The Chaos and Confusion of The Connecticut Electric and Energy Policy Jungle

Welcome to Connecticut! The state with one of the most expensive, nonsensical, impractical, irrational, and laughable energy and energy policies in the country. Therefore, suffice it to say that Electric bills are extremely expensive in Connecticut especially if one has Eversource Energy. Lately it has been discovered by many individuals that Eversource includes a "Public Benefits" charge in its monthly billing. You, as a poor slob ratepayer may wonder what a "Public Benefits " charge is doing on your electric bill? Unfortunately, you pitifully ignorant consumer, you are just now realizing that your electric bill today is a very secretive example of governmental market interference burdening the cost of a critically needed commodity.

In review of the psychodrama entitled “How Many Ways Can Connecticut Screw Up Your Light Bill”, you will note that your Eversource bill now has four areas of division, 1) Generation and Supply, or the costs to produce the electricity you use, 2) Transmission, being the costs to actually deliver the electricity from generator to electric substations, 3) Local Power, or the costs of getting the electricity from these substations to your home or business, and finally 4) Public Benefits, being a Democrat created term for hidden confiscatory state taxes that pay for state mandates such as renewable energy investments that you never were given opportunity to vote on along with welfare benefits that help to pay for people who can't afford these incredibly high energy costs in the state and other similar programs. The cost of Public Benefits is 27.8% of your bill, or over one quarter of it. As an example, if you have a $400 monthly bill, $111.20 of it has absolutely nothing to do with the electricity you are using. It should be referred to as a state excise “gouging tax” that gets doled out to yet another bureaucracy in Connecticut providing absolutely no benefit to you.

Needless to say, when Democrats run amok in Connecticut the operative question then becomes what constructive and aggressive actions will state Republicans push back with? Sadly, the usual answer is not much. A press conference held at the Legislative Office Building on August 8 found Republicans calling for the usual lukewarm mix of using ARPA funds and contrived surpluses as a band-aid fix. Regulatory changes were also mentioned. Some moderately constructive suggestions to date have come from Republican State Senator Rob Sampson who has been vocal in his opposition to this "tax". and has over the past two years introduced different "policy proposals" that would help to lower astronomical electric bills. (Sen. Sampson: CT’s Energy Crisis is the Last Straw - Connecticut Senate Republicans). However, to a man or to a woman, no state Republican in Connecticut has ever even hinted at the most critical medicine needed to truly fix state energy policy, being the embracing of the Trump energy proposals, calling for the elimination of the farcical and horrific green energy and wind power debacle, and the immediate infusion of the use of natural gas of which my friend and colleague Tony De Angelo commented that Republicans are just now whispering about, where they should have been screaming for its introduction and infusion six months ago.

But even so, more problems are afoot. The regulatory environment for electric companies is farcical and obstructive in Connecticut. I have always believed such was developed as a veneer to help nurture high and politically correct electric rates for the state. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (“PURA”) is responsible for regulating the rates and services for Eversource Energy. If one looks back at the decisions that PURA has made over the years for Eversource there is no appearance of any effective questioning of rates, expenses, mandates or accountability, nor do Eversource customers have any say whatsoever in the process of rate hearing and or rate increases. Why is this so? Is it because of prominent legislators from both parties being employed, highly compensated, and/or connected to Eversource or related clandestinely operating nonprofits in conflicted arrangements criminal in several better-thinking states? (https://www.advancect.org/our-organization/board-of-directors). But now, public awareness is at an all-time high with Eversource stating there will be a $48 a month increase in the Public Benefits section of customers' bills as supply rates will go down from 14.71 cents to 8.99 cents per kilowatt-hour. (https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/eversource-rates-increasing-in-july/). The announced increase is a mere $8 a month for average customers. However, what is not noted is the Public Benefits part of your bill for the next ten months for an average $400 monthly bill is an astounding 39% of the bill itself! But I have no concerns. That projection is only for a mere ten months!

Of course, there is the usual blame game along with the typical stale political and economic rhetoric over this rate increase that is echoed by both political sides. However, Eversource is mandated and burdened by the state to create clean energy at any cost. Eversource needs to earn a profit to stay in business. Democrats scream about electric rate increases while not understanding any of the economic consequences of their decayed and rancid clean energy and “public good” decrees and fiats that do much more harm than good for the state's economy. But due to this rudderless mess, Connecticut ratepayers get to pay one of the highest electric costs in the country.

But somehow, with this rudderless mess starting from King Ned Lamont the Unaccountable and his Democrat Party henchman and stooges, the electric rate increases, the excessive taxes on electricity and the unattainable desire not to use or even suggest the use of fossil fuels, will all be forgotten. And this is standard operating procedure in a state that has massive, short- and long-term debt along with unfunded liabilities of anywhere from $125 to $150 billion dollars, along with the monumental and prodigious cost of living and cost of doing business in the state. This rate increase along with many other examples of Democrat Party interference and lack of pushback in the economy are the cancer that has helped create the economic conundrum that Connecticut is known for today.
Effective policy, and not oratory, pandering, and bloviating, is what is needed in 2024 for the state.