“The draft decision in UI’s rate case represents a knee-jerk response that jeopardizes electricity reliability and harms UI employees, including members of our union workforce.”

“Every public utility in America has the obligation to provide safe and reliable service to customers — but as we can see from UI’s own sustainability proposals, there’s a lot more utilities can do when they operate with regulatory flexibility and financial stability. Since this draft decision undermines both, UI will have no choice but to set aside any “extra” investments in the sustainability space. Forget installing EV chargers, hiring Bridgeport-based energy efficiency vendors, or advancing cutting-edge research on clean hydrogen.”

“Ultimately, our customers – who currently enjoy 99% reliability, or less than one outage per year on blue-sky days – will bear the brunt of delayed or disallowed capital investments that keep their power going on the hottest days and coldest nights. Later, when PURA realizes it must approve those expenditures, they’ll be more expensive than ever. And Connecticut’s clean energy goals will remain stubbornly out of reach as long as PURA continues to deny UI’s request to build new infrastructure projects, like electric vehicle chargers, that are key to decarbonization and aligned with the goals of the Lamont Administration.”