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WASHINGTON - Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) today expressed grave concern that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) decision to split the State of Connecticut into two zones for electricity pricing would mean higher prices for Connecticut consumers.
The FERC plan, known as Locational Installed Capacity (LICAP), would artificially increase the rates that Connecticut’s electricity providers can charge consumers, in an attempt to provide financial incentives to Connecticut’s energy providers to increase the state’s electric generation capacity. Under the LICAP plan, electricity consumers in Southwestern Connecticut, which currently has the most severe energy shortage in the state, would pay more for their electricity than consumers in other parts of Connecticut.
“Increasing electrical generation capacity of southwest Connecticut is a critical goal and I welcome new ideas on how to do so,” Lieberman said. “But this pricing scheme artificially and unfairly inflates the electricity bills of consumers in one part of the state without returning any direct benefit to those consumers. This is simply unworkable. Instead, we need to develop a fair and comprehensive plan with concrete benefits passed onto all consumers.”
Senator Lieberman has repeatedly joined other members of the Connecticut Congressional Delegation in strenuously opposing this proposal’s financial impact on Connecticut consumers, as well as the impact it will have on Connecticut’s overall economic and business development picture. In particular, the delegation has cited concerns that the proposal is duplicative of other efforts to provide financial rewards to generators, that there is no assurance that the financial rewards that generators get from increased rates will go into new investment in capacity, that LICAP does not address the other barriers to increased generation – such as environmental siting, air and water permits, and fuel supplies – and that the proposal would simply serve to reward existing generators.
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