Seduction: “to lead astray.” There is a move afoot to seduce Connecticut energy rate payers.

An energy strategy that includes “all of the above” initially sounds like common sense. “More natural gas means lower prices” at first glance appears to make sense. And “we need more gas generation” continues the myth that Connecticut doesn’t have enough power.

Let’s kick the tires on these seductive arguments.

Seductive falsehood 1 – “All of the above” is the answer to lower energy costs.

“All of the above” is really a move by the non-renewable energy industry and its supporters to add more nuclear and natural gas to our generation mix.

Love it or hate it, the Millstone nuclear reactors provide a significant chunk of Connecticut’s electricity. Some have gushed over the possibility of adding small nuclear reactors (SMRs). However, no legislator as of this writing has proposed siting such a reactor in their district. At the current time there are no SMRs in the U.S. China, Russia, and India have a total of three of these.  So we can give a tepid “maybe” to the potential to SMRs in our state. But even if we started today, we are talking a decade or more to bring this technology online.

Natural gas (mostly methane) is already 55% of New England’s generation mix.  The war in Ukraine showed us how volatile the pricing can be for this internationally traded commodity.

The chart below from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows just how volatile a “natural” gas future might be and, maybe more importantly, that regardless of fluctuations, the price has been steadily rising despite increased production by the US. The increase of exported gas to global markets through pipeline expansion has driven prices steadily higher.