Sen. Harding: This is Legislature’s Opportunity to ‘Do Something’ About Unaffordable CT Electricity Bills

Sen. GOP Leader Harding:

“This is Legislature’s Opportunity to ‘Do Something’
About Unaffordable CT Electricity Bills”

Sen. Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield) today submitted testimony to the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee urging bipartisan support for S.B. No. 647: AN ACT CONCERNING PROTECTIONS FOR CONSUMER ACCESS TO AFFORDABLE ELECTRICITY.

“This is our Senate Republican Caucus’s detailed proposal to lower energy costs and electricity bills,” Sen. Harding said. “Electric bills are crushing working class families and small businesses across Connecticut. Connecticut has the second highest energy rates in the country.

I recently spoke with a 90-year-old woman from Brookfield who could barely afford to pay her electric bill. I am certain every member of this committee has heard similar disturbing stories from their constituents.

It is frustrating beyond words.

Everywhere I go, I am asked, ‘Why are our electric bills so high, and what is the state legislature doing about it?’

They are excellent questions.

The truth is: State policies deserve blame for the high rates of electricity that every single constituent of ours has to pay every month.

And this bill seeks to ‘do something about it.’

More than 60,000 state residents signed a petition last year to urge the legislature to get into a special session to ‘do something’ about it.

Nothing happened.

Our proposal seeks to remove “public benefits charges” from CT electric bills. The public benefits charge is equivalent to a hidden tax in our electric bills. It funds over 40 different discretionary government programs passed by the state legislature.

Removing the hidden tax could save CT ratepayers hundreds of dollars per year.

It’s a mystery to most people exactly what the public benefits are. Let’s have an open and transparent discussion about what we as Connecticut residents are paying for, about what’s in it and what’s worth continuing to pay for.

Our proposal prohibits the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection or any electric distribution company from entering into a power purchase agreement that provides for the purchase of electricity at a rate exceeding 150 % above the wholesale price of electricity. You wouldn’t go to any gas station that is trying to sell you gas at $8 or $9 a gallon. But that is effectively what our state is making us purchase from certain preferred energy producers.

Our proposal also separates the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority from the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. It seeks to increase the supply of natural gas. It redefines “Class I renewable energy source” to include any electricity generated from a hydropower or nuclear power generating facility. It eliminates any incentive program that increases electric demand, including, but not limited to, any electric vehicle rebate program.

This is our opportunity to ‘do something’ to lower electricity bills.

Let’s do it in bipartisan fashion.”