Posted on 09/02/2011 10:40:04 AM PDT by matt04
Sen. Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Jeffery Butler, president and COO of Connecticut Light & Power on Friday urging the company to use whatever means necessary to restore power to the remaining customers left in the dark after Tropical Storm Irene.
"As I traveled the state this week meeting with state officials, first responders, mayors, residents and small business owners, I've heard loud and clear the concern that your company did not do enough to prepare or respond, and is not doing enough work now to restore power. I share these concerns. Among the most common complaints are your lack of communication and absence of timelines for restoring service, and disregard for priorities set by local officials' health and safety," Blumenthal wrote in the letter.
(Excerpt) Read more at wfsb.com ...
My worst fear is that as a result of Sen. Blumenthal, people will completely ignore warnings about storms expecting the state or FEMA save them when they don't prepare. We all know how well that worked in Katrina.
SMECO, Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative did a fabulous job for us.
They restored my power in 3 days and I was happy as a lark.
We had trees down over the power lines, Lines lying in the road, Roads that were closed, They worked seemingly unstopping to restore power.
There may still be a few without power, but it isn’t because they arent working at it.
How long before this legislator writes “Irene’s Law” to somehow magically address utility response time to a natural disaster. OR, how long before Sen. Blumenthal (D) of CT demands a special tax, 112 more regulations, and leads a rally of union workers demanding more benefits.
As you know, Connecticut continues to suffer the devastating effects of Hurricane Irene. As of this writing over 172,000 customers in Connecticut are still without power – now 5 days after the storm. Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) is responsible for over 149,000 of these homes and businesses, representing 86 percent of those without power in Connecticut. According to CL&P’s estimates, nearly 100,000 customers will still be without power by Saturday and full power won’t be restored until sometime next week.
Equally troubling is the suggestion in yesterday’s Hartford Courant that CL&P will be considering steps to recoup financial losses from this storm by raising utility rates on the very customers who have been left without power. This suggestion for raising rates is unacceptable. I urge CL&P to immediately and publicly disavow and abandon this idea and assure the people of Connecticut that they will not be forced to bear this additional burden.
The idea of raising rates as a way to recover storm related costs is particularly objectionable in this difficult economic time when families are struggling to find work and stay in their homes. Our state’s rates already are among the highest in the nation and Connecticut families and businesses are struggling to recover from one of the deepest economic downturns in our nation’s history.
As I traveled the state this week meeting with state officials, first responders, mayors, residents and small business owners, I’ve heard loud and clear the concern that your company did not do enough to prepare or respond, and is not doing enough work now to restore power. I share these concerns. Among the most common complaints are your lack of communication and absence of timelines for restoring service, and disregard for priorities set by local officials’ health and safety. CL&P’s poor performance stands in stark contrast to Connecticut’s municipally owned utilities in the state which restored power to 98 percent of their customers by mid-day on Wednesday as well as to the experience of utilities in surrounding states.
I will work to ensure each and every CL&P customer has a voice in this fight. I can appreciate the severity of this storm and the record number of crews working on this but Connecticut and its people deserve better.
Great he "appreciates" the extra help, but is is not good enough as CT "deserves better." Fine. If I ran those utilities who sent help, I would publicly announce I am pulling all crews from CT as they are jut not good enough for Sen. Blumenthal. And good luck getting help in the future.
Oh, bullshit. What are they supposed to do wave a magic wand? half a million customers restored in 5 days. They’re actually on track to get it all done by Saturday night or so.
My Uncle was a CL&P lineman. It’s dangerous skilled work. Cut ‘em some slack. If you really want to help, give a crew that you see a thumbs up, or buy them a box of donuts.
I gave the crew in my area, who were from Ontario, a bunch of bottled water and soda. They were grateful, unlike a certain Sen.
Last I knew, the only state with higher electricity rates than CT was HI. Blumenthal creeps me out—he’s like a Spitzer on a taxing binge—but I’m not so sure CL&P doesn’t need some beating back from a rate hike excuse.
This is a typical politican letter. An open letter attacking the power company and saying their response is “unacceptable” and that they have to do more. Does this dope Blumenthal think he’s scoring points with his constituents with this transparent nonsense? I don’t know whether the response is too slow or not but an open letter is useless—Blumenthal could have done a hundred other things if he really wanted to solve the problem instead of get his name in the paper.
Perhaps he could get some of his Nam buddies to raid the station and take it over.
Sadly, this will score points with the people dumb enough to vote for someone like Blumenthal, the same man who couldn’t answer how to create a job in a debate.
I just noticed, Blumenthal never states he met with any CL&P workers or crews from other utilities. Most likely Democrat politicians and residents who never prepared.
He’s always been a grandstanding A-hole.
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