Energy Commission 8/25

The Energy Commission met tonight. Unsurprisingly, much of the conversation was on...

The Pool!!!

Seriously though, Matt Altieri was there and I really appreciated that. He came to discuss the bubble. He listened to some very useful insights from the ECs newest member, Lew Cohen, and others. Matt then explained his perspective of trying to sell a "bubble alternative" to the public. And it was fair enough for him to do that. Though I disagree with his view that we cannot yet rule out another bubble. Seriously, the bubble is the problem... so why we can't rule it out makes no sense to me.

But forget about the bubble discussion. At one point I was actually shocked. Councilman Altieri started talking about his February trip to Vegas and his golf buddy. Essentially, Matt mentioned the idea of "performance contracting" and the pool to his buddy.

His buddy then indicated that a pool alone wouldn't be worth the time... that the town should look at everything... all infrastructure at once.

I was dumbfounded.

I wasn't sure if I should be ecstatic that he acknowledged performance contracting can work... or if I should be angry about the majority's truthiness on performance contracting.

Regardless... Council budget meeting tomorrow night. Should be interesting... especially after the entire Council got a diplomatic, but unmistakably frank, email from the Energy Commission Chairman on Sunday about Cheshire's consideration of performance contracting.

I'll probably post the email tomorrow (Rich gave me his permission), but want to continue telling this story in chronological order.

Anyway... the other point that I really appreciated tonight... the EC has officially endorsed the energy forums. That's great because CT-N wanted to televise the last forum, but couldn't as they require organizations (not individuals) to sponsor any CT-N televised forums.

Tim White