Highlights from CT Green Energy News, Feb. 17, 2023

Newsletter about clean energy, energy efficiency, and climate action, focusing on Connecticut. To subscribe, send an email to [email protected]. To find out more about People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE), go to www.pacecleanenergy.org.

CT legislators vow harder look at utilities, and a regulator applauds

CT Mirror. “Frustrations over Connecticut’s high cost of electricity and concerns over its ability to adequately regu-late Eversource, the state’s largest distributor of electricity, are fueling a bipartisan effort to revise the complex rules of utility regulation for the second time in three years… Eversource officials sat stone-faced as [PURA Chairman Marissa] Gillett recently told lawmakers that a $103 million settlement the company negotiated with the Lamont administration in 2021, which was hailed by the governor who hired her, was instead another missed opportunity to examine Connecticut’s largest utility…“The fact that I’m going into my fourth year or fifth year here before you and have not seen a rate case from our largest utility in the state is a travesty. I honestly believe that,” Gillett told lawmakers.”

Gov. Lamont wants more CT options to buy power: ‘A clear public need’

CT Insider. “Connecticut is considering more alternatives to obtain power independent of the market exchange created during the deregulation of the electric industry a quarter century ago, amid continuing frustration with high rates this winter… [T]he Connecticut General Assembly’s Environment Committee will examine the state’s alternatives… Under the bill, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection would be able to “issue multiple solicitations for long-term contracts from providers of resources,” sidestepping the central market for electricity overseen by ISO New England, the region’s independent system operator based in Holyoke, Mass… The Connecticut bill would allow DEEP to consider a broader range of factors in making any independent purchase of power, to include whether adequate amounts of natural gas are available for the generation of electricity; reducing pollution; and infrastructure costs.”