Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday sharply criticized Eversource’s proposed rate increase, signaling to regulators that he expects them to weigh whether the request serves Connecticut families or company shareholders.
The statement came one day after Eversource filed a letter of intent with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority seeking an electric distribution rate increase that would raise the average customer’s bill by about 11% beginning in July 2027, the company’s first such request in nearly a decade.
Lamont noted that Eversource posted a $1.69 billion profit last year, delivered a 23% increase in shareholder returns and paid its chief executive $13.5 million, a 19% raise.
“One of the most profitable utility companies in America, whose CEO earns 94 times the average worker and walks away with $60 million if the company is sold, is asking Connecticut families to dig deeper to help out their bottom line,” Lamont said.
Eversource pushed back on the framing of Lamont’s letter. Spokesperson Sarah Paduano said no chief executive, chief financial officer or company president pay will be included in the rate request, and that the vast majority of executive compensation cited by politicians is not recovered through customer rates at all.
“Even if our CEO and other executives worked for free, customer bills would be the same and energy affordability would still be a prevalent conversation in New England as energy supply constraints continue to drive the largest and most volatile part of customer electric bills,” Paduano said.
Paduano also disputed Lamont’s framing of the company’s 2025 earnings, attributing the year-over-year increase to the absence of significant 2024 losses tied to Eversource’s exit from offshore wind.
“No one in New England has invested — or lost — more financially than we have in trying to achieve the clean energy future that policymakers want,” she said. “That’s not ‘corporate greed,’ it’s commitment to cause.”
Lamont further accused Eversource of using “a convenient, creative form of math” in claiming its Connecticut operations are not earning a sufficient return. The company has argued that Connecticut Light & Power, its Connecticut subsidiary, earned an actual return of about 6.5% last year, below its allowed ROE of 9.25%, and that without a rate adjustment the utility cannot compete for the capital it needs to maintain reliability.
Lamont’s $1.69 billion figure reflects Eversource’s overall corporate profit, which includes operations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and the company’s transmission business.
The governor’s statement stopped short of calling on PURA to reject the request.
“The decision on this rate increase belongs to PURA, Connecticut’s independent utility regulator. That independence is real, and it’s important,” Lamont said. “It is their job, not mine, to say yes or no.”
He closed by telling the commissioners: “I trust you to imagine looking our working and middle-class families in the eye when you make the right call on this change.”
PURA’s five-member commission is chaired by Thomas Wiehl, a former consumer advocate, and includes members appointed by Lamont himself. The agency’s prior leadership clashed publicly with Eversource over a series of decisions the company viewed as hostile to investment, a conflict that prompted the utility to announce roughly $500 million in Connecticut investment cuts in 2024.
Eversource, in its response Thursday afternoon, accused the governor of politicizing energy policy in an election year. Paduano called his criticism “charged rhetoric” that does nothing to address the underlying cost pressures facing the region.
She pointed to inflation in the materials needed to maintain the grid as a key driver of the proposed increase, saying wire and cable costs have risen 411% over the past two decades, transformers are up 265% and utility poles have climbed 123%.
The company has absorbed those pressures for nearly a decade through cost controls, she said, but has reached a point where current rates can no longer support needed investment in a capital-intensive system.
The company also pushed back on what it called a rush to judgment, noting that Wednesday’s filing was only a letter of intent and that the formal application will trigger a yearlong regulatory review.
“Attempting to stoke customer anxiety and backlash with false narratives to score political points doesn’t lead to constructive conversations or solutions for the future,” Paduano said. “We will continue to advocate for our customers, as well as constructive partnerships, not political gamesmanship.”
Eversource’s full rate application is expected on or about July 14, with a final PURA decision not anticipated until mid-2027 following a 350-day statutory investigation.
