Democratic leaders held a press conference on January 16 to announce they will be introducing a “ratepayers first energy bill” as a flagship energy bill this session. While the text of the bill does not yet exist, Senate President Martin Looney, D-New Haven, described the bill as seeking to address costs, enhance liability, increase energy production, and ensure utilities are prioritizing ratepayers.
Looney was joined by Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, and Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex to discuss the bill, which at this stage is effectively a concept draft. Duff formerly served as the chair of the Energy and Technology Committee, which will hear the bill. Needleman is the current chair.
Duff described the bill as a continuation of the “Take Back Our Grid Act,” which was passed in 2020 during a special session in response to outages in the wake of Tropical Storm Isaiah and required the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to create performance-based regulations for the state’s electric distribution companies, among other changes.
Duff said the bill has already saved consumers millions of dollars, but that at the time it was passed Democratic leadership said they still needed to do more. The ratepayers first bill, Duff stated, will continue to do that and bring relief to taxpayers.
Specifics of the bill, Needleman suggested, will not be available until the committee has received its full slate of bills. He called the concept for the bill “an open book” and added there were no specific policies in it he wanted to discuss during the press conference. He added the committee will listen to bills coming in, to ideas from across the political spectrum, and from cities and rural areas. According to Needleman, decisions about what belongs in the bill will be made once the committee has heard from each of these stakeholders.
Speaking more broadly on Connecticut’s approach to energy policy, Duff suggested that the state needs to look more at taking a regional approach to its energy policy.
Duff alluded to diversifying Connecticut’s electric sources, mentioning nuclear, solar, and hydro power, not just in the state but through ISO New England, and stated that the state needs to be looking at its regulatory approach through a regional lens. He suggested any changes made to the Millstone Power Station should be done on a regional basis rather than going it alone. He said the state has gone it alone many times, at a high cost to taxpayers.
Needleman, who spoke for the bulk of the press conference, pointed to past deregulation by state officials as the source of current energy problems, calling it an “original sin.” He stated it had allowed individual public utilities regulated in one state to operate in multiple states but that there was no regional authority to hold them accountable.
Needleman also answered questions about the public benefits charge. He described the charges as something PURA implemented “in the interest of transparency” in order to make bills clearer. Needleman added that, in some ways, the charge, which he said used to be part of the distribution side of the bill, “did utilities and the GOP a favor by breaking this down.” The charge was the result of a 2023 law intended in part to make energy bill charges easier for consumers to understand. The public benefits charge, which combined three different charges, is related to the cost of policies and programs the General Assembly has passed.
Needleman said the recent increases in the charge, which have been a source of controversy, were mostly driven by a deal the state cut with Millstone in 2017 to keep the plant open because PURA had “voted to do that in a short period of time.” He added that by May 1, a lot of the charges should fall off on their own and that hopefully consumers would see rate relief by the summer.
Needleman also discussed the possibility of expanding nuclear power in the state, something Lamont alluded to in his address to the legislature on the session’s opening day, and discussed the possibility small modular reactors could play in power generation. He estimated this would be a factors in the 2030s.
Needleman also praised the work of PURA chair Marissa Gillette. He said he did not support Lamont appointing a fifth commissioner to “dilute” the work Gillette has done. Statutorily, PURA is intended to have five commissioners.
Rep. Tracy Marra, R-Norwalk, the ranking Republican on the energy committee issued a statement calling the policy “woefully short on specifics.”
Marra said she was glad Democrats are “finally starting to talk about” high energy costs, but said only Republicans have presented “specific, detailed plans” to address concerns.
“What the majority party isn’t talking about are specific substantial reforms like House Republicans have repeatedly proposed, including moving the “Public Benefit Charges” permanently off ratepayer bills, capping all future Power Purchase Agreements to no more than 150% over the wholesale electric market price, redefining Class I renewable energy sources to enable competition to lower the cost of these energy sources, and restoring the independence of the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA), by separating it from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).” Mara said in a press release.
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