From Attorney General George Jepsen:
HARTFORD – Attorney General George Jepsen is asking all providers of telecommunications, cable and satellite television and Internet services in Connecticut to waive charges for the period its Connecticut customers were without service following the Oct. 29 storm.
The Attorney General sent letters Thursday to executives of 15 companies, asking them to consider his request and to respond in writing with their decision.
“The early winter storm on October 29-30 has created unprecedented hardships – physical, emotional, and financial–for hundreds of thousands of Connecticut citizens,” Attorney General Jepsen said. “It is a matter of fundamental fairness that residents not have to pay for services that were unavailable for lack of electricity or other storm-related reasons.
“I encourage you to ensure that all your Connecticut customers, whose services were interrupted by this storm, are given full, pro-rata credit for the time they were unable to access your services, without the need for individual requests,” the Attorney General wrote.
The letter was a response to questions and complaints by Connecticut consumers across the state about being charged for services they were unable to use for an extended period because they had no electricity or their service was interrupted.
On another storm-related issue, the Attorney General wrote to the Propane Gas Association of New England this week, raising antitrust concerns about correspondence the association sent to its members that discouraged them from filling the gas tanks of competitors, despite Executive Order 15, which authorized them to do so.
Governor Dannel P. Malloy issued the Executive Order on Nov. 3 in response to emergency conditions in the state and the potential inability of propane gas customers to have their tanks refilled by the same company that owns the tank. The order remains in effect for 30 days, unless revoked sooner.
“This Office has concerns that your communication may have been designed to encourage or facilitate a group boycott or concerted refusal to deal among horizontal competitors in violation of the Connecticut Antitrust Act,” Attorney General Jepsen wrote to the Association office in Epsom, N.H. He asked association officials to distribute his letter to its membership.
There is a current movement to require CT residents to allow the UI and CL&P to cut down all trees that are within 10 feet of their power lines. This would minimize any future damage.
That’s how it was in the old days. 50 years ago, the utility companies had whole divisions that did nothing but trim trees. Power outages post storm were frequent, but they were resolved quickly and with little fanfare.
We tree-huggers have to bend a bit.