 |
| Lamont and Gillett |
PURA, Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, was instituted to regulate the state’s energy sector, principally two companies – Eversource and United Illuminating – neither of which are energy producers.
The head of PURA, Marissa Gillett, has secured her
reappointment, but her job specs have been changed.
We were told in a recent Hartford Courant story, “Gillett has been at the
center of a firestorm as the utilities have filed lawsuits in a contentious
atmosphere for an agency that in the past was known for being low key and not
making headlines… Eversource and United Illuminating filed a lawsuit against
PURA, saying that Gillett was deciding issues unilaterally by freezing her two
fellow commissioners out of the decision-making process, an allegation PURA and
Gillett’s political supporters deny.”
Some Gillett supporters in the General Assembly had inadvertently
dotted the “i” and crossed the “t” of the suit’s claim by producing a bill, now
in limbo that, if enacted, would in the future grant Gillett unilateral
authority to set the price of electricity in Connecticut, a clear admission
that she had not the statutory authority to unilaterally make decisions
affecting the price of energy when she did unilaterally decide to impose price
controls on the two energy distribution companies..
In Mid-December – see “The High Cost of Energy, Three Strikes and You’re Out?” -- Connecticut Commentary noted that
“under the direction of PURA, Chairman Marisa Gillett is able to deny energy
distributers cost increases that, like all business taxes, are passed along to
its customers – virtually everyone in Connecticut,” and later in January
-- see PURA Head Butts the Economic Marketplace – the blog made note of the
“firestorm” and lawsuit: “Eversource and United Illuminating filed a lawsuit against
PURA, saying that Gillett was deciding issues unilaterally by freezing her two
fellow commissioners out of the decision-making process, an allegation PURA and
Gillett’s political supporters deny.”
These difficulties, we are now told, have been “settled”
through a pre-trial agreement. According to the agreement, Gillett will retain
her position, but PURA will be changed.
Prior to the agreement, Governor Ned Lamont rose to the
defense of his handpicked head of PURA. The Courant reported,
“I think she’s the most experienced utility regulator the state has ever
had,” Lamont told reporters at Newington town hall Tuesday after an unrelated
news conference. “She knows what she’s doing. She’s been there six years. She’s
holding Eversource accountable. I think that’s what you want from your
commissioner, working in tandem with her fellow commissioners. I appreciate
that Eversource and UI think she’s holding them too accountable, but she’s
doing her job, and I hope the legislature supports her.”
The concessions made in Lamont’s most recent deal can only
be regarded as a capitulation in the face of the suit brought by Connecticut’s
two energy distributors.
“Asked what legislators who are on the fence [concerning
Gillett’s continuance in office] are telling him,” the Courant has reported,
“Lamont said, ‘That PURA has never been so much in the news and that maybe we
should lower the temperature and change people. But I would argue that PURA is
in the news because the utilities are putting on a full-court press to get our
chairman changed.’”
Then too: “Gillett was in the news again recently regarding
email exchanges that were obtained by The Hartford Courant through a state
Freedom of Information request. Gillett said in an exchange that she sent state
Rep. Jonathan Steinberg of Westport ‘an overly formal response’ to one of his
emails that discussed a utility concept ‘because I’m concerned about getting
FOI’d.’”
All the embarrassing e-mails likely would have come to the
surface in a trial that likely would have been decided in in favor of those
bringing to court the now dead-ended suit.
It is certainly well known that Lamont’s talented wife, Annie Lamont, has hauled into the family treasury
more money than her husband. She is an accomplished venture capitalist, pretty
much the opposite of Gillett. And so, it is not too fanciful to imagine their
pillow talk on the eve of the now concluded “deal.”
Annie: Ned dear, not
to be too critical, but you do understand as a former businessman that
companies operating in a free market – long may it stand – do not pay taxes
from their profits. They collect the additional costs from those purchasing
their products and services and pass it along to the taxing authority. That
would be you and Ms. Gillett.
Ned: Well…
Annie: And you do
understand as well that the costs associated with regulations are treated in
the same manner. Companies do not pay the costs of regulations from their
profits. They collect these costs from their customers.
Ned: Well…
Annie: Eventually,
those who bear the brunt of taxes and regulatory costs wake up and smell the
festering lilies. No one remains for long a political imbecile when they are
overcharged for their imbecilities. That appears to be what has happened in the
last national election. And you should fear the same happening here in Connecticut.
Ned: Could you turn
out the light please?
Comments