Power plant a win

The Hearst Connecticut Media editorial of Jan. 30 (“Editorial: CT right to reconsider future power needs”) gets it exactly wrong: The Killingly Energy Center will provide reliable, affordable electricity for more than 500,000 New England homes while attracting $500 million in private-sector investment and generating nearly 500 construction and full-time operating jobs. It will also continue Connecticut’s three decades of major progress in reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and smog-producing pollutants by replacing older, less efficient and higher-emitting power plants with state-of-the-art, clean-burning natural gas units. That progress includes a 23 percent drop in Connecticut’s energy-related CO2 emissions since 2005, according to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration data.

Having approved this important and needed energy facility seven months ago, Connecticut should be moving full speed ahead with the Killingly Energy Center. As the same official now threatening to flip-flop on her not-even-year-old vote of support for the power plant said just five months ago, the Killingly Energy Center will meet a “need for the whole New England region” for increased, affordable, reliable, low-emissions electricity. By providing power that can cycle up instantly when the sun stops shining or the wind stops blowing, the plant will allow Connecticut to accelerate its push into renewables.

The Killingly Energy Center is a big win for Connecticut ratepayers, energy reliability, our economy and our environment — the kind of big win Connecticut would be foolish to forfeit.

Steven Guveyan Executive director Connecticut Petroleum Council/API