Gov. Lamont wants to get 'a lot tougher' on electric providers. But rivals say it's too little, too late
Gov. Ned Lamont made an unannounced visit to an Eversource facility on Tuesday to propose cracking down on corporate profits. But his two opponents said the plan won't mean significant savings.
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Connecticut has some of the nation's most expensive electric bills.
Now, Gov. Ned Lamont wants to get tough on utilities.
He started on Tuesday with an unannounced campaign stop – on Eversource’s front lawn – to unveil a new plan to lower rates.
But Lamont’s two rivals for governor said the election-year plan is too little, too late.
TACKLING ELECTRIC RATES
As a police officer looked on, Lamont’s campaign team ushered reporters onto Eversource’s work center in Cheshire.
For Eversource, it was an “unexpected visit.” For Lamont, it was a chance to get “a lot tougher” on utilities.
“My patience runs thin,” he said. “I tried to sit down and talk. Often that talk resulted in a lawsuit.”
Lamont proposed capping utilities’ profits and requiring them to justify expenses like smart meters when they apply for rate increases.
“I’m not just going to let you put a billion dollars of smart meters in and then let them sit there while you earn a 9.5% return on it,” he said.
The governor also proposed making electric utilities renew their franchise every 15 years, similar to cable and internet providers.
“You’ve got to earn your right to that monopoly or maybe you have to sell your wires to somebody who perhaps can do a better job,” Lamont told reporters.
The governor would also give the Office of Consumer Counsel more authority to investigate utility rates.
Longer-term, Lamont is pushing for expanded nuclear, wind and hydropower. But Connecticut's over-reliance on natural gas makes bringing down the wholesale cost of electricity extremely difficult.
“REALLY NO PLAN AT ALL”
Lamont’s opponents said the plan will not save customers real money.
“The plan he released is really no plan at all,” said state Sen. Ryan Fazio, the GOP nominee for governor. “If the governor wanted to tackle that head-on, he should have adopted the plan that I introduced to eliminate all the hidden taxes in our electric bill to cut electric bills by 20%."
Fazio wants to eliminate the Public Benefits portion of your bill, which funds energy efficiency programs, renewable energy and customer hardship programs.
“Roughly 50 different charges within the Public Benefits charge of our electric bill for the long term should be either cut down for size and shifted to the state budget process or be eliminated entirely," he said.
But those “benefit” programs actually pay for themselves, according to a longtime consumer advocate.
“When we invest in energy efficiency and clean energy, at peak times, when it costs the most for us to procure energy, that drives down costs for everybody,” said Tom Swan with Connecticut Citizen Action Group.
PUBLIC TAKEOVER?
Meantime, Lamont’s Democratic challenger offered a radically different approach – a public takeover of the electric grid.
“A municipality through eminent domain can take over a grid for public use,” said state Rep. Josh Elliott, who will face Lamont in an August primary. "All of the changes that the governor is talking about right now is just making very, very small, minor tweaks and changes that are not going to fundamentally change people's energy bills."
Elliott proposed using state borrowing to help local cities and towns purchase the electric infrastructure.
“By bringing it on board and having low bonding rates, it’s actually going to be, over time, significantly less expensive,” Elliott said. “We’re paying through the nose already to ensure that the Eversource CEO gets paid $18 million a year.”
Lamont dismissed both of his rivals.
“Every other idea I’ve heard is a phony,” he said. “Let's just move it over from the ratepayers to the taxpayers. Let's shift it from one column to another.”
As for the utilities, their response was muted.
In a statement, Eversource spokesperson Jamie Ratliff said: “Over recent years, we’ve worked directly with the Lamont administration and other policymakers on multiple proposals that put customers first by lowering and stabilizing costs for residents and business owners across the state. Some of these have been approved, others have been rejected. We are reviewing the concepts announced today to see if they align with the customer-centric focus that is always our top priority.”
United Illuminating has not responded to Lamont’s proposal yet.
