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| Lamont and Gillett |
A Hartford paper reports, “UI’s [United Illuminating’s] continuing, harsh criticism of [PURA chairwoman Marissa] Gillett at the hearing and an energetic defense by Attorney General William Tong’s office suggest the contention between PURA and the utility industry that has grown during Gillett’s five years in office did not disappear with her decision a week ago to resign.”
Gillett’s resignation from her post on September 19 likely
will not put a period to an ongoing suit between Connecticut’s energy suppliers
and PURA because the legal claims at issue are beyond the reach Governor Ned
Lamont, a supporter of Gillett, and other advocates of price controls – which,
we all know, have never worked in the long run to reduce prices. The contested issues can only be settled by a
court. Gillett has magnanimously agreed to abstain from any decision made by
PURA affecting the as yet unresolved suit until she leaves office on October
10.
Gillett’s “decision to leave office,” we are told by the
paper, “was the result of her bruising fight with the utility industry. In the
two days immediately before her announcement, PURA belatedly produced email
correspondence that the utilities had long sought and that Gillett had
testified to the legislature months earlier did not exist.” Acknowledgment that
it did exist – tucked neatly under a political bed -- led to a call for her
impeachment and what Lamont characterized as her decision to resign.
We don’t know whether someone in the Lamont administration gently tapped her on
the shoulder and suggested she might move on.
The “belated” production of the emails did not sit well with
the presiding judge in the case who ordered PURA to comply with the commonly
accepted terms of a court discovery process. Gillett claimed on different
occasions during a painfully long delay 1) that her office had made a diligent
search of emails demanded by the plaintiffs and found none; 2) that some
requested emails had been deleted from a newly purchased phone set to
automatically delete recorded calls after a few weeks had passed; 3) and
finally, after Republican leader Vince Candelora had suggested a special
council investigation might be in order, the emails requested by both
plaintiffs in the case and a Hartford newspaper that had filed a Freedom of
Information claim with the state, were at long last disgorged by PURA.
Gillett has made no public statements for more than a year,
according to the Hartford paper. “But her supporters [Governor Ned Lamont and
Attorney General William Tong among them] have accused state regulated
utilities of padding revenue at the expense of customers. Electric, gas and
water utilities complained in response that PURA cut earnings to such a degree
that their ability to deliver reliable service is at risk.”
PURA is now limping forward with a two member board that had
been expanded months ago by the partisan Democrat General Assembly to five
members. All the members of PURA are appointed by the governor and affirmed by
the General Assembly.
“We’ve reached a point,” said Candelora, “where that
authority can no longer operate, and electric rates are no lower, and in fact
they are higher than they’ve ever been. And I think a lot of this is by the
governor’s own doing.”
Republicans in the General Assembly, vastly outnumbered by
Democrats, are still permitted to speak freely in the highly partisan House and
Senate chambers. “Still Revolutionary” Connecticut
is yet mindful of the imprecations of Thomas Paine, author of “Common Sense,” a
Revolutionary War pamphlet that pointed out the vital connection between free
speech and democratic governance, but policy making in Connecticut, more often
than not, is decided in a closed Democrat Party caucus room at the state
Capitol.
In collusion with Lamont, majority Democrats decided several
weeks before her resignation to reappoint Gillett to the position she has now
vacated. Her resignation leaves the PURA board without a chairman, and the
board is now firing on two rather than five cylinders.
“The shakeup,” CTMirror notes, “also opened new
questions about whether PURA, with just two members, can vote and issue final
decisions on rate cases or other pending matters. Currently, the authority is
scheduled to issue final decisions later this year in three major cases:
requests to raise utility rates by United Illuminating and Yankee Gas, as well
as a proposed sale of the Aquarion Water Company to the South Central
Connecticut Regional Water Authority.”
So, where do we go from here? Back to where we came from,
Lamont and the Democrat caucus room at the state Capitol have advised: “I need
some folks with really strong analytical capabilities,” Lamont has said. Recent
headlines and turmoil swirling around the PURA had complicated his recruiting
effort, said Lamont. “People are worried about lawsuits and impeachment, so
there’s some hesitancy. But we’re going to get it done as soon as we can.”
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