Energy - The Business Council of Fairfield County

ENERGY IN FAIRFIELD COUNTY
A real problem with feasible solutions, polarized advocates and a confused public.

Background
Short and Long Term Options
Possible Actions
Next Steps
Business Council's SmartEnergy Initiative
Resource Links

Background
Fairfield County's energy situation is defined by inadequate supply and questionable reliability. These twin problems have resulted from rapidly increasing demand, a generation of deferred investment in transmission lines, and a failure to replace or upgrade generating capacity.

Deregulation has changed expectations, interests, roles and players. Old problems are being reanalyzed, while new challenges have arisen. Customers are beginning to realize that the old system has disappeared, but many have yet to fully grasp the realities of the rapidly evolving new system.

The region's need for an adequate, reliable, affordable, environmentally appropriate energy supply needs to be understood in both the long term and the short term.

Short and Long-term Options
Long-term options are conservation/efficiency, load management, expanded transmission capability and new or upgraded generating capacity.

Short-term options are conservation/efficiency, load management and temporary generating capacity.

For more on energy efficiency read The Conference Board's recent article, "Stopping the Profit Drain from Higher Energy Costs," featuring Joe McGee, The Business Council's VP of Public Policy. (pdf - 143kb)

It is most likely that both long and short-term solutions will involve some utilization of all available options. The appropriate balance among them is currently the subject of heated public debate.

There are a number of obstacles to developing an effective long-term solution:

Lack of an overall energy strategy for the state, and specifically, Fairfield County.
Public perception that the energy industry is manipulating the situation for gain (as is believed to have occurred in California).
Linkage of difficult issues to almost intractable ones:
a. The Sooty Six, L.I. Sound cables and Fairfield County north-south land cable have been joined politically.
b. NIMBY, environmental concerns and statewide resentment of Fairfield County have complicated the "in the air/underground" technical debate.

There are also a number of obstacles to short-term solutions:

Lack of a sense of urgency among consumers.
Lack of a regional conservation strategy and public information campaign.
A load management strategy that has historically been linked to the largest users (easiest to reach) rather than to an aggregate demand (which is widely dispersed and hard to reach).

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Possible Actions
The Business Council can play a variety of roles in seeking to assure an adequate, reliable, affordable, environmentally appropriate energy supply.

Seeking to reduce confusion in the business community through a broad-based education program utilizing publications, e-communications and events.
Encouraging and empowering elected and community leaders to get facts and develop balanced approaches.
Advocating for rapid development of a meaningful energy strategy.
De-linking and prioritizing options to allow for resolution. For example, a split Long Island Sound debate from land cable debate.
Encouraging credible expert analysis of the feasibility of alternatives to proposed land transmission line. This would reduce public suspicion by acknowledging and assessing options and make clear the choices and costs involved of all approaches.
Offering a member-developed "regional energy policy framework" to guide our own advocacy and influence public debate and decision-making.
Building an appropriate sense of urgency.

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Next Steps

Continued dialogue with key players
Expressing public support for "building blocks" of energy adequacy, including bringing Fairfield County up to national transmission system standards, meaningful conservation/efficiency initiatives (more on The Business Council's SmartEnergy Initiative), and generating capacity upgrades.
Board consideration of formal energy goals and strategies.

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Resource Links
Electric Restructuring Updates
www.wattsnewct.com

Energy Star
www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=business.bus_index
A government-backed program helping businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency

US Department of Energy
http://www.energy.gov/energyefficiency/index.htm
Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

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The Business Council of Fairfield County
One Landmark Square, Suite 300
Stamford, CT 06901-2679
General Phone: (203) 359-3220
Fax: (203) 967-8294
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