Face the Facts: Diversifying the state's energy sources

Republicans across our state lost enough seats in this election season to give Democrats a super majority in the state capitol.

So what does that mean for the next session, starting in about six weeks?

Republican leader in the House, Vincent Candelora, talks about some of the things that transpired this week.

Mike Hydeck: No electric vehicle mandate for the remainder of Governor Lamont's term. He made that announcement, you and your colleagues were like, "Look, you guys had a mandate. Had no plan." Is this a signal that it's time to come up with a plan?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think so. I mean, across the board, we're hearing a lot about energy prices, the energy grid, the delivery system. So we need to have that broad conversation. I think we have to have a conversation of, are we going to follow California, or are we going to follow the federal standards? It seems as if the governor is leaning toward following the federal standards, and I hope he gets on board with that, because we don't want to be an outlier on energy policy.

Mike Hydeck: When it comes to energy policy and moving forward, do you support everything on the table? Like, more nuclear, more wind, all the above? Like, how would you like to see things move forward?

Vincent Candelora: Absolutely, we have to diversify the conversation. We keep focusing on wind, which is very expensive. That could be part of a portfolio, but it's not going to bring cheaper electricity. We know that gas will. We know that nuclear will. That needs to come into the mix.

Mike Hydeck: Considering we're trying to partner with New England states to try to bring down, eventually, electric costs, because the build out of what is going to be new is going to take a little while. Will nuclear, do you think be in that conversation as well? Obviously, we have, you know, Millstone. We have a big ask to try to get more electricity.

Vincent Candelora: It needs to. We haven't seen a nuclear plant built in 50 years, but yet, Connecticut is shouldering the burden right now of keeping one of the last nuclear plants in New England online, and that's supplying the entire grid in New England. So we have to have that conversation. There's newer technology coming out. You can do smaller nuclear, so I'm thinking that is where it's going to go.

Mike Hydeck: Like what Google is trying to do in New York. And some of the other big companies with their data centers and Bitcoin mining, I guess, is a big electric drain, too. So looking ahead to the next session, Democrats are signaling they would, some of them, would like to adjust the spending caps because they would like to get more money to education or childcare. Should they be stringently kept or is there room?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think we've got to keep these caps intact and have a broader conversation. It's a money grab, and this is about sustainability. We've already seen the budget this year that the Democrats ignored and didn't pass. They ignored a lot of expenditures that are now driving us into deficit for this year alone. So I think before we have the conversation about caps, we need to have a conversation about sustainability of a lot of these programs that are far exceeding what was budgeted.

Mike Hydeck: What are some of the programs you think should be looked at?

Vincent Candelora: Well, in particular, the Democrats passed the Medicaid for all undocumented immigrants. That was initially budgeted at $7 million. It's climbing to $100 million so it's far exceeding what was originally budgeted. It's going to be hard to fit that in, and now, what we're seeing just this week, OPM is announcing we need other agencies to cut their programs in order to sustain the healthcare for undocumented. We need to start right sizing and balancing what our priorities are.

Mike Hydeck: So this economy remains a serious issue for voters. What would you like to accomplish in the next section to try to make Connecticut less expensive, whether it's insurance rates, gasoline, rent, all the above?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah. I mean, I think first of all, we do have to right size government. We have to look at Medicaid reimbursement rates, because that is only increasing healthcare costs if the state isn't putting in its fair share. We've got to look at special education costs, which have skyrocketed in Connecticut. That reduces our property tax burden. So those are the areas where money needs to be shifted into the programs and paid for fully and not sort of back door, back onto the the individuals. You know, the electric charging stations were $80 million, that was put onto our electric bills. Now we're hearing we're not going forward with electric vehicles. That was $80 million that ratepayers had to pay for that is now abandoned. We have to do a better job of prioritizing and spending money in the right spot.

Mike Hydeck: That $80 million was in addition to the money that we got from the federal government regarding charging stations. That was Connecticut's money?

Vincent Candelora: That's right, that was a bill that was tacked onto ours in addition to all the other money that comes through.

Mike Hydeck: Is that money just sitting there, though, because those charging stations are built, right? Or are they built?

Vincent Candelora: Some are built. Yeah, a lot of that $80 million was was cost recovery for Eversource and UI for building those stations. So we just need to make sure, if we're going to be spending money, it's got to be done with a plan. It just can't be done willy-nilly.

Mike Hydeck: So President Trump expanded his base here in Connecticut, but state Republicans were not as successful. Why do you think that is and what needs to change moving forward?

Vincent Candelora: Yeah, I think we're a victim of our success. You know, Republicans have held the line on spending. We got property tax reform put through. So the Democrats really took a lot of our initiatives and ran on that. And so in a blue state, people are going to continue those trends until they have a reason to vote a different way. So I think for us, we've been effective at that level. And in the long run, it makes it harder when the Democrats are running on the platform that you were actually the one passing.

Mike Hydeck: Well, on some occasions, you definitely agree with the governor about the guardrails and some of the other things. So maybe that's why they were kind of co-opted, in a way.

Vincent Candelora: That's right.