Month: April 2023

TO CONSUMERS, WORKERS

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and U.S. Representative Hank Johnson (D-GA) led a group of 37 senators, including U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), and more than 80 members of the House of Representatives in introducing legislation to stop the use of unfair forced arbitration clauses, which are widely used to limit Americans’ access to justice. The FAIR (Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal) Act would eliminate forced arbitration clauses in consumer, antitrust, employment, and civil rights cases, and would allow consumers and workers to freely choose arbitration after a dispute occurs.

“Forced arbitration is unfair and un-American. Workers forced into a rigged arbitration system have lost one of the most powerful tools they have to hold employers accountable for gambling with their safety: access to justice,” Blumenthal said. “But workers aren’t the only ones at risk – nearly every American been stripped of their basic right to justice, whether they know it or not. One of the fundamental principles of our American democracy is that everyone gets their day in court. Forced arbitration deprives Americans of that basic right. The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act simply rights that basic wrong.”

“Forced arbitration is an underhanded maneuver that corporations use to trick consumers, workers and small businesses out of their right to go to court and seek damages from a jury of their peers,” said Johnson. “You can’t get a cell phone or credit card or even a job nowadays unless you sign away your rights because that’s what every corporation requires. They force you into binding arbitration because it benefits them, and it’s at your expense. If this sounds unfair, it is. Big businesses that already had all the power in the relationship between itself and someone like you or me, stacked the deck so that they can avoid the only thing out there that could hold them accountable – the United States justice system.”

Forced arbitration clauses restrict Americans’ access to justice by stripping consumers and workers of their right to go to court. Instead, consumers and workers are forced into an unfair arbitration system where corporations can write the rules; everything can be done in secret, without public rulings; discovery can be limited, making it hard for consumers to get the evidence they need to prove their case; and there’s no meaningful judicial review, so consumers and employees are often unable to appeal a decision even if the arbitrator gets it wrong. 

This press release was made possible by:

(Hartford, CT) – Attorney General William Tong today called on the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to reject a “bloated, unsupported” $130.7 million rate hike sought by United Illuminating, and to further impose a $2 million annual penalty for the company’s ongoing failure to remediate the former English Station power plant in New Haven.

United Illuminating is requesting to raise electric rates by as much as 8 percent over three years, increasing its revenues by $91.1 million in the first year alone, followed by an additional $20.1 million in the second year, and yet another $19.5 million in the third year.  New rates would take effect after September 2023.

Attorney General Tong’s brief identifies numerous areas where the utility is seeking to shift inflated, inappropriate costs onto ratepayers, including subsidized dog walking for employees working from home, “loyalty” bonuses for workers, advertising and membership fees, and an increased profit margin far exceeding the return on equity for any publicly regulated utility in Connecticut, among many other areas.

“On September 9, 2022—at a time when its customers were struggling to afford their skyrocketing electric bills—UI filed a bloated, unsupported proposal to increase its electric distribution rates by $136.5 million* over the next three years.  During the next seven months of administrative litigation before PURA, the Company failed to meet its burden to justify its exorbitant rate increase proposals, despite answering over 1,800 interrogatories from stakeholders, testifying over the course of 15 total evidentiary hearings, and answering 145 Late-Filed Exhibits.  The Company failed to demonstrate, as it must, that its proposed distribution rate hike up to 8 percent in the first rate year is necessary to provide safe, adequate, and reliable electric service,” Attorney General Tong states in the brief.

*United Illuminating initially sought a $136.5 million increase. They subsequently amended their request to $130.7 million.

English Station

English Station operated as a coal and oil-fired power plant for United Illuminating from 1929 until it was deactivated in 1992, leaving behind a site extensively contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a known carcinogen, heavy metals, and other contaminants.  

United Illuminating is obligated by a 2015 PURA order to remediate certain environmental conditions at English Station regardless of cost. UI was required to do so within three years of a 2016 Partial Consent Order between United Illuminating and the State. Since then, the company has made little to no progress, including failing to secure the site so that individuals vandalized the property exposing themselves to harmful contaminants well after the property was supposed to be remediated. The company has cycled through six project managers, who appear to lack any meaningful decision-making authority, contrary to PURA’s directive in the matter. 

“UI committed to fully remediate the English Station site within three years…These commitments were made to the State in the Partial Consent Order and to the Authority as a condition of its proposed acquisition by Iberdrola.  UI has failed utterly in those commitments.  Seven years later, UI has spent less than $17 million—the accounting for which DEEP has neither approved nor accepted—and the site remains a contaminated blight on the residents of New Haven who were promised better.  There remains no completion date in sight,” Attorney General Tong states in the brief. 

PURA “should send a message that this continued delay will no longer be tolerated.  UI’s continued failure to make reasonable progress is not an accident—it represents a deliberate corporate policy of indifference to the residents of New Haven, the State, and to this Authority…. A 20 basis point penalty represents approximately $2 million each year…This ROE penalty should continue until the site is fully remediated, and DEEP has so certified,” the brief states.

This press release was made possible by: