The views stated here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the editors of this newspaper. We welcome supporting or opposing views on any published item. Received February 24, 2024.
Last week, Eversource and United Illuminating filed rate increase requests with stage agencies that could lead to a significant increase in consumer bills, with the potential increase potentially as high as 19%. I oppose these rate increases and issued a statement from my office regarding Eversource’s proposal, which I’ve included excerpts from below: “When you go to the casino and lose your money at the blackjack table, you can’t make everyone else pay back your losses. Eversource makes record profits year after year and yet the ratepayers always have to pay more.
Eversource’s current cash flow problems are related to their wind power investment gamble. That bet didn’t work out, and now that they’re out of cash, management and executives are coming to the ratepayers to prop up their shareholders….Eversource and United Illuminating benefitted from 20 years of a weakly regulated utility environment and now that they’re being held accountable they are screaming to anyone who will listen, all the while showing record profits year after year. Today is proof positive of why we need strong regulators at PURA, and why they need even more tools to fight for ratepayers against corporate greed and mismanagement. Connecticut deserves better.”
State Sen. Norm Needleman (D) Essex
