Connecticut's deregulation bill failed in the last session of the legislature without even making it out of committee. We supported that bill. But utilities in Connecticut are already behaving as if they were deregulated. For the last 100 years, utilities have operated as local monopolies, with varying degrees of price and practice regulation from the state and federal governments. In a deregulated environment, consumers could choose an electric company the way they now do a long-distance telephone service.
Deregulation presents both challenges and opportunity for the environment.
A growing number of environmental leaders are raising their voices to ensure that when deregulation does come, it includes stringent safeguards for renewable technologies and energy efficiency. Companies like Bear, Stearns and Prudential have issued reports saying that nuclear reactors are not going to be able to compete economically. Given Wall Street's two thumbs down, we should not be throwing good money after bad with any more nuclear investment. Utilities don't have to own nuclear plants to have investments in them. They took a marketplace risk, and it was contentious-consumer advocates and grassroots groups opposed what they were doing.