the meeting’s agenda was to broaden the outreach, Panzarella added. “We need to reach out to as many organizations around the state as possible, to as many legislators directly through constituents as possible, to put as much pressure as we possibly can in such a small space of time.” Some of those at the meeting offered to call a group of people on Fight the Hike’s contact list, while others said they would contact people they already knew in various towns to try to build momentum.

In addition to Megna, other New Haven pols who have supported the bills include Reps. Toni Walker and Pat Dillon and Sen. Toni Harp.

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posted by: dwightstreetrenter on March 20, 2008  9:46am

I don’t think these folks are asking the right questions. I think they’re looking at the COST of the electricity, and ignoring HOW IT’S GENERATED. If we in the Elm City could harness wave-power, wind power, solar power, solar-thermal electric and heating, geothermal energy on a citywide level, the complaint that oil-fired electricity being expensive will be moot.

If we’re generating electricity with a commodity that comes from volatile areas of the world, we’re going to pay for it. If we use resources we have IMMEDIATELY at hand; which PRODUCE NO POLLUTION or toxic waste for the electricity they produce, wouldn’t that be better for the people of Asthma City?

I think the obvious place to start would be a row of 40’ high (towers included) wind turbines on Middle Breakwater. You wouldn’t be able to see the turbines every day of the year, and the relative consistency of wind resource there would be the obvious location for an unobtrusive wind farm. If you’ve ever stood on the shoreline in New Haven, you’ll know the winds I speak of.

Re-regulate? Why not instead focus on FREE energy, and having private companies pay for the infrastructure to harness it? Our energy prices then would not rise every time we go to war or a refinery “goes offline,” and the energy would virtually never go up in price!

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