This week’s frigid temperatures are a painful reminder that Connecticut has some of the nation’s most expensive electricity.

On Thursday, state lawmakers began the complicated task of trying to lower rates. But a key panel is already divided over what to do.

When electric bills spiked last summer, public outrage followed.

“They’re charging too much,” Elaine Levy, of Norwalk, said in Aug. 2024. “I don’t know what they charge per kilowatt. I have no idea.”

Now it’s up to the General Assembly’s Energy and Technology Committee to find solutions. They got to work on Thursday.

“Everybody can have their own opinions on this, but our job is to keep the lights on,” said state Sen. Norm Needleman (D-Essex), the panel’s co-chair. “And to keep it affordable.”

But committee members are already divided over what to do. Republicans pushed for more natural gas, which they say is cheaper.

“I do believe there is some form of climate change, but the fact is, we need more natural gas and we need more capacity,” said state Rep. David Yaccarino (R-North Haven).

Gov. Ned Lamont – a Democrat – sided with the GOP and endorsed the idea in his State of the State speech on Wednesday. The move frustrated some environmental groups.

“Before you rule out natural gas, due primarily to methane emissions, that is where most of our power comes from and will for the foreseeable future, especially without more nuclear power,” he said. “We bring in very inexpensive natural gas from Pennsylvania, but that pipeline is at capacity. And we bring in LNG [Liquefied Natural Gas] by foreign ships, which is much more polluting and more expensive. You can ask Congress to rethink the Jones Act.”

The Jones Act places tight restrictions on which ships can move goods between U.S. ports, making it virtually impossible to ship natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. In 2022, Lamont and five other New England governors urged the federal government to roll back the Jones Act.

But many Democrats said that doubling-down on fossil fuels could be a mistake, with massive fires in Los Angeles and floods that devastated a dozen towns here in Connecticut last August.

“One of the major cities in America is on fire, and we need to know that,” said Needleman. “And we need to think about that as we make our decisions.”

“We are in the throes of climate change and we do have to address it as the immediate crisis that it is,” added state Rep. Nick Gauthier (D-Waterford).

One solution everyone agrees on is energy efficiency, including a more resilient power grid. Lawmakers learned about new technology that could lower power bills on Thursday.

But power companies told the panel that those upgrades cost money – millions of dollars, in fact. And someone has to pay for it.

“Investments are becoming increasingly more expensive and difficult to finance under the current regulatory environment,” said Bob Manning, program director for United Illuminating’s parent company, Avangrid.

Both UI and Eversource accuse state regulators of making it nearly impossible to make necessary improvements. In October, UI showed us a new substation that keeps the lights on for 20,000 people in Bridgeport.

The price tag? $145 million.

“Not funding these replacements does not solve the issue,” said Chuck Eaves, the utility’s vice president of Electric Operations. “It pushes the issue into the future."

The clock is ticking for lawmakers to act. Demand for electricity is growing fast with more data centers and electric vehicles in Connecticut.

The Energy and Technology Committee has until March 20 to advance legislation to the full General Assembly.