One of the big issues in the New Hampshire business community this legislative session is the push to continue deregulating utilities. The state's current power regulation model is something of a hybrid between old-fashioned regulation and deregulation.

The controversial Northern Pass hydro-electric project “cannot happen without local support” and “should not happen with eminent domain,” Gov. Lynch’s said today in his State of the State address.

Here is the paragraph from his speech:

"One of the biggest issues facing our state and our environment is the proposal for the Northern Pass. I support bringing more renewable power to our state. It is in our long-term interests to diversify our power sources, and we should not dismiss out of hand the idea of hydropower from Canada.  But the proponents of Northern Pass need to listen better. This project cannot happen without local support. And it should not happen with eminent domain.”

Executive Councilor Ray Burton of Bath says he tried unsuccessfully to keep Meredith Hatfield as the state’s consumer advocate on public utility matters because she has been “independent minded” and helped consumers.

But last week the Republican controlled Executive Council voted 3 – 2 against re-appointing Hatfield who represents consumer interests before the Public Utilities Commission.

Burton and Councilor Dan St. Hillaire of Concord were on the losing end ofew today Burton said he found Hatfield was always ready to help North Country consumers and small businesses resolve their problems.

In the wake of recent power outages after a freak snow storm, Public Service of New Hampshire is defending the quality of its distribution grid.   The electric utility says there are no perfect solutions.

Top state and federal officials have called for public hearings on the factors that left hundreds of thousands of customers without power.  PSNH President Gary Long says he welcomes those hearings.  Long says the power company has invested heavily in its network of poles and wires and the system has never been stronger.

Asked on NHPR’s The Exchange if underground lines would be better, Long said underground lines can fail too and when they do, repairs are costly.

For the first time Public Service of New Hampshire has statewide competition from another utility company. That could be good news for some consumers and bad news for PSNH.

NHPR’s Chris Jensen reports.

In 1996 the state passed a law that gave consumers the right to pick the company from which they wanted to buy electricity.

But the pickings were so slim as to be non-existent.

In short nobody gave Public Service of New Hampshire any statewide competition for residential customers and PSNH currently dominates the market.

“Residential customers really have not had a real choice.”

That’s Meredith Hatfield.

She heads up the office of Consumer Advocate at the Public Utilities Commission.

Nearly two days after an unseasonable snow storm, much of the Queen City remains without power.

PSNH estimates that around 31,000 of its customers in Manchester still don’t have electricity.

The difficulty in getting back power to the city comes from the fact that repair crews must work block by block to remove fallen tree limbs and other debris from the power lines.

City officials established a shelter at Memorial High School for those that were worst hit by the storm.

District Fire Chief Al Poulin says that the shelter will remain as long as necessary for those worst hit by the outages:

"Right now we have around 40 people in the shelter at 2:00 in the afternoon and we’re expecting many more tonight due to the lack of power being turned on.”