Rep. Yaccarino Votes Against Re-Appointment of Gillett as PURA Chairman
HARTFORD– Under Chairman Marissa Gillett’s leadership, our bills have not decreased. How can you support someone who may be the nicest person in the world but isn’t effectively doing their job? With all due respect, they need to be fired.
Some Key Concerns about Marissa Gillet:
- Chairman Gillett was the “presiding officer” or “lead commissioner” on all, or virtually all, dockets.
- PURA’s recent draft decision in CL&P’s (Eversource) 2025 RAM Docket would only provide ratepayers with a $45 Million dollar credit to their 2025-2026 bills while Eversource claims to have $275 Million ready to be provided to the ratepayers in the form of a monthly bill credit.
- Driving credit rating downgrades for major utility subsidiaries of Avangrid and Eversource due to Connecticut’s hostile regulatory market.
I have been a strong advocate for change in energy costs, for seniors on fixed incomes to small business owners, and it concerns me that she and others, including Democrat leadership, are not pushing for meaningful policy reforms. Instead, they seem to maintain a close relationship with the two chairs, and there has been correspondence regarding that. To me, this is ethically wrong—plain and simple.
As PURA Chair, she missed out on two opportunities to provide relief to ratepayers- the $275 million in credit from Eversource and the $80 million for the EV charge. Let’s promote open transparency—what I like to call sunshine. The truth always finds a way to come out. I look at examples like Joe Torre and Terry Francona, who are two of the greatest coaches but were still fired. At the end of the day, someone must take responsibility. As Harry Truman famously said, “The buck stops here”—both in the presidency and in the commissioner’s office.
For these reasons, I cannot support this PURA Chief Marissa Gillett. A vote to reappoint is a vote for the status quo.