State Attorney General William Tong and at least one state legislator are upset over PURA’s sudden reversal in preliminarily allowing the transfer of ownership to the newly formed Aquarion Water Authority from Aquarion Water Co., an Eversource Energy subsidiary that completed a $2.4 billion sale of the company last year.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on Friday, March 6, reversed its earlier decision to deny Aquarion Water Authority’s application after it was remanded back to them following a January Superior Court decision. The regulator basically said their hands were tied.
“The Authority approves the application for a change of control over Aquarion Company (Aquarion) filed by Aquarion Water Authority (AWA), South Central Connecticut Regional Water Authority (RWA), and Eversource Energy (Eversource) (collectively, Applicants),” the PURA decision read. “The Authority finds that (1) AWA is financially, technologically, and managerially suitable to acquire Aquarion, (2) AWA and Aquarion can reasonably be expected to continue the provision of safe, adequate, and reliable service to customers, and (3) the transfer of ownership, as structured by Sections 34 to 41 of the June Special Session, Public Act 24-1 (Public Act 24-1) achieves long-term benefits in perpetuity as set forth by the applicants that are reasonably aligned with the public interest.”
PURA did issue some caveats in its new decision: “The acquisition creates potential fiduciary conflicts, provides unequal municipal representation, and lacks a truly independent consumer advocate as exists for PURA-regulated utilities. The authority continues to have serious misgivings about the financial terms of the transfer.”
Sen. Stephen Harding (R-Brookfield) called on the Democratic majority in the General Assembly to pass legislation to change some of the elements of the law that set up Aquarion Water Authority in the first place.
“We must now pass nonpartisan legislation to give PURA authority to review all parts of the deal,” Harding said. This sale would bring about a tsunami of annual water rate hikes for ratepayers across Connecticut. It’s the product of an atrocious legislative backroom deal that silenced the voices of the public. Our focus must be on protecting water customers in this already unaffordable state while protecting the environment.”
Attorney General Tong issued a statement soon after the March 6 decision that warned the new nonprofit is projected to double household bills and will gut public oversight of water utility rates and consumer protections.
“Today’s disappointing decision comes mere days after PURA, reconsidering a prior increase, voted to further increase profits for United Illuminating and fully erased a penalty for the company’s repeated failures to remediate contamination at English Station in New Haven,” Tong said.
In filed briefs and in public statements, Tong had consistently called on PURA to reject the Aquarion transaction. On Wednesday, March 4, Attorney General Tong joined a bipartisan coalition of mayors and legislators urging PURA to reject the transaction as not in the public interest.
PURA initially denied the transaction on Nov. 19, 2025. Aquarion appealed and the court remanded the matter back to PURA for reconsideration.
“Again, what the hell. PURA caved,” Tong said. “We need to understand exactly what happened here. This is an economic disaster for Connecticut families and municipalities and is not in the public interest.
“Eversource executives and shareholders are going to be rolling in cash while the rest of us are saddled with $6 billion in transaction costs for decades upon decades. Your bills are going to go up to pay for this boondoggle. Not just a little bit. A lot.”
In a statement issued by Eversource Energy on March 6, the power company said it would consider the conditions PURA alluded to in its preliminary decision (the final decision is due March 25).
“Today’s proposed final decision in the Aquarion case is a constructive development, and Eversource is currently considering the conditions described in PURA’s decision,” said Eversource Executive Vice President, CFO and Treasurer John Moreira. “The sale of Aquarion is not included in our 2026 guidance. As communicated with our fourth quarter 2025 earnings call, we have already taken preliminary, necessary steps to position Eversource for stability with or without the sale of Aquarion.
“These steps included the recent issuance of junior subordinated notes, the filing of a rate case for Aquarion, and last October’s $600 million debt issuance at the parent company. Our annual 2026 and long-term guidance assumed that Aquarion remains part of Eversource, and is unchanged with 2026 earnings projected between $4.80 and $4.95 per share, and a cumulative long-term earnings per share growth rate within the range of 5 to 7 percent through 2030 using the 2025 non-GAAP results of $4.76 per share earned as the base year.
in the state, serving approximately.”
Aquarion, which serves 722,000 people in 62 communities, has not hid its intentions to raise rates, Tong added. “The application projected annual rate increases between 6.5 percent and 8.35 percent annually through 2035, with even more rate hikes expected every five years after,” he said. “Those plans may double water bills for Connecticut families over the next decade.”
