Once again, Connecticut Republicans are asking Gov. Ned Lamont (D) to call the legislature into a special session to deal with rising electric rates.
July bills from Eversource and United Illuminating took many Connecticut residents by surprise — specifically the public benefit charge, which had skyrocketed.
All of the Republican Senate and House of Representative members have signed a petition asking Lamont to make the call. Republican leadership said they’ve made multiple attempts to deal with the issue but didn't get a response until one minute before the press conference was scheduled to begin.
In the letter, Senate GOP leader Stephen Harding (R-Bethlehem) said that Lamont agreed to meet with legislative leaders but stopped short of calling a special session.
Harding called the response a “half measure.”
“Half measures won't work anymore,” Harding said. “Half measures are not going to work for our constituents who are struggling to pay this bill. We needed action a long time ago, and to get a letter to say we're working on it is unacceptable and wrong.”
Republicans asked members of the public to sign the petition.
The proposals in the petition are:
- Move "Public Benefit Charges" permanently off ratepayer bills;
- Provide immediate electric rate relief by reallocating unobligated end-of-year American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds and re-examining budgetary options that could make available additional dollars to (a) cover the portions of rate increases associated with the moratorium on electric service shutoffs and the costs associated with electric vehicle charging programs and (b) provide additional rate relief to ratepayers to the maximum extent possible as funds allow;
- Cap all future Power Purchase Agreements to no more than 150% over the wholesale electric market price;
- Redefine Class I renewable energy sources to enable competition to lower the cost of these energy sources;
- Restore the independence of the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), by separating it from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).”
At an unrelated press conference on Tuesday afternoon, Lamont said he would meet with members of the Energy and Technology Committee within the week, but he still wasn't sold on a special session.
“I've talked to hydro, I've talked to nuclear, I've talked to solar, I've talked to wind, we've talked to everybody,” Lamont said. “And I'm going to get the committee back in the office within a week, lay out what the cost benefits are of these types of programs going forward. If you want to have a special session, I just don't want a lot of cosmetics. I don't want to waste time saying I want three commissioners, five commissioners. That doesn't make any difference. It's a question of supply and demand.”
