Nor’easter Knocks Out Halloween

October ended with a crippling snowstorm that left thousands without power for days. Trick or treating on Halloween was cancelled or postponed for youngsters all over the commonwealth. Here we are a week after the storm and there are still many without power. Outraged at the failure of National Grid and NStar, Senator Scott Brown was quick to go public with his disappointment. Many other political figureheads quickly followed suit and hence an investigation of the power companies has begun by the Attorney General, Martha Coakley’s office.

On Halloween morning as most of Massachusetts woke without power, Scott Brown wrote stern letters to the heads of the four largest power companies criticizing their lack of preparation. “Brown expressed ‘outrage’ over what he claimed was a lack of adequate contingency plans. He said it doesn’t appear utilities had the necessary assets in place to quickly respond to outages caused by the storm.” Many were disappointed with the loss of power specifically because of Hurricane Irene this summer. New England was hit hard by the August hurricane that caused billions of dollars in damages. Most were optimistic about the Halloween storm since we are suffered a major storm only two months prior.

Contrary to Senator Brown’s disappointment was Governor Deval Patrick who described the utility companies’ responses as “terrific.” “I think the utilities’ plans are sound. I think they’re executing on those plans well,” he said at a press conference at the Framingham headquarters of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. “The number of crews – I think I’m right about this – is unprecedented.” MA democrats started blasting Brown for being to hard on the power companies but that would soon change, as power was slow to come back on as the week progressed.

The office of the Attorney General announced they would be investigating the power company’s response to the Halloween storm. Martha Coakley made this announcement four days after the storm and partially in response to not only Senator Brown but also Newton Mayor Warren and Rep Niki Tsongas who both publically made known their disappointment. Coakley said Wednesday that her office has received a number of complaints regarding the power restoration process by utilities. Gov. Deval Patrick has asked for a formal investigation by Massachusetts’s utility regulators into the response by the power companies to the October nor’easter. After a week of slow reaction, the Governor had to change his tone as both National Grid and NStar executives clearly did not get the message.

As a resident of Walpole, MA, I lost power sometime Sunday evening and did not have power back until early Wednesday morning. I, like many across the state, am worried about the future. We are about to turn out clocks back this weekend and winter is right around the corner. Hurricane Irene and the Halloween snowstorm were both unexpected and many if not all residents of Massachusetts were affected. Let’s hope that the investigation can create some positive results for the rest of 2011 and early 2012.

Whatever Happened to the Super Committee?

This past summer a historical event occurred when Standard & Poor’s announced that it downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time. President Obama had purposed a $4 trillion dollar plan that was shot down by Congress, specifically by the freshman tea party members. As a result Sen. John Kerry coined the term, “tea party downgrade.”  The month of August started of on a collapsing foot for America and a bipartisan effort was needed. President Obama created the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction where equal members of each party and each house of congress would have representation. Three months later I want to know what has been accomplished and how close are we to fixing the debt issue. A deal is to be made by Thanksgiving so with three weeks to go, lets look at the progress.

First let’s take a look at the members of the Super Committee. All members have or had served on respective varying committees. The idea was to have equal representation on each side with members who can come up with a minimum of a 1.5 trillion dollar debt reduction.

Appointed by House Speaker, Boehner, Jeb Hensarling R-TX, David Camp R-MI, Fred Upton R-MI

Appointed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Jon Kyl R-AZ, Pat Toomey R-PA, Rob Portman R-OH

Appointed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Patty Murray D-WA, Max Baucus D-MO, John Kerry D-MA

Appointed by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, James Clyburn D-SC, Xavier Becerra D-CA, Chris Van Hollen D-MD

A few weeks ago the democratic members were the first to come up with a formal proposal. A 3 trillion dollar plan that has revenue increases and cuts to Medicare. The plan has fairly equal amounts of spending cuts and tax increases. The 3 trillion dollar plan over 10 years was the first step in the debate that was quickly described by republicans as “not serious.” A plan backed by republicans was announced as a 10 year 2.2 trillion dollar deal with heavy spending cuts and very little tax increases. A democratic aide was quoted as calling the plan a “joke.” After 3 months it seems there has been little if not any progress.

This week reports of a super sub committee have emerged where 3 democrats and 3 republicans have met in secret to work out a more bipartisan deal. It seems inevitable that there will have to be some scale of tax increases. Republicans have drawn a hard line here constantly pushing back. The pressure is on with so little time left. It’s frustrating to see the lack of urgency from both sides of the table. A deal has to be done and compromises have to occur. As presidential primary dates are starting to solidify, the president and many members of congress will have to take into account the results of this committee. The time is now and like the Rolling Stones sing, “you can’t always get what you want, but you get what you need.”