There is nothing more basic than the necessities of heat, water and light. During parts of August, October and November 2011, these life necessities were unavailable to hundreds of thousands of Connecticut citizens due to overextended power outages throughout the state. It is with cold clarity that we citizens now understand that such failures were not solely a consequence of nature but a result of the profiteering of CL&P and its parent company, Northeast Utilities, including a 26% reduction in maintenance spending from 2008 to 2010 and their obvious reduction in personnel available for emergency services.

 To our representatives in federal and state governments, particularly the members of the Energy and Technology Committee, this could and should be your Finest Hour to act on behalf of the people who elected you as their representatives. Your decision to remain silently neutral during this threat is not a genuine option.

 Corporate greed has led to a crisis that has caused abject misery in Connecticut, including the recent deaths of several citizens due to carbon monoxide poisoning and the loss of two weeks of education for many of the state’s children. The people of Connecticut are looking to your offices to hold Northeast Utilities accountable for skimping on maintenance in favor of shareholder dividends and executive compensation.

 Although the Attorney General’s office has opened an investigation, we look to your respective offices to act. In addition to supporting a full probe into the negligence of Northeast Utilities, we ask you to call for an immediate moratorium on the company’s planned $4.7 billion acquisition of Nstar. This will be yet another distraction from the monopoly’s failed commitment to customers who have no other choice in their selection of power providers.

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