State Senator Thomas A. Colapietro
June 29, 2007
Colapietro: Requested Electric Rate Increase Unaffordable
Asks DPUC to deny CL&P request
State Senator Thomas A. Colapietro (D-Bristol), co-chair of the Connecticut General Assembly's General Law Committee, today asked state Department of Public Utility Control Chairman Donald Downes to deny Connecticut Light & Power's request for a 4.6 percent hike in electric rates. This comes on the back of a 7.7 percent increase approved earlier this year and a 22 percent increase in 2006.
"How much longer does CL&P think the average consumer in Connecticut can continue to support or pay more out of their pocket at a time raises are virtually non-existent," Senator Colapietro wrote in a letter to Chairman Downes today.
If approved, the rate increase would begin on January 1, 2008, just as the 5.5 percent rate increase that the company recently requested ends. The 5.5 percent decrease would terminate on December 31, 2007.
"There comes a time when businesses such as CL&P have to realize that people are reaching way too far into their pockets in order to meet household expenses," wrote Senator Colapietro. "Average working folks will no longer have the money to keep their businesses above water when they can barely support their families."
The company expects to file its formal request with the DPUC this summer.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Governor M. Jodi Rell have said that they will fight the proposal.
Download Senator Colapietros’s letter to the DPUC.
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