Tong, state Senate GOP minority leaders applaud gas rate increase denial

HARTFORD – Attorney General William Tong and state Republican leaders late Monday happily supported Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s decisions not to grant rate increases to   Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG) and Southern Connecticut Gas (SCG).

The final decision would decrease revenue by $24 million for CNG, or approximately 5.4 percent, lowering bills by approximately $7-$8 per month. The final decision would decrease revenue by $11 million, or approximately 2.5 percent for SCG, lowering bills by approximately $3.50-$4 per month as well. CNG had sought a $19.7 million increase. SCG had sought a $43 million increase.

SCG and CNG are owned by Avangrid.

“This is finally a bit of good news for Connecticut families desperately in need of relief from unaffordable energy costs,” Attorney General William Tong said. “Let’s remember how we got here — CNG over-collected millions of dollars from ratepayers. Then they turned around and asked for millions more. Their rate demands were packed with inflated profits and unnecessary expenses.

“PURA was absolutely right to slash their revenue. We’re going to keep combing through every single one of these rate cases in search of every last padded penny, and we’re going to keep fighting tooth and nail for Connecticut families at every single step of these proceedings.”
The CNG rate decrease follows an earnings report issued in 2023 showing that CNG over-collected $8 million from Connecticut families and businesses. While half of the over-earning was returned to ratepayers to offset winter heating bills, approximately $4 million was distributed to shareholders.

Following that disclosure, Attorney General Tong, Consumer Counsel Claire E. Coleman, Connecticut Industrial Energy Consumers, and the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Office of Education, Outreach, and Enforcement submitted a joint petition to PURA seeking a new rate hearing to drive down costs for consumers.

Despite the overearning report, both CNG and SCG subsequently submitted applications seeking rate increases.

Republicans Sen. Ryan Fazio, Sen. Tony Hwang, and Sen. Minority Leader Stephen Harding issued a joint statement regarding the PURA rate decisions.

“We appreciate and thank PURA for doing its due diligence in assessing what costs are – and aren’t – recoverable by utilities,” they stated.  “Every dollar saved helps. Working and middle class families are barely scraping by in Connecticut.  Utility costs in Connecticut are too damn high.

“Republicans have offered ideas to provide relief. We – and 68,000 state residents – signed a petition for the Democrat-dominated legislature to do something. Yet, they have done nothing.”

While PURA’s vote to deny the gas rates hike passed by a narrow 2-1 margin, the Republican senators were concerned the vote reflected the fact the agency is still missing two members. The senators said the continue to advocate for a balanced, consumer-oriented panel of PURA commissioners, and that the panel must be filled out to its full five members of bipartisan composition, they stated.

PURA Commissioner Michael Caron provided the dissenting opinion on the agency’s decision.

“ I find i will not be able to supporting today’s final decision it has been said, ‘there’s never a good time to have a baby.’ Similarly, there’s also never a good time to for a rate increase,” Caron wrote. “I am very mindful of the pressures and difficulties Connecticut’s families and businesses have had to deal with for the past four years. But my responsibility at the authority is to assess applications that come before me dispassionately, objectively and with an eye toward the future as well as to the past for assets that the companies can recover for past prudently incurred investments and what they need to provide safe and reliable gas services for the customers they serve.”

He went on to state that neither of the utilities have sought a rate increase in six and seven years, respectively. He also mentioned that the companies dealing with inflation rates that the nation hasn’t seen in 40 years.

“To continue to invest in a reliable system they need revenue streams and investor bonds and equity that will allow continued investment in that system and to plan for the future for that system,” he wrote. “The obituary of natural gas in a modern economy is premature. There were certainly many items within this voluminous decision to point to with disappointment.”

In a final decision, PURA approved an annual revenue requirement for CNG in the amount of $417,502,324 for the rate year commencing Dec. 1, 2024. This represents a decrease of $24,610,455 from the company’s currently approved revenue requirement, from which the Company has sought a $19,702,986 increase.