Connecticut Gets New Choices For Wind, Hydro, Other Renewable Electricity
Apr. 1--By Stacy Wong, The Hartford Courant, Conn. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Starting today, customers of Connecticut Light & Power can get new electricity options at a variety of prices and from a variety of sources.
The new offerings bring to eight the number of choices CL&P customers
have when deciding on the type and source of their power.
Ratepayers could start receiving inserts in their bills as early as Saturday,
but marketing for the programs by the electricity suppliers and a variety of
not-for-profit energy and environmental groups is expected to start this month.
Promoters of the new renewables program said customers should be able to find
an option that suits their wallets and their environmental consciences.
"It's a moral and ethical and spiritual issue," said the Rev.
Thomas Carr, pastor of the First Baptist Church in West Hartford and one of the
founders of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network, which promotes responsible
stewardship of the Earth.
"We have at least two bottom lines. It's not just to have what is
cheapest, it's about what is good for people and all of creation. That's where
most of us come from," he said.
The network of 20 churches and synagogues is promoting CT Clean Energy
Options in its quarterly newsletter.
Under the program, two suppliers, Sterling Planet of Atlanta and Community
Energy, of Wayne, Pa., offer customers a 100 percent renewable energy option or
a 50 percent option.
Community Energy gets most of its power from new wind generators, and is
charging 1.1 cents per kilowatt hour on top of CL&P's established generation
charges. For a typical family consuming 500 kilowatt hours a month, that would
come to $5.50 more a month for the 100 percent option, and $2.75 for the 50
percent option.
Sterling Planet gets its power from small hydroelectric plants in
Connecticut, landfill gas operations in the mid-Atlantic region and wind farms
around the country. It is charging 1.5 cents a kilowatt hour over CL&P's
generation charges. That would come to $7.50 more each month, or $3.75 for the
50 percent option.
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener, director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice
Network, said paying the additional cost is an issue for some people. But,
"A lot of us can afford to, and we should. If you can't, you can't."
Residential customers have not been able to easily buy renewable energy since
Green Mountain Energy stopped doing business in Connecticut in 2003 and the
Connecticut Energy Co-op closed in 2002.
However, even as Connecticut restarts its dormant efforts to promote
renewable energy to residential customers, controversy has erupted over Levco's
marketing efforts.
Clean Water Action, a not-for-profit environmental group, has complained to
the state attorney general's office that Levco is deceptively marketing its 100
percent renewable energy product, which is not part of Ct Clean Energy Options.
Roger Smith said Levco promotes its renewable program as something beneficial
to the environment, when in fact 98.5 percent of the power sources fall under
the less desirable "class II" designation.
By state law, Class II renewables include biomass and trash to energy
operations, and power from these sources is considered by environmentalists to
be less friendly to the environment than class I sources such as wind
generators.
"They are basically marketing something that is mystery meat. … You
can sell mystery meat, but you can't say that it is good for you," Smith
said. He also said the group would not support companies marketing energy from
class II sources.
Levco Vice President Ed Levene said the company buys what the state law
classifies as renewable energy. The 100 percent renewable power option, which
the company offers at no premium over CL&P's standard offer generation
charges, comes from 1.5 percent class I sources and 98.5 percent class II
sources.
"The state defines very specifically what a renewable energy source
is," he said. He said the attorney general's office has not contacted the
company.
Electricity for Levco's new 10 percent class I option includes 3 percent
class II sources, and the rest from a mix of fossil fuel or nuclear generators
that sell power to Dominion Retail.
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office received the complaint
Thursday and will look into it.
Beryl Lyons, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Utility Control,
said if a generator falls under the state's definition of a class I or II power
source, then a company is accurate in saying it is offering renewable energy.
"Renewables are renewables are renewables," she said.
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