State Lawmaker Seeks Outage Probe

State Rep. Kim Fawcett, D-Fairfield, said Thursday she would seek an inquiry into the way United Illuminating Co. and CL& P have handled the restoration of power and consumer inquiries in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene.

“While the immediate priority must be to restore power and get everyone’s life back to order, we must also look to the future and search for ways to keep people better informed while they wait for their electricity service to come back on line,” said Fawcett, a member of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee.

“I’ve gotten so many calls from constituents who have been left in the dark – literally and figuratively – by United Illuminating,” she said. “All people want to know is approximately when they can expect their power to be restored. People need to be better informed by the utilities.”

“Once the aftermath is cleaned up, there must be a time for us to ask critical questions, to clarify what breaks in communications occurred and why,” Fawcett said. “It’s not so much that people are angry about being without power. They were expecting that. It’s really about giving more information, keeping people better informed and giving them a better estimate on when their lives will return to normal.”

Fawcett urged her colleagues to join her in seeking an inquiry into the utilities’ response.