The heads of the state’s energy regulatory body are asking Gov. Dannel P. Malloy for more independence from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
In a letter to Malloy, commissioners from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority said they want their organization to become a separate agency from DEEP. The two organizations were merged together in 2011 under the direction of Malloy.
Though PURA commissioners Arthur House, Jack Betkoski and Michael Caron said that they’ve overcome a rocky initial start with DEEP and now have cordial relations with DEEP Commissioner Rob Klee, they say such relations are not guaranteed to continue and that the merger was ultimately a bad one because it created “an inherent and insurmountable conflict of interest.”
DEEP, which as an executive agency automatically receives party status in PURA cases, also controls PURA’s budget and hiring, and as such has made “aggressive reductions” and delayed requests to fill positions, commissioners wrote.
Meanwhile, they said DEEP’s energy bureau has filled positions with ease, which has led some to hold a “corrosive” perception that the executive branch is exerting pressure over its decisions.
It’s also a structure that no other state’s regulatory agency shares, they said.
And though DEEP cannot override a PURA decision or force it to decide any particular way, there is a perception that it does interfere, the commissioner wrote, citing a 2011 report by Maryland utilities attorney Scott Hempling.
If Malloy’s comments Monday after the Bond Commission meeting are any indicator, PURA’s structure won’t be changing any time soon.
“I’ve been in government for a long time. I’m used to people wanting to have their own empire, and I don’t believe that’s whats necessary,” Malloy said. “The opposite of that would be to simply allow them to hire whoever they want to hire whenever they want to hire, and the answer is ‘no.’”
