Connecticut’s largest utility provider has issued a cease-and-desist letter, along with a lengthy legal analysis, to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), requesting Chairman Marissa Gillett stop issuing “rulings and orders on substantive matters,” under the executive secretary’s signature, thus hiding that it was a decision by Gillett acting as presiding officer.

Additionally, Eversource requests PURA cease appointing Gillett as presiding officer without “proper designation by the full panel of commissioners;” cease failing to record votes on substantive matters by commissioners; cease “portraying that the full commission has issued such rulings and orders when it has not;” and cease “depriving parties of their rights to seek review of ‘intermediate’ decisions by the full panel,” according to the letter.

“We recognize that PURA has historically ruled on minor procedural matters, such as scheduling changes, through an Executive Secretary ruling, or presiding officer ruling from the bench,” attorney Duncan McCay wrote. “However, over the past four years, PURA’s use of that practice has expanded exponentially to encompass virtually every ruling in every docket prior to final decision – all misleadingly presented as the Executive Secretary’s ruling on behalf of ‘the Authority.’ This reflects a violation of statutory requirements and fundamental due process rights of staggering scope, tainting hundreds of complex procedural and substantive rulings across virtually every contested and uncontested docket conducted by PURA in recent years.”

The letter comes following Inside Investigator’s report on allegations made by both Eversource and Avangrid that Gillett was using the executive secretary’s signature to hide decisions she alone issued in substantive matters – including adding $70 million to Connecticut ratepayers’ public benefits charge, withholding money due back to ratepayers for several years, and investigating herself when accused by the utility companies of bias and improper communications. 

The utility companies have both experienced credit rating downgrades, blaming Connecticut’s regulatory environment, and Eversource has indicated it will decrease its subsequent investments into Connecticut’s power grid because of the unpredictable regulatory environment. 

The letter also comes amid an escalating battle between the utilities, PURA, and the heads of Connecticut’s Energy and Technology Committee – Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, and Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, who claim the utility companies are engaging in intimidation, trying to run a smear campaign against Gillett, and are manipulating credit rating agencies, according to the lawmakers’ op-eds and public comments.

Avangrid raised these allegations in docket filings and was told by both PURA and Connecticut’s Office of the Attorney General that it was “much ado about nothing,” and a “nothing burger,” which the cease-and-desist letter references directly. 

The lengthy letter goes on to assert that nowhere in statute does Gillett have the authority to appoint herself presiding officer in all matters without a vote and that she has issued 144 rulings that made “significant determinations on fact and/or law prejudicing the legal rights of Eversource companies.”

“None of these dockets reflect the proper designation of the PURA Chairman as a presiding officer. None of these rulings indicate that any Executive Secretary ruling was made by the ‘presiding officer,’ rather than the full panel of the Agency. None of the rulings reflect a record of the vote of the members of the Agency, as is mandated by statute,” McCay wrote. “Consequently, the presiding officer’s rulings are ultra vires, and therefore, have no legal effect. The presiding officer cannot lawfully make the unilateral decisions that are being made in the Executive Secretary rulings.”

While Eversource contends that these “Executive Secretary rulings” have prevented them from appealing to a full vote of the commission on intermediary decisions, they also contend that PURA is, more and more, conducting its proceedings as uncontested dockets, thus entirely removing the utility company’s right to appeal to superior court. 

According to the letter, Gillett denied Eversource’s request to convert an uncontested proceeding to a contested proceeding under the executive secretary’s signature, specifically citing proposals Eversource submitted to PURA to build, own, and operate energy storage systems under legislation passed in 2021. PURA repeatedly denied Eversource’s plans and sent them back to the drawing board, costing them “significant time and resources.”

“Because there was no lawful designation of a presiding officer (or hearing officer) noted in the docket, and no indication that the Executive Secretary rulings were unilateral decisions of the PURA Chairman, CL&P was deprived of any right to appeal to the full panel of commissioners and to the Superior Court, obstructing any rights for review of the Executive Secretary rulings,” McCay wrote.

Eversource and Avangrid have also been filing Freedom of Information requests seeking emails between PURA commissioners and votes on numerous motions. The FOI requests show no votes on multiple substantive decisions, and PURA has not released the emails, arguing they are exempt from FOI disclosure.

The letter reflects criticism leveled at PURA by House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, who claims that Gillett is basically running the regulatory agency “as a dictatorship.” Gillett has forcefully pushed back on such accusations, telling Inside Investigator that she took “offense,” to insinuations that long-time commissioners Jack Betkoski and Michael Caron were “absentee commissioners.”

Betkoski was recently replaced on the commission by David Arconti. According to the Hartford Courant, Betkoski was “pushed off the authority after disagreeing with current chairman Marissa Gillett on a decision that cut water rates.”

Gov. Ned Lamont has the sole authority to appoint PURA commissioners, and Candelora is calling for Lamont to appoint the full five members of the commission as required by state statute – something that Lamont has resisted thus far. In his State of the State speech on the opening day of session, Lamont said such changes would be only cosmetic and won’t make a difference. Lamont said he intends to focus on energy supply, including bringing in energy from solar farms in Maine, hydropower from Canada and possibly expanding nuclear in the future.

Connecticut has long had some of the highest energy costs in the country and, under the Lamont administration, has ceased trying to expand natural gas usage, which remains the region’s largest and cheapest source of energy, focusing instead on expanding low carbon energy sources like solar and wind.

However, the dramatic increase in the public benefits portion of Connecticut ratepayers’ bills in the summer of 2024 – the result of a multiyear delay by PURA in allowing utility companies to recoup their costs during the pandemic – thrust Connecticut’s energy situation and PURA into a heated political spotlight. Electric rates remain one of the most-watched and discussed issues going into the legislative session.

“PURA’s use of unlawful procedures to vest unchecked decision-making authority in a single individual has resulted in an environment of opaque, unpredictable and arbitrary regulatory outcomes,” McCay wrote. “It is not reasonable or feasible for utilities to invest in this environment, although investment is needed to sustain utility systems at the high levels that customers expect and that is necessary to achieve Connecticut’s energy policy goals.”

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