Connecticut has nearly the highest electricity prices in the country in large part because it lacks a good mix of sources of energy for electrical generation. The Millstone nuclear power station in Waterford is the biggest source of the state's electricity, with natural gas second. This year electricity from natural gas has been cheaper than electricity from nuclear power, and Connecticut might have used more gas if gas lines into the state could carry more.

Operators of two major natural gas pipelines serving Connecticut propose to expand them, but last month environmental extremists, led by the Sierra Club, went to Gov. Ned Lamont's office to deliver a letter opposing more pipeline service to the state — and, implicitly, opposing any use of natural gas. More natural gas, they argue, means more "fracking" to obtain it and more "greenhouse gases." Expanding the pipelines, they wrote, "will lock us into unreliable, unaffordable, unhealthy, and unjust energy."

This is nonsense.

Maybe someday solar, wind and water will be able to power Connecticut inexpensively, but people have to live in the present, so what is "just" about the state's high electric rates? Since electricity is a necessity of life, high rates fall most heavily on the poor. What is "just" about that?

Natural gas has a long and successful record as an energy source and will be as reliable as government wants it to be, as by encouraging production and facilitating delivery.

By contrast, the sun doesn't always shine, the wind doesn't always blow, and rivers don't always flow enough to provide hydroelectric power. While solar, wind, and hydro don't produce air pollution, they damage the environment in other ways. Connecticut already has controversy about solar farms devouring farmland and destroying forests.

No energy source is perfect, but in respect to air pollution and “greenhouse gases,” natural gas is a great improvement over its predecessors, coal and oil, and may be preferable to nuclear power as well, at least while nuclear power creates deadly radioactive waste for which the federal government has failed to establish a safe repository. Indeed, it is strange that Connecticut's environmental extremists are so alarmed about natural gas but silent about the risks of nuclear power, the state's leading source of electricity.

Getting more natural gas into Connecticut and building more gas-fired electricity-generating plants are the most practical means of reducing the state's electricity rates and increasing the state's energy options.

Most state legislators and legislative candidates, along with the governor, are bemoaning high electricity prices, and the Republican minority in the General Assembly has asked the governor to call a special session to address the issue. The governor, a Democrat, and the leaders of the legislature's Democratic majority have opposed a special session, arguing that nothing can be done about electricity prices quickly, before the legislature convenes for its regular session in January.

That's not quite right, since a special session could reallocate state government money, particularly from surplus funds, which are nominally high now, to the electric utilities for crediting to customer bills.

But the state budget surplus is mainly a matter of how much state government wants to keep cheating on its pension funds by maintaining or even increasing their unfunded liabilities, thereby charging future taxpayers for services they never received. Columnist Red Jahncke has noted that the big pay raises for state employees in recent years have driven up their pension entitlements and nullified most of the supposed gains made by extra deposits to the pension funds.

Besides, as the governor says, using the state surplus would not be a long-term solution for electricity rates, just a political gesture.

The long-term solution is to facilitate more use of natural gas for electricity in Connecticut until the nirvana expected by the environmental extremists arrives: perfectly clean and free energy. So obtaining more natural gas should be an issue in the current campaign for the General Assembly, and the governor and legislative leaders should pledge to put it high on their agenda.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. He can be reached at CPowell@cox.net.