With key vote pending, CT Gov. Lamont strongly backs embattled utility regulator

Yahoo

18-02-2025

With a key vote scheduled Thursday, Gov. Ned Lamont is still strongly backing the state's embattled top utility regulator and said he is not interested in withdrawing her nomination.
Lamont told reporters Tuesday that the legislature's nominations committee should take a stand on Melissa Paslick Gillett, who has served for nearly six years on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority that oversees powerful electric utilities and other entities.
Gillett has been at the center of a firestorm as the utilities have filed lawsuits in a contentious atmosphere for an agency that in the past was known for being low key and not making headlines.
In a count that is too close to call, some insiders think Gillett could be defeated in a committee vote Thursday while others say it could go either way.
'I think you should take a vote,' Lamont said of legislators. 'Are you here on behalf of the consumer or are you here on behalf of the utilities? Take a vote.'
While other officials have come and gone across state government, Gillett was among Lamont's early picks in his first year in office in 2019.
'I think she's the most experienced utility regulator the state has ever had,' Lamont told reporters at Newington town hall Tuesday after an unrelated news conference. 'She knows what she's doing. She's been there six years. She's holding Eversource accountable. I think that's what you want from your commissioner, working in tandem with her fellow commissioners. I appreciate that Eversource and UI think she's holding them too accountable, but she's doing her job, and I hope the legislature supports her.'
Lamont has been personally involved in the nomination, and he met Tuesday afternoon with state Sen. John Fonfara, a former co-chairman of the energy committee who holds a key vote on the nominations committee. A Hartford Democrat, Fonfara had been mentioned as a possible nominee on the current PURA board, but that deal fell apart when he was sworn into office in January since legislators are barred from taking another state job for two years once they are sworn in.
'I think it's probably a close call,' Lamont said of the vote count on the Democratic-controlled nominations committee. 'Eversource has hired an awful lot of people. They're all over the hill. … Look, they raise dividends every quarter like clockwork.'
As part of a lobbying campaign, nearly 75 people had submitted written testimony Tuesday to the nominations committee in favor of Gillette, a highly unusual number for a committee that often handles nominations with little controversy.
While two of the three PURA commissioners are former state legislators with long careers in Connecticut, Gillett has a different background from out of state. A former Maryland resident, she received a bachelor's degree in bioengineering from Clemson University in South Carolina and a law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in Maryland.
Eversource and United Illuminating filed a lawsuit against PURA, saying that Gillette was deciding issues unilaterally by freezing her two fellow commissioners out of the decision-making process, an allegation PURA and Gillett's political supporters deny.
When asked what it would mean if Gillett is defeated, Lamont responded, 'That the utilities have a certain amount of sway over who the next chairman is.'
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Asked what legislators who are on the fence are telling him, Lamont said, 'That PURA has never been so much in the news and that maybe we should lower the temperature and change people. But I would argue that PURA is in the news because the utilities are putting on a full-court press to get our chairman changed.'
Gillett was in the news again recently regarding email exchanges that were obtained by The Hartford Courant through a state Freedom of Information request. Gillett said in the exchange that she sent state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg of Westport 'an overly formal response' to one of his emails that discussed a utility concept 'because I'm concerned about getting FOI'd.'
'Let me know if reading between the lines you don't see what I am trying to say and we can chat about it next time we talk!,' Gillett wrote.
In reply, Steinberg wrote, 'I debated sending you the … idea to your private email, which I thought I did weeks ago, but you apparently didn't receive it.'
After the emails were released, top Republican legislators asked for more of Gillett's emails with top Democrats and Lamont's office. Lawmakers called on the chairmen of the nominations committee to issue a subpoena compelling Gillett to appear at her confirmation hearing with 'all documents, emails, and other correspondence related to her conversations with the chairs of the Energy and Technology committee.'
The behind-the-scenes clashes at the state Capitol have spilled into the open in the lawsuits and in public discussions. One exchange came recently between state Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat who co-chairs the energy committee and is a strong defender of Gillett. He was speaking at a hearing with Kimberly Harriman, the senior vice president for public and regulatory affairs at Avangrid, the owner of United Illuminating that provides electricity in Fairfield County and beyond.
'A judge in my opinion, and I think if I looked it up in the dictionary, a judge is an impartial arbiter of the facts, of the record,' Harriman said.
'Absolutely,' Needleman responded.
'So when I see a judge at PURA,' Harriman said. 'I'll let you know.'
'Wow,' Needleman said. 'Nice shot.'
Courant staff writer Edmund Mahony contributed to this report.
Christopher Keating can be reached at [e-mail]