DELAURO: NO UTILITY RATE INCREASES TO PAY FOR STORM REPAIR
New Haven, CT— Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) called upon United Illuminating and Connecticut Power & Light to rely upon their insurance policies to recover the costs of recovering from Tropical Storm Irene instead of raising the state's already high electrical rates.
"In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, United Illuminating and Connecticut Light & Power have been working hard to restore power to the over 900,000 residents who were without it—the largest power outage after a storm in state history. They have made good progress, restoring power to hundreds of thousands of customers within days," said Congresswoman DeLauro. "The costs for both companies for this work and their continuing efforts is significant, but I urge United Illuminating and Connecticut Light & Power to utilize their insurance policies to cover these costs instead of passing them on to Connecticut residents already struggling to recover from the storm."
September 3, 2011
Jeffrey D. Butler President & CEO Connecticut Light & Power PO Box 270 Hartford, Connecticut 06141-0270
Dear Jeff,
I am writing to you to share some concerns I have begun to hear from constituents in several towns across my District as to Connecticut Light & Power's ability under state law to recoup losses via rate increases. While I know and understand that your first priority remains restoration of power to your customers throughout Connecticut, I wanted to bring these issues to your attention in the hopes that you may be able to alleviate these concerns now.
Tropical Storm Irene caused serious damage throughout the state and seriously impacted your company's ability to deliver electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the state. Utilizing all of your own personnel assets, bringing in crews from other states and working diligently over the last many days, much progress has been made in clearing roads as well as replacing broken poles, transformers, and downed lines. While I certainly understand that complete recovery and restoration efforts takes time, particularly to ensure the safety of the linemen and crews, as I am sure you know, the level of frustration among customers and municipal leaders has been palpable.
This frustration has been further aggravated by news reports that Connecticut state statutes allow Connecticut Light & Power to recoup losses associated with such outage events through rate increases. I and my staff have already heard from several constituents outraged that the state's utility companies would even consider such an option and most have cited the fact the Connecticut residents already pay some of the highest electrical rates in the country.
It is my understanding that Connecticut Light & Power does have insurance to recover the costs associated with these types of natural disasters and I believe that you have announced that you will be utilizing those resources to recoup the expenses that you have incurred during the recovery and restoration efforts. I would appreciate clarification on how you plan to proceed and hope that you will also make every effort to make this information available to your customers.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I look forward to your response and to continuing our work together.
Sincerely,
ROSA L. DeLAURO Member of Congress
September 3, 2011
James P. Torgerson Chief Executive Officer The United Illuminating Company 157 Church Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2100
Dear Jim,
I am writing to you to share some concerns I have begun to hear from constituents in several towns across my District as to United Illuminating's ability under state law to recoup losses via rate increases. While I know and understand that your first priority remains restoration of power to your customers throughout Connecticut, I wanted to bring these issues to your attention in the hopes that you may be able to alleviate these concerns now.
Tropical Storm Irene caused serious damage throughout the state and seriously impacted your company's ability to deliver electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the state. Utilizing all of your own personnel assets, bringing in crews from other states and working diligently over the last many days, much progress has been made in clearing roads as well as replacing broken poles, transformers, and downed lines. While I certainly understand that complete recovery and restoration efforts takes time, particularly to ensure the safety of the linemen and crews, as I am sure you know, the level of frustration among customers and municipal leaders has been palpable.
This frustration has been further aggravated by news reports that Connecticut state statutes allow United Illuminating to recoup losses associated with such outage events through rate increases. I and my staff have already heard from several constituents outraged that the state's utility companies would even consider such an option and most have cited the fact the Connecticut residents already pay some of the highest electrical rates in the country.
It is my understanding that utility companies such as United Illuminating often carry insurance to recover the costs associated with these types of natural disasters. I would appreciate clarification on how you plan to proceed as far as recouping the expenses the company has incurred and hope that you will also make every effort to make this information available to your customers.
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I look forward to your response and to continuing our work together.
Sincerely,
ROSA L. DeLAURO Member of Congress