Do not speak of us: Needleman and Steinberg object to utility bills mentioning the legislature.

The co-chairs of the legislature’s energy committee object to your electric bill. Not the amounts, mind you, just the explanation of its component parts. State Senator Norm Needleman (D- Essex) and state Representative Jonathan Steinberg (D-Westport) wrote a letter to Marissa Paslick Gillet, the head of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) criticizing the description of the fourth of four categories of costs that the agency requires on electric bills.

Needleman and Steinberg do not cavil with the supply, delivery and transmission summaries. It’s the two-sentence “Public Policy” description that rankles the Democrats. It states, “Cost to support energy related programs authorized by the Legislature. Not regulated by PURA.” That brief explanation cuts too close to the truth.

Instead, Needleman and Steinberg want those two sentences removed and replaced by “Investments to support reliability, emissions reductions, and affordability. Not originated by PURA. Charge dependent on usage.” Politicians continue to strain to wedge their favorite euphemism into explanations for government spending. You are not paying a monthly “public policy” fee, you are making an investment to pave the road to a sunlit uplands imagined by the legislature. One must not mention these include costs imposed on consumers by legislators. To the consumer paying electric rates that are among the highest in the nation, that public policy charge is just one more cost.

The public policy charges on bills are allocated to conservation programs, conservation adjustments, the Green Bank, system benefits and, claiming the largest chunk, other energy programs. Needleman and Steinberg contend in their June 28th letter that their Orwellian dance “will preserve the intent of the Authority’s Decision (to explain bills) while more accurately describing the costs as investments that yield system benefits that cannot be fully captured by the confines of a consumer’s monthly electric bill.”

They conclude by urging PURA to adopt the changes they have submitted.

Published July 13, 2023.