Submitted by Kevin Driscoll, Cos Cob
To the editor:
I received a mailer from Joe Kelly, the Republican running for state senate in the 36th District, and he got the math wrong. It claims that cutting the public benefits charge on our electric bills would provide us ratepayers “immediate relief of roughly 20%.” On my Eversource bill, that charge has been a credit since May. Cutting what’s left would save me about 2%.
So I looked at my bills.
The public benefits cost me $46.99 in April, around 14% of my bill. By September, the same section provided a credit and Eversource took $16.53 off my bill.
If April’s rates had still been in place, September would’ve cost me around $49 in public benefits but
instead I got $16.53 back. It’s a difference of around $65 a month and it’s been like this since May.
There’s only one small piece of that section that still costs me. It’s $5.92, 2% of my bill. Kelly’s cut
would save me $5.92 because that’s all that’s left to cut there.
The credit is coming mostly from the state’s nuclear power contracts, which have been cheaper than
the wholesale market. A bipartisan law passed last year helped too. The state’s Office of Consumer Counsel explains it on its website. This credit will last through April 2027 unless the regulators change it.
Joe Kelly knows this well. In a Sept. 18 letter to the Sentinel, he said the charges had been cut temporarily but his mailer still promises relief from a charge that’s paying us back every month.
The mailer also says Connecticut has the 2nd-highest electric rates in the country. But the latest federal data, for July, puts us around 10th.
You’d think someone running on his energy background would know this charge has been a credit since May. He’d also know the Millstone contract behind much of that credit expires in 2029 and the state’s already looking at what comes after.
Kelly has said publicly that he’s worked with Dominion, the company that owns Millstone, on buying nuclear fuel for the plant. He hasn’t said where he’d stand when that contract comes up. Voters should hear it before November.
His opponent, Jill Oberlander, does her homework on issues like this. That’s one big reason she has my vote.
Kevin Driscoll
Cos Cob