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August 21, 2024

PURA denies utilities’ request for Chair Gillett to recuse herself from rate case

Marissa Gillett

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority had strong words for two utilities that asked the authority’s leader to recuse herself from a rate case.

In denying their request, PURA’s Executive Secretary Jeffrey Gaudiosi said the utilities’ “arguments and purported evidence do not withstand even the faintest scrutiny.”

In an Aug. 8 filing, Connecticut Natural Gas Corp. and Southern Connecticut Gas Co. accused PURA Chair Marissa Gillett of directing an employee of PURA’s Office of Education, Outreach and Enforcement (EOE) to alter a web page, which they said may have been relevant to their ongoing rate case. 

They called her actions “improper ex parte communications.”

Also, the companies asked PURA to strike the testimony, exhibits, discovery and briefs submitted by the EOE, which they said had shown prejudice toward the utilities.

Gaudiosi said in his response, dated Aug. 16, that “the totality of the purported evidence identified by the companies is one unremarkable email exchange regarding an irrelevant webpage.”

He continued: “The motions are so bereft of evidence, so devoid of legal merit, and so clearly an effort to advance a specific agenda that the filing of the motions raises questions as to counsels’ candor towards and credibility before the tribunal.”

Gaudiosi concluded that PURA did not find any credible evidence of ex parte communications between Gillett and the EOE, and that it did not find any credible evidence of bias with respect to Gillett or the EOE.

“As such, there is no basis on which to reasonably question the chair’s impartiality in this proceeding,” he wrote. “Mere allegations of bias, unsupported by evidence, are insufficient to grant the ‘extraordinary’ remedies requested.”

In the rate case, Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG) is seeking to increase its rates by nearly $20 million, allowing it to achieve a return on equity of 10.2%.

Southern Connecticut Gas has proposed to increase its rates by $40.2 million, increasing its distribution revenues by about 19%, which would cause ratepayers' bills to increase by more than 9%. 

Both companies are subsidiaries of Orange-based Avangrid Inc., which also owns the Bridgeport-based power company United Illuminating.

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