(UPDATED 6:45 p.m.) HARTFORD, CT – Republican lawmakers rolled out a list of proposals Friday that they believe will lower electricity rates for Connecticut consumers and bring “common sense” to a marketplace that they say has been negatively impacted by the policies of majority Democrats.
However, following the Republican news conference, Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat who co-chairs the Energy and Technology Committee, fired back at some of their comments highlighting a 2017 Republican-led vote locking in a long-term purchasing agreement to keep the Millstone nuclear power station running in Waterford. However, he also expressed some common ground with Republicans on energy policy – he agreed with that decision.
He also said that the fluctuations in the energy market over the last few years have been difficult for everyone.
Friday morning, Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, was joined by House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, and other Republican legislators in outlining several energy proposals they hope will mitigate the steady stream of rate hikes plaguing their constituents.
“Going forward we have to be more consumer-friendly when finding and procuring energy resources,” Harding said.
Candelora said there’s no question that everyone talks about the high cost of electricity in Connecticut and New England, and he said over the years attempts have been made to curb those costs.
“What’s unique right now that I haven’t seen in my lifetime is the sniping that we are seeing between our regulatory agencies, the Democrats, and our electric companies,” Candelora said. “And we are asking for that to come to an end. We don’t want anymore sniping. We don’t want finger-pointing. We want people coming to the table with solutions.”
He said Connecticut is ranked 47th in the country for its regulatory environment, and we have “lawsuits after lawsuits,” not just from electric companies but also from water companies as well “because of the relationship PURA has created with our utilities.”
Candelora called on Gov. Ned Lamont to look at PURA and to “make the reappointments, or appointments that are necessary to PURA in order to start righting the ship. We can’t continue to ignore what they’re doing.”
He said Lamont has a responsibility to put forth nominees for PURA’s board so that they can be vetted through the legislature “and we can begin to have a conversation with those individuals” on their philosophies.
Candelora also said the state’s approach “of continuing to just deny rate increases and deny funding is constricting our market,” and he added that the state is investing less than $50 million to upgrade its grid – compared to billions being spent for the same purpose in Massachusetts – at a time when Democrats want consumers to switch over to electric vehicles. He said the state “is not poised in a good position right now.”
The Republicans’ proposals include:
- Using federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to pay down a portion of what’s owed under the Revenue Adjustment Mechanism (RAM), which is a fund set up to offset hardship customers’ unpaid electricity bills;
- Capping the price of electricity in future Power Purchase Agreements to no more than double the wholesale market rate;
- Removing the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority from the DEEP and making it a standalone agency;
- Redefining Class 1 renewable energy sources to include all nuclear and hydropower;
- Commission a study on how to increase the supply of natural gas to New England, and;
- Commission a study on how to move public policy charges off ratepayers’ bills and into the budget.
Unpaid Electricity Bills
Republicans highlighted $190 million in RAM arrearages that built up as a result of the moratorium on shutoffs for nonpayment of electricity bills. Candelora said people who pay their bills are going to be asked to pay for those arrearages, and that isn’t fair.
Candelora said he wants to use one-time federal ARPA funding that will run out after this year to pay for that, instead of pulling other funds from under the spending cap, adding that he believes there could be as much as $200 million available when state agencies finish reporting their budgets for the year.
According to the Office of Policy Management, only $39 million in federal ARPA money remains available and the full picture of what state agencies spent or didn’t spend won’t be available until the Fall.
Candelora compared the approach to the RAM arrearages to what happened with the state’s pension fund.
“Let’s underfund it, underfund it, underfund it, and all of a sudden we have an $80 billion deficit,” he said.
The pandemic-inspired moratorium on shutoffs for nonpayment expired Oct. 31, 2023, the day before the start of the long-standing annual Winter Protection Program that prohibits shutoffs for nonpayment from Nov. 1 through May 1. According to PURA, letters requiring resumption of payment will start going out to customers who have not been paying their electricity bills either this winter or further back during the COVID-inspired moratorium starting May 1.
According to PURA, around three-quarters of the $190 million owed in the RAM arrearages are based on the 2017 deal to preserve the Millstone nuclear power plant, which included a requirement to buy power from Millstone each year. Millstone provides about 40% of Connecticut’s electricity with zero greenhouse gas emissions and is the largest power plant in New England. In 2017, Dominion, the owner of the plant, was considering shutting it down early because it could not compete with the price of natural gas.
Republicans on Friday also proposed finding ways to increase the supply of Natural Gas to New England because they said the increased use of it has lowered Connecticut’s emissions 50% and it’s also more affordable.
Power Purchase Agreements
Capping the cost of future long-term electricity purchasing agreements, Republicans said, will protect ratepayers from rising costs. Candelora said that in some cases, such as with wind power, some long-term contracts cost nearly four times the market-rate value.
“What we’re saying is, don’t make it unaffordable to the consumer,” Harding said. “We have to have a more consumer-friendly approach to procuring the energy that we provide to the constituents of the state of Connecticut.”
Wind power is in its infancy in Connecticut. Multiple offshore wind projects – requiring billions of dollars to build – are under construction off New England’s shores. Asked whether setting a rate cap will impede the growth of that industry, Republicans said they are in favor of green energy but want to keep rates affordable.
Sen. Ryan Fazio, a Greenwich Republican who is a ranking member on the Energy and Technology Committee, said he supports green energy.
“I want wind to succeed. I want solar to succeed. I want battery [storage] to succeed,” Fazio said. “But I want it to be affordable.”
Needleman said that a rate cap is not practical, and that he views it as “political posturing.” Trying to cap those costs, while still trying to maintain the contracts, he said, makes no sense.
Needleman said he supports trying to procure renewable energy at the best rate possible.
“This is about mitigating climate change. Connecticut has to do its part here,” he said. “We’re here to do what we think is right, and that’s really important to me.”
Vacancies, And Should PURA Leave DEEP?
Candelora and Harding argued that the vacancies on PURA’s five-member board need to be filled, and that term limits and re-appointments are needed so that they can be vetted by the legislature. Needleman said he agrees with implementing term limits.
Republicans also suggested that PURA and DEEP have conflicting agendas. They said DEEP is focused on protecting the environment, while PURA is protecting consumers. As such, they said they would make PURA into a standalone agency.
Needleman disagreed with that argument Friday, and said that he was happy with the job PURA has done in regulating the cost of utilities for ratepayers.
“I’m glad that we have an authority now that makes sure that ratepayers are put first in the process,” he said.
Republicans also suggested that neighboring states are doing a better job stabilizing rates, and said Connecticut’s regulatory environment is at fault.
That argument isn’t something Needleman was willing to entertain while talking to reporters Friday.
“I think that’s a lot of crap,” he said.
Needleman said that he believes there should be some friction between regulators and utilities – he said it should be an adversarial relationship. He highlighted a Connecticut Supreme Court decision that was released Friday – GenConn Energy LLC v. Public Utility Regulatory Authority – and said it saved ratepayers about $80 million and affirmed the work that PURA Chairwoman Marissa Gillett has been doing to reign in the utilities’ rate increases.
“It’s the first of many [cases] that have worked through the system. I have supported a stronger regulatory environment. That’s no secret to anybody because I believe that that’s in the best interest of ratepayers,” Needleman said. “I’m not claiming that people over-earned or didn’t over-earn. Maybe I am? But I know that our process from a regulatory point of view was not where I thought it should be and I’m glad that we have an Authority now that is making sure that the ratepayers are put first in their process.”
Needleman said that doesn’t mean that the utilities should not get what they need to operate.
“But when you give them money and it gets diverted into bonuses, as opposed to line-people, that really annoys me,” Needleman said. “And honestly, at a time of trying to mitigate climate change, we are asking our utilities to do more than they’ve ever had to do before. And because of that, that’s why you need more scrutiny on them. Because otherwise – I’ve listened to some of the Republican comments, ‘we need to give them what they want otherwise they aren’t going to meet our goals’ – that’s another energy gun to our head like Dominion did with Millstone. I don’t want energy guns to our head.
“I want to be able to make sensible decisions, give the utilities the money that they need to do what we ask them to do, to move us forward into a greener economy. But I also don’t want it to be a blank check.”
