As the door behind the podium opens, I stand and button my blazer in unison with others to welcome the commissioners into the hearing room. I take a deep breath to prepare for another hearing of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
I look around the room and see only faces in suits. Like them, I am an attorney. I spend hundreds of hours reading dense filings, analyzing expert testimony, and translating overly complex language into arguments. And yet, it doesn’t take a legal degree and years of experience to recognize who is missing from the room.
You.
That’s why the state’s recent effort to bring more voices into its process of setting the price of your monthly energy bill is so critical. And, more importantly, why current attempts to shut out consumer watchdogs and everyday utility customers from that process are so deeply troubling. Why should you need a law degree to have your voice heard?
PURA is a state agency that plays a major role in our lives. It regulates your utilities, like your electricity and water, and determines what type of energy you use and how much you pay.
I am watching a familiar pattern unfold at a time when customers can’t afford to pay more. Utilities and their political allies are launching increasingly aggressive attacks aimed at keeping decisions about how much you pay and what kind of energy you use out of your hands and in theirs.
The problem with closing the doors to everyone else should be obvious. It prioritizes utility interests over safe, reliable, and affordable utility service. Or, in other words, it prioritizes profits over people like you. And if you look at their executives’ salaries, which customers pay through their bills, it’s easy to see why the industry wants to keep people out of the conversation.
Last year, utilities like Eversource and United Illuminating raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from customer bills. Meanwhile, nearly 426,000 Connecticut families can’t afford their energy bills.
By keeping people out of the conversation, utilities can proceed with business-as-usual—stuffing their wallets. That’s why we’re seeing attacks on PURA’s most promising new tool that lets people like you have a seat at the table.
Two years ago, PURA launched the Stakeholder Group Compensation Program, which helps families and small businesses join discussions at PURA. This program recognizes a basic truth—to participate in government processes like this, you need time and resources.
It covers costs for customers like you to get the legal and technical assistance you need to join the conversation.
And don’t let the utilities and their friends fool you. The program costs customers about $1 each year on their energy bill. As a lawyer who navigates these complex proceedings daily, it is not realistic to expect Connecticut customers, many of whom can’t afford time away from work and their families, to engage without more support. It is exclusion by design.
Those voices matter. Your voice matters. Connecticut’s working-class families spend close to 20 percent of their income on energy. Stories from those customers are essential to prevent profit-driven choices from a system that claims to operate in the public interest.
When I go to work, I want to stand next to parents, teachers, and business owners—not utility lawyers and industry lobbyists. Although I make my living by participating in the system, I do not believe it should only belong to people like me. In a room where decisions are made that affect us all, everyone should be welcome.
One dollar is a small price to pay for your voice.
Kendall Keelen, is a staff attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation.