As Chairman Marissa Gillett’s confirmation hearings approach, the 18 undersigned, who are staff at the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (known as PURA), would like to offer our support of Chairman Gillett and our perspectives to allow full and fair consideration of her leadership of the agency and its policies.
We all joined PURA for different reasons, whether it was a commitment to protecting consumers, wanting to be good stewards of the environment in which we live, or an interest in engineering, accounting, or law. Regardless of our reason, we all work together every day to protect Connecticut’s residents and ensure that the utilities in our state have the funding and competence necessary to allow every household to keep the lights on, heat our homes, cook our food, and drink clean water.
The amount of work PURA has achieved in the past five years is staggering. Since the issuance of PURA’s Equitable Grid Modernization Framework in 2019, PURA staff have worked to establish ground-breaking programs, including a low-income discount rate for electric residential customers, electric vehicle charging and battery storage programs, new residential and commercial solar incentive programs, a process for strategic grid investments, and innovative interconnection practices.
Further, PURA is paving the way for a future regulatory environment that focuses on the measurable performance of regulated utilities across a variety of standards of service. This is all on top of multiple rate case proceedings, meticulous enforcement of gas pipeline safety standards, numerous public engagement and equity efforts, and more.
All of this would not be possible without the leadership of Chairman Gillett and the staff culture she has cultivated.
Throughout every proceeding, PURA staff are supported and empowered by the chairman and senior leadership. Staff are acknowledged for the technical, regulatory, and legal expertise that they have developed, and that is reflected in the trust leadership has in staff work product.
Further, although staff receive guidance from leadership, staff are often the ones making recommendations regarding agency actions. After all, PURA staff pour hours of time into reviewing every application document, interrogatory response, written comment, motion, brief, and exception to a decision; drafting every notice, interrogatory, motion ruling, procedural order, and agency decision; and conducting cross examination during technical meetings and hearings. This is the work that enables the panel of commissioners to vote on evidence-based decisions established through legal standards, legislative requirements, and robust stakeholder input.
Any suggestion that Gillett and PURA are acting in any way other than transparently, inclusively, and lawfully, is not only false, but highly offensive and demeaning to the dedicated PURA staff.
Moreover, the attacks against Chairman Gillett are particularly frustrating because of the blatant sexism present in every accusation.
Men still largely dominate the energy sector in the United States and internationally. In the U.S. and Canada, women hold less than one in five C-suite positions in utility companies, according to a September 28, 2023 S&P Global Commodity Insights publication. In addition, women hold only about one of five executive positions and one of four board positions in utility companies.
The accusations made against PURA largely single out Chairman Gillett. They say that she is “emotional” and “unpredictable,” that she is too controlling, she leaves out the other (male) commissioners, and that her approach to ensuring the Connecticut utilities’ actions are prudent must surely be illegal.
Anyone reading recent articles about PURA should ask themselves the following questions: If Chairman Mark Gillett were at the helm of PURA, would anyone be making these arguments? And, if they were, would they be nearly as successful in garnering attention?
Finally, the arguments imply that Gillett is single-handedly writing every motion ruling, procedural order, and decision that comes out of PURA, without any oversight or inclusion of staff or other commissioners. This could not be further from the truth. Each PURA action is the reflection of immense staff effort and time spent researching, conducting discovery, and analyzing record evidence, in order to draft well-founded and just agency rulings. To pretend otherwise is a fallacy.
As PURA staff, and as professionals in the energy field, we find the current discourse and accusations regarding Chairman Gillett disheartening. We are proud to work at PURA, where our work helps improve energy and water affordability, clean energy deployment, and grid modernization.
We encourage members of the public, the utilities, and Connecticut legislators to reflect on the impact of such discourse on the state’s public servants and communities. We urge you to support Gillett’s appointment for another term at PURA, enabling PURA’s staff to continue our ongoing work to ensure that Connecticut residents receive safe, reliable, and affordable utility services.
Jhena Vigrass writes on behalf of the following PURA employees: Elizabeth Tanaka, Kathryn Keenan, Victoria Church, Molly Charles, Danielle Chaloux, Christopher Arpin, Kereema McDonald, Rory Butler, Arthur Lefevre, Karl Baker, Patrick Fryer, Asha Mohamed, Mark Benedetti, Josh Coker, Barbara Musto, Brandon Cavanagh and Robin Ussawin Bumpen.