Several CT Senate GOP Lawmakers Issue Statement on Aquarion H2O Court Decision

Sen. Stephen Harding, Sen. Ryan Fazio, Sen. Heather Somers, Sen. Tony Hwang, and Sen. Eric Berthel today issued the following statement regarding a Connecticut judge’s rejection of state regulators’ denial of the Aquarion Water merger.

“We respectfully urge the Office of the Attorney General to appeal this decision.

In November, we thanked PURA for voting down this atrocious deal which will cause a tsunami of unending water rate spikes in cities and towns across Connecticut.

We stood with a bipartisan group of mayors and community advocates to note how this shameful deal stunk from day one.

It was never transparent. It was an emergency certified bill taken up in a special legislative session.

It had no public hearing. It was the product of a backroom deal.

It will increase utility costs and property taxes. It will negatively impact the environment and public health.

It should have never been rammed through the state legislature by majority Democrats. It should have never been signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.

With this court decision, our fight continues. Republicans will continue to stand with overburdened ratepayers.

We will propose legislation to fix this. There should be an open bidding process should Eversource continue to want to sell Aquarion.

And to repeat: We respectfully urge the Office of the Attorney General to appeal this decision.”