Avangrid

Connecticut House Democrats are rallying behind Marrisa Gillett, chair of the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, despite opposition from the state’s two largest utilities, who argue she’s not been a fair regulator.

Connecticut lawmakers and the state’s largest utility companies — Avangrid and Eversource — were at it again during a public hearing about PURA’s commissioners on Tuesday.

Connecticut Senate Democrats are condemning the state’s two major utilities—Eversource and Avangrid—for allegedly intimidating lawmakers to obtain rate increases.

Connecticut officials are concerned about a proposal to privatize the state’s second-largest utility and want the Public Utility Regulatory Authority to scrutinize the deal.

Avangrid-owned Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas say the PURA decision to cut their rates could lower their credit ratings.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed a petition to prevent Iberdrola, a Spanish-based multinational conglomerate, from acquiring the remaining shares of Avangrid, one of the state's leading energy companies.

The largest proposal received from a three-state solicitation came from Avangrid, which had pulled out of a CT project called Park City Wind.

Park City Wind collapsed last October. Connecticut is now racing to secure new offshore wind energy to benefit its ratepayers. Permitting laws, interest hikes and the Jones Act stand in the way — also, they’re going to need a bigger boat.

Avangrid opted to pay a $16 million penalty to terminate its power purchase agreement with the Connecticut Electric Distribution Companies for Bridgeport-based Park City Wind, the state's largest offshore wind project.

Spiking winter energy prices are the result of a crisis that has been a decade in the making, after New England opted to bet on natural gas.