With the legislature not even in session yet, the fixed rate proposal is far from a sure bet.
Legislators and lobbyists are calling for the state's largest electric utility to lower its fixed residential charge with a new proposal that would set Connecticut Light and Power's fixed rate at $10.00 a month.
At the moment, the base fee customers pay is $16.00 regardless of how much electricity they use. Regulators just approved increasing it to $19.25 per month, but going forward, legislators hope they can roll that number back to $10.00.
"It just is so obvious that the top priority seems to be giving returns to investors rather than services to the people," said State Representative Phil Miller at a news conference at the state capitol.
With the legislature not even in session yet, the fixed rate proposal is far from a sure bet and like any draft legislation, there are still a lot of details to be worked out.
Bill Dornbos, a lawyer with the Acadia Center, drafted the $10.00-a-month proposal. If fixed residential charges were capped at $10.00 a month, he said that could drive kilowatt-per-hour usage fees up. But, he said, "If there's going to be a revenue increase -- and of course, I wouldn't agree to that until I saw what it was for, and whether it was justified -- we'd rather have it on the portion of the bill that you can control, versus the portion that you can't."
CL&P originally asked for an increase to $25.50, which got bumped back to $19.25. The utility provides service to customers in 149 cities and towns.
Connecticut's legislative session begins on January 7.
