Energy

Key measures needed to implement the next state budget and an overdue fix to a debt-riddled anti-pollution program were earmarked for a special session Wednesday even as lawmakers scrambled to pass more bills before the midnight adjournment deadline.

On a closing day marked by partisan friction, the House of Representatives found a rare moment of harmony Wednesday evening, unanimously passing a bill imposing penalties on Connecticut's utilities for poor performance in restoring blackouts.

But other bills, including priorities of House Speaker Christopher G. Donovan, D-Meriden, and Senate President Pro Tem Donald E. Williams Jr., D-Brooklyn, were destined to die at midnight, the constitutional adjournment deadline of the 2012 session.

On the final night, every legislator is a king or queen, able to kill legislation by threat of delay.

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The legislature last year did something unheard of in the country, something that at least one expert in the field refers to as "revolutionary and incredibly progressive."

It passed a piece of legislation that will force major commercial food producers in the state to recycle their food scraps. That means at the very least, turn them into compost. And that's just a first step.

Connecticut's truckers and other consumers of diesel fuel won't benefit from the new circuit-breaker on gasoline taxes, even though rising prices likely will push the diesel levy upward starting this summer.

"I suggest to you that the diesel fuel tax has hit the tipping point and will continue to make Connecticut an expensive place to do business," Michael J. Riley, president of the Motor Transportation Association of Connecticut, wrote to lawmakers.

Anti-poverty advocates say an extremely mild winter couldn't undo all the damage from deep federal budget cuts to Connecticut's heating assistance program.

"In many ways this has been one of our most difficult years in trying to serve energy customers," said Amos Smith, president of the Connecticut Association for Community Action.

Majority Democrats proposed a one-year cap Monday on the state's escalating wholesale fuel tax -- but set it to expire one day before one of the largest fuel tax increases in state history is set to kick in.

Democrats said they couldn't commit to a permanent cap, given uncertainties about the state budget. The budget proposed for 2012-13 faces a major deficit one year later, the same time that state fuel taxes would rise dramatically.

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Contradicting two earlier reports that concluded that Connecticut's largest utility was unprepared for last year's two major storms, Connecticut Light & Power Co. offered utility regulators a private report Thursday that found its power restoration efforts were "reasonable" compared with industry norms.

The solar industry in Connecticut and around the nation had been waiting years for what happened last Tuesday: The board of directors of the Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority approved a new residential solar incentive program.

Then the solar folks saw the details.

You can chuckle all you want about outdoor wood furnaces and whether they're a subject the legislature should even bother with given that there are probably only a couple of thousand in the state.

Then you might want to get out of the line of fire.