High Energy Costs Draw Lawmakers’ Attention

01.30.2025
Issues & Policies

A record number of bills are being introduced in the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee for the 2025 session.

The central theme shared among this slew of proposals is addressing soaring residential and commercial electricity costs. 

Senate Democrats shared their priority legislation, SB 4, at a Jan. 16 press conference.

While the bill lacks detailed language, Energy Committee co-chair Sen. Norm Needleman (D-Essex) said it will take a four-prong approach: lowering costs, enhancing reliability, increasing energy production, and ensuring utilities prioritize ratepayers.

“This bill is an open book,” Needleman told reporters. “There are no specific things that we’re going to talk about at this moment.

“We’re going to listen to all the bills that are coming in, and they’re coming in at a rate much higher and faster than the Energy Committee has ever seen.”

Public Benefits Charge

Needleman said SB 4 will include language transferring the infrastructure improvements fee from the public benefits charge on ratepayer electric bills to transportation bonding.

The public benefits charge has helped drive recent electricity cost spikes, with some businesses reporting monthly delivery charges that jumped as much as 60%.

State-mandated fees for energy efficiency programs, electric vehicle and solar incentives, financial aid, and renewable and carbon-free electricity represented more than half of residential and commercial electricity bills last summer.

Connecticut has the third highest residential electric rates in the country—75% higher than the national average.

That’s a key factor driving the state’s high living and business costs, which in turn contribute to the labor shortage and hamper economic growth.

Connecticut’s residential electric rates are the third highest in the country.

Chris Davis, who leads CBIA’s public policy team, said ongoing cost increases and electricity bill spikes reflected “two decades-plus of uncertain, unpredictable energy policy.”

“That has a very negative impact on our ability to retain and attract residents and businesses, with significant consequences for economic growth and job growth,” he said.

“We also face decades of rising demand and it’s absolutely crucial that energy policy takes a long-term, sustainable approach to ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of electricity.”

CBIA’s 2025 ReimagineCT policy solutions identify long-term policies to lower costs and improve Connecticut’s energy infrastructure.

“CBIA has long advocated for resolving the flaws in the state’s energy policies to lower costs and improve reliability,” Davis said.

Energy Policy

Speaking at the Jan. 16 press conference, Needleman acknowledged the impact of the 1998 deregulation of the state’s electricity industry.

“One of our original sins is deregulation,” he said. “It created a whole different marketplace.

“I think it was sold to the state as a panacea and something that was going to make it better and cheaper and more available.”

“One of our original sins is deregulation.”

Sen. Norm Needleman

Needleman also said he supported expanding nuclear power generation, which Gov. Ned Lamont emphasized in his opening day address to the General Assembly Jan. 8.

“I think there is generally broad bipartisan support for new nuclear,” he said.

“It is not an immediate fix. It is not a panacea. It is a carbon-free resource. And as long as new nuclear is safe, I think you will see that happening here.”

GOP Proposal

Senate and House Republicans teamed up to introduce a six-point legislative proposal Jan. 22 targeting energy costs.

The proposal makes prioritizes eliminating the public benefits charge, with GOP lawmakers saying that will save residential ratepayers $400 annually. The GOP plan includes:

  • Eliminating the public benefits charge from electric bills
  • Capping the price of all future long-term energy purchases
  • Redefining the definition of Class 1 renewable energy sources to include nuclear and hydropower
  • Separating the Public Utilities Regulatory Agency from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
  • Eliminating incentive programs that increase electric demand, including the electric vehicle rebate program
  • Increasing the supply of natural gas

Republican leaders proposed scrapping some programs funded by the public benefits charges, while funding others through the state budget, subject to regular legislative review.

“There is a lot we can do to bend the long-term cost curve down for residents, for businesses.”

Sen. Ryan Fazio

“Some of those programs might be retained through the normal appropriation process if we were to shift it that way,” Energy Committee ranking member Sen. Ryan Fazio (R-Greenwich) said.

“But the fact is that, as long as they are funded through public benefits in electric bills, there is no regular vetting of the cost and benefits, for the effectiveness of these programs. They just continue to be a tax.”

Speaking at CBIA’s Jan. 15 Economic Summit + Outlook, Fazio warned that “in 20 years, we’re going to have rolling blackouts in this region if we do not do anything to improve energy reliability, increase energy supply.”

“We should have an all of the above clean energy strategy in this state where we have all forms of clean energy compete on a relatively equal playing field against one another, and may the best rise to the top,” he said.

“There is a lot we can do to bend the long-term cost curve down for residents, for businesses, in order to improve economic growth in the state.”


For more information, contact CBIA’s Pete Myers (860.244.1921).

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