New Haven Mayor John DeStefano unveiled his energy plan Thursday at a gas station in Hartford. DeStefano’s energy plan would impose a windfall profits tax on the state’s three power plants which would generate $450 million for the state.
DeStefano proposed using $300 million to lower electric bills by 2007, $40 million on energy credits to help businesses lower their costs, $10 million for the low income energy assistance program, and $100 million for the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund.In addition, if DeStefano were elected governor he would urge the attorney general to sue oil companies making excessive profits, And devote $50 million of the state’s $22 billion pension fund to the development of clean and renewable energy. DeStefano criticized Gov. M. Jodi Rell and her predecessor former Gov. John Rowland for raiding the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund and slowing the development of the fuel cell industry in the state. Currently the fuel cell industry supports 1,000 jobs in the state. He said if it were funded properly the fuel cell industry could create as many as 75,000 new jobs by 2015. So why was the press corps called to a press conference at a gas station? “This should be our motivation,” DeStefano said as he motioned to the more than $3 per gallon gas prices.DeStefano did not include a “zone pricing” proposal in his energy plan. The legislature discussed but did not pass a restriction on “zone pricing” which is a method used to determine the number and boundaries of a price zone at gas stations throughout the state.DeStefano’s energy plan is the second plan his gubernatorial campaign has conceived. His first plan was on statewide universal healthcareDeStefano’s Democratic opponent Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy has made some broad public policy remarks about energy conservation based on things he’s done as mayor in Stamford.
