Connecticut’s largest electric, gas and water utilities have filed a lawsuit against their state regulators, accusing the leader of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority of wielding unilateral control over cases and decisions affecting the companies’ businesses.
Eversource and United Illuminating sued PURA and its leadership in Hartford Superior Court Thursday. Eversource subsidiaries Yankee Gas Services Company and Aquarion, a water utility based in Bridgeport, were also plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit escalated a long-running feud between PURA Chairwoman Marissa Gillett and the state’s predominant investor-owned utilities. Each of those utilities own substantial electric and gas services in Connecticut that are regulated by PURA.
Gillett, appointed by Gov. Ned Lamont in 2019, leads the quasi-judicial agency, which is tasked with reviewing and approving the utilities’ rates and overseeing their services to customers.
The lawsuit alleges that Gillett has taken advantage of recurring commissioner vacancies on the authority — which Lamont has opted to keep at three members, rather than its full roster of five — by appointing herself as the presiding officer overseeing cases, and issuing decisions in the name of the authority’s executive secretary, who is not an appointed commissioner.
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“Unfortunately, certain actors at PURA have undertaken a number of unlawful procedures that have the effect of reducing what the Legislature intentionally designed as a multi-member agency to the province of one commissioner,” the lawsuit alleges. “Such a fundamental abuse of authority violates the statutory framework that the Legislature created to ensure reasonable and functional regulatory oversight of public service companies such as the plaintiffs.”
The lawsuit goes on to specifically accuse Gillett — referred to simply as “chairman” — of designating herself as the presiding officer over “all, or nearly all,” of the cases before the authority since Jan. 1, 2020. That resulted in hundreds of decisions in which the utilities say PURA adversely impacted their business and customers.
A spokeswoman for PURA denied to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday.
Representatives for Eversource and UI declined to comment further on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit was filed as lawmakers met for several hours on Thursday to discuss the operations of PURA, the regional electric grid and other factors affecting the the state’s high cost of electricity, an issue which they have pledged to tackle this session.
State Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, a co-chair of the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee and frequent critic of the utilities, called the lawsuit “frivolous,” and a result of the company’s frustrations with PURA over the authority’s decisions to deny or lower requested rate increases.
“PURA stands for the ratepayers, and they stand for their own self interest,” he said.
In a joint statement, House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora, R-North Branford, and state Rep. Tracy Marra, R-Darien, the ranking member of the Energy and Technology Committee, said the lawsuit “should make it impossible to ignore problems within our system.”
“On its face, it’s clear that PURA — and, by extension, the Governor — has a serious issue on its hands,” the statement read. “We can only hope this lawsuit brings more transparency to PURA’s administrative practices while diminishing the excessive power of a single individual, and also trigger broader conversation in the legislature about the structural reforms needed to fix a system that is clearly failing ratepayers.”
In 2023, PURA denied a request by Aquarion to increase water rates by $35 million, and instead lowered the utility’s rate by $2 million. That same year, the commissioners voted 2-1 to curtail a requested three-year rate increase for United Illuminating’s electric customers.
Earlier this week, Eversource announced a deal to sell Aquarion to the quasi-public Regional Water Authority in a deal worth $2.4 billion.
This story will be updated.