© 2025 WSHU
NPR News & Classical Music
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

CT lawmakers at odds over how to deal with energy companies

(L-R) Avingrid CEO Pedro Azagra Blazquez, Eversource Director of Sales and Marketing Liam Needham, UI CEO Frank Reynolds
Molly Ingram
/
WSHU
(L-R) Avingrid CEO Pedro Azagra Blazquez, Eversource Director of Sales and Marketing Liam Needham, UI CEO Frank Reynolds

Two more Connecticut utility companies have had their credit ratings downgraded. State lawmakers are at odds over who is to blame and what the next move should be.

Moody’s Ratings downgraded two Avangrid subsidiaries (Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas) one notch each, with negative outlooks. They cited last month’s refusal from state regulators to allow the company to raise customer rates. Eversource’s credit ratings were downgraded earlier this month.

The lower ratings mean the companies will pay more to borrow — costs the companies said will be passed onto customers.

At a press conference on Thursday morning, House Republican leader Vincent Candelora (R-North Branford) said filling the vacancies on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority was the first step toward stabilizing the state’s energy woes.

“It's not running as a regulatory body with five members making decisions. You have one individual that is taking every single docket; she is controlling every single docket and ultimately making those decisions,” Candelora said, referring to PURA chairman Marissa Paslick Gillett.

Gov. Ned Lamont’s office did not reply to a request for comment on whether or not Lamont had considered filing the positions.

Some lawmakers, including legislative Energy and Technology Committee co-chair State Sen. Norm Needleman (D-Essex), have said three commissioners were enough.

In statements, both Eversource and Avangrid blamed PURA for the downgrades.

“This latest ratings action is independent confirmation that the Connecticut regulatory environment is harming the ability of electric, water, and gas companies to hold financing costs down for customers, particularly residents and businesses who are feeling the burden of high energy costs,” Eversource VP of Distribution Rates and Regulatory Requirements Douglas Horton said.

“Today’s announcement from Moody’s is the latest, alarming signal from the investment community that Connecticut’s regulatory environment is becoming untenable and unsustainable for the companies responsible for providing the state’s most essential services,” Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas CEO Frank Reynolds said.

But in a Thursday morning Connecticut Mirror op-ed, Needleman and State Rep. Jonathan Steinberg (D-Westport), who co-chair the Energy and Technology Commission, denied those statements.

They argued that a strong regulatory system " outweighs any speculative costs” that may come from credit downgrades.

They also said the rating companies aren’t independent, because the utility companies pay them.

“To suggest that these ratings agencies are independent or objective is nonsensical,” Needleman and Steinberg wrote. “The utility itself can pass through the cost of debt to its captive customers, so what does the utility care if it becomes the company that cries wolf and provokes a downgrade in pursuit of its grander strategy to warn regulators across New England not to replicate the accountability measures and rate decreases imposed by its Connecticut regulators?”

Candelora called the questioning of the utility companies' motives “conspiracies rising to the level of a science fiction movie.”

Molly is a reporter covering Connecticut. She also produces Long Story Short, a podcast exploring public policy issues across Connecticut.