When SB 1560, An Act Concerning Connecticut’s Economy, Electricity Affordability and Business Competitiveness and Establishing the Connecticut Energy Procurement Authority and the Green Bond was posted, it raised eyebrows.

It’s not often a comprehensive 80-page energy bill is introduced in a committee other than Energy & Technology.

The bill creates the Connecticut Energy Procurement Authority (CEPA), charged with taking over the buying of electricity, a function performed by our utilities. Also created is a Green Bond fund to pay for parts of electricity bills currently funded by ratepayers.  

The complexity of energy markets is daunting, but it’s important to note that there are processes, called dockets, in which all the players get a chance to participate equally. That due process is vital. It minimizes favoring one interest group over another.

SB 1560 needs work in that area. From testimony posted on the CGA’s website, it clear that many of the bill’s proposals caught energy stakeholders off guard. 

For example, if you put solar on your house or business, you are compensated for that, just like a power plant. And on really sunny days, unlike a fossil fuel plant, you’re putting 100% clean electricity into the grid. SB 1560 would drastically reduce that compensation for solar, just when grid-helpful solar with battery backup installations are increasing.

Solar vendors testified the change would wipe out the solar industry in Connecticut. The exodus of those businesses, jobs, and tax revenue from the state is in no way a positive. There’s a docket currently underway examining solar compensation. Let’s allow that to play out.

Another change proposes redefining nuclear power as renewable energy. To be clear, this won’t suddenly make spent uranium fuel rods unspent. But it will take funding away from true renewables that are cheaper in the long term.