HARTFORD, Conn. — People across the state have noticed significant increases in their electric bills over the last week.
“I think the element of surprise is fueling the issue, people didn’t see it coming. I think the fact that were in the middle of a pandemic it’s difficult for people to pay bills right now it’s just very bad timing,” said Rep.Vincent Candelora(R) District 86
Late last week electric ratepayers began to make their concerns vocal when they noticed a rate increase in their electric bills.
Early Wednesday morning a bipartisan group of legislators sent a letter to PURA, the Public Utilities Regulatory Agency, asking them to reconsider.
“ We had sent a letter this morning, and the legislative leaders the commissioner I’m guessing it’s going to sit down and hearing to re-review these rates and hear from the general public,” said Candelora.
This letter has now served as a motion to reconsider the increase. State lawmakers are hoping the public will get a chance to weigh in on this topic.
“I think the entire process would be addressed, I think there’s two issues here. One is reviewing the different types of pure of reviews that occur because my understanding is that there’s different processes and I do believe the public may have been notified of this right review but I think with the pandemic it just went largely ignored. And I think we also need to look at how Connecticut procures energy. Is there ways that we could be more sufficient in the way we do things,” said Candelora.
Information regarding the next steps in this review will be made public online once available.
PURA responded to the letter Wednesday afternoon saying they will look into the matter of rate hikes after the response from Connecticut residents and other stakeholders.
Read PURA's response below: