The cost of your electricity is the focus of a new lawsuit filed by Eversource and Avangrid - which owns United Illuminating.
The electric companies are suing Connecticut's top regulator, claiming the chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, is making all the decisions in the rate-setting process.
In the lawsuit, Eversource and Avangrid said decisions should be made by the majority of commissioners - not just the chairman.
"Unfortunately, certain actors at PURA have undertaken a number of unlawful procedures that have the effect of reducing what the legislature intentionally designed as a multi-member agency to the province of one commissioner," the lawsuit reads.
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PURA's job is to ensure that Connecticut's investor-owned utilities provide safe, clean, reliable and affordable utility service and infrastructure.
"This lawsuit is nothing but a clearly timed distraction by the utilities to thwart the renomination of the very commissioners who regulate them. This lawsuit is an attempt to cast this as a due process issue only after repeatedly not getting their way," PURA said in a statement.
"PURA has operated in a transparent and collective way for every proceeding and despite our efforts to reset the relationship and move forward in a productive way on behalf of ratepayers, the utilities emerge with this maneuver, which doesn’t decrease costs for ratepayers or change our regulatory environment. PURA has provided new and numerous ways for utilities to engage. PURA has offered settlements, while the utilities have appealed decision after decision, and despite a well-funded public relations campaign, the utilities are losing in the courts and when ratepayers see their bills. That’s why ratepayers deserve better and deserve regulators who are capable of holding the utilities accountable, something utilities obviously oppose," the statement goes on to say.
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Eversource said they are not commenting beyond the lawsuit. Avangrid and PURA have not responded to our request for comment.
You can read the lawsuit below.
