Pasted Graphic

PATRICK: "I LOVE THE IDEA" OF MUNICIPAL LIGHTING FACILITIES

Gov. Deval Patrick said Tuesday [on
96.9 FM Boston Talks with Jim & Margery] he likes the idea of municipally managed electric facilities that could compete with larger utility companies. "I love the idea of local and community based utilities and if that requires an update in the legislation, I can’t imagine not supporting it," he said, adding, "I obviously want to get into the details." Patrick described the utilities' response to an October snowstorm as a "calamity" and said he doesn't believe prolonged outages that resulted were because of the utilities' size. "I do think it depends … on what the level of consistent investment in the infrastructure has been. All the utilities had terrific plans … in place. For the first 48 hours, they were moving along at a pretty great clip. In the third day it just started to fall apart." 9:38 A.M. (11/22/11)