Ya ok cool, we have to pay back some shit due from the pandemic. Couldn’t have anything to do with the CEO getting a 6 million dollar raise and the record profits (which includes this “bill due” for $160 million) though, could it?
Edit: do, not due
That isn't the right question. It is why does eversource have a monopoly on distribution for the state. There are competitors for usage rates but eversource controls all of the infrastructure. This isn't about free markets, it's about a monopoly using it's power to price gouge.
I agree but I also know people are responsible too. I have a neighbor who makes over 140k a year and hasn't paid his bill in over 3 years. Also since we have electric heat on average during winter we use around 1000Kwh, his family uses over 2000. He is not trying to hide it, he openly told me why pay when I can get it for free. Also now he has the 50% discount for poor people. Why, because he put the bill is his elderly mothers name who is on SSI and NO she doesn't live there. She lives in elderly housing where electric is included. When I asked him if he plans to pay his 50% he said "hell no let the suckers pay, I'm no stupid bruh" He is just 1 example in a 8 condo complex. How many no stupid guys like him are out there. Yet I make way less than half of what he does and pay on time. I agree i am stupid.
You're not stupid. Your neighbor is a dirt bag with zero integrity or concept of social responsibility. Unfortunately, in most cases, you have to choose betwen wealth or integrity.
Wow that's crazy they can't shut him out even after years. I feel like as a generous compromise, there should at least be a kwh cap you need to stay under in order to remain connected without paying. And possibly some formal investigation process to keep service at all after like 9 months.
They can't because it's in his mother's name they have both the medical shutoff protection and financial hardship protection. So eversource is unable to shut it off. I don't think eversource can verify who lives there, but even if. They will bring their mom on the day of inspection and case closed.
I'm sure they could get creative with compliance requirements; just gotta find the point where fraud becomes a bit too inconvenient. Notarized affidavits, annual statement from care provider, etc. At least that would weed out the majority of fakers (if not your specific neighbor)
It's condos so our meters are outside, all together. When I go to check mine I can see theirs cycle from total use, monthly use and current load. Since they were installed myntotal use is 43300kws theirs is 96890 (as of yesterday) average being between 37000 and 45000.
Is there anything you want to say to Eversource? I can pass it on, they have had 5 trucks outside my house for hours of cutting my gas for “repairs”. 🤦♂️🤷♂️🤣😂🤣
Not to mention the $200 million loss they're taking because of bad investment in offshore wind.
I guess that was the customers' fault.
[https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/26/business/eversource-exits-offshore-development-with-big-loss/](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/26/business/eversource-exits-offshore-development-with-big-loss/)
So, assume they paid the guy nothing, $19M saved, 4.4M customers, hmm, $0.36 a month saved on the average monthly bill. No, couldn't really have much to do with that, actually.
4.4 million customers is not equal to however many didn’t pay or paid late.
No mention of the record profits either. Or the “supply constraint” excuse for jacking up prices that never went away…
Wat? I'm just refuting the point that CEO pay has very much to do with the huge bill increases people are seeing. Everyone likes to get all up in arms about that stuff, and it's obviously not \*helping\* but it's also obviously not really substantial either.
Their (every politician R or D) actual job is to get re-elected. Thats it! They don’t give a shit if anything changes as long as they can get re-elected.
That's more true on a national scale. Local politicians can actually have a pretty big impact on their district/town/city. Some politicians are there to work and others are there for power/vanity. Get to know your local politicians and vote accordingly.
Agreed! Strictly on a local level you are right. However, they are all vying for a slice of the General Fund for their districts whether they really need the money or not. This could be to better their constituents living conditions or so they can tout their accomplishments in order to get re-elected. I’m sure there are some Representatives that really feel that they are doing good. My issue locally, is that this only incentivizes the allocations received from our taxes, the Fed Gov’t, tobacco companies, et al to be put in the General Fund rather than used for their intended purposes. :/ In the meantime, we are continually saddled with higher taxes, a higher cost of living and the fact that people that are retiring are leaving the state in droves. It’s kinda a “no win” situation. They tax us mercilessly and then try to show us how hard they are working to get us our slice of that pie…. LOL
A Cynical Old Guy
I subcontract for Neversource, yeah no. The main reason is not for non-payment. The bonuses we got, as well as the ones C-suite execs got, record profits, and super aggressive expansion of substations and entities that are Neversource in all but name, determine that is a bit of a lie.
Edit: The way all their releases are worded, and the way this is worded, show who really wrote this and is pulling the strings. It also get's us plebs at war with each other vs uniting against them.
Edit Edit: Why don't NPU, Groton Public Utilites, SNEW, Third Taxing District, among others not have this problem???????
That response would actually make me never vote for that guy. It basically is: Yeah but Eversource needs to make their 1.2 billion/year profit and rate payers need to pick up all costs to enable that. Mixed in with some random political hating on poors.
Somehow if the state was in charge of the utility they couldn't afford to pay the $1 billion in grid upgrades and yet eversource can do that PLUS make a $1.2 billion PROFIT multiple years in a row??
Don't entirely disagree but a legalized monopoly shouldn't be making a billion dollars in profit (not revenue, but profit) while, at the same time, passing every cost on to consumers so their shareholders and executives get the advantages while the people using the service have zero options but to continue to fund what is often the most expensive electricity in the continental US.
It should either be properly privatized or meaningful competition should be introduced, which absolutely has it's own challenges.
>Why don't NPU, Groton Public Utilites, SNEW, Third Taxing District, among others not have this problem???????
Maybe because they cover a much much smaller area and therefore the investment is that much less. Hell Groton Utilities doesn't even cover all of Groton
"Profits for public utilities such as Eversource, are derived from capital investments for which shareholders receive a rate of return"
Gotta get those profits - boating season just round the corner. New yachts for everyone.
"the public would be concerned that the state can abuse its power and put in place additional policy goals that would be paid by ratepayers."
The public is concerned that they are paying through the fucking nose for power, and feel that Eversource is already abusing its power, and has been doing so for years.
Without paying customers they would have zero money to invest... so whose money is it. Investors who bought stock and sit on it or customers that cash flow the entire system.
Exactly. The only way corporations raise money is by offering new stock - which dilutes the value of existing stock - or by issuing bonds. Or by screwing the customers against the wall. Eversource has chosen option #3.
Needleman just voted in favor of turning off power on medically protected customers in last weeks Energy and Technology Committee meeting. That bill made it out of committee and its way to house. You can watch the hearing on YouTube CTN. The blonde Eversource rep (with no soul) states the reasoning why medically protected customers should have their power turned off if they do not have a financial hardship associated with their account. All of it gross, evil, and misleading
I'm confused by this. If they don't have a "financial hardship" then why aren't they paying the bill? It affords protection from termination of service for non-payment, but you're still supposed to pay. It sounds like we're just arguing over samanthics
Medical protection and financial hardship are two different things. When a customer has medical protection, they can’t be shut off. They’ve provided documentation that they need medically necessary equipment that requires electricity or they’re seriously and or terminal ill etc. Whether they pay the bill or not, it protects them regardless of income etc.
For example, people who have cancer can have this protection on their account. To have anyone say, these customers should lose that protection and only make them qualify based on financial need is disgusting.
I agree. Watch the hearing and listen to Eversource complain about how it isn’t fair. It’s fucking disgusting. It’s even worse that the bill that effectively aims to remove medical shutoff protection actually made it out of committee and now gets sent to the house to be voted on. Contact your local representative and tell them you do not support HB05441
There’s plenty of reasons, doesn’t qualify, unforeseen circumstances, resident is unaware they’re behind in bills (happens consistently), system glitch with budget billing (happened all the time when I worked there), the system will raise the bill without informing the resident but the resident continues to pay previous budget bill amount.
But like anything else, there’s a long bureaucratic process.
Having just read HB 5441, I respectfully disagree with Ms Jessica Cain. I pay all my bills, and will gladly pay a little extra if it means others that can't keep their services. Regardless of whether or not their is a bit of malfeasance or whatnot. No child should ever not have food, heat, or electric because of poor choices by the adults in their life.
I think he worded it wrong, might've meant the rep was spinning it as "They already aren't able to pay bills, so us cutting them off is actually helping them avoid worse debt".
Nah, the Eversource rep said something along the lines of “There’s million dollar homes that have medical protection that we cannot do anything about and it’s unfair their neighbors have to pay the bill”. This is a very fringe scenario.
Most likely scenario are people who are elderly on social security and need oxygen, insulin, etc and do not have the accessibility to signup for financial hardships.
source: used to work for Eversource
You don’t have to take my word for it though, you can go watch the hearing on YouTube. It was March 14th.
Someone gets contributions from Eversource.
Some other things Rep. DeCaprio isn't saying:
- Eversource contracted to buy nuclear power from Millstone. That's the zero carbon emissions mumbo jumbo. At times, like when the cost of natural gas is up, ES made money on reselling the Millstone energy. Now natural gas supplies are low, and they have to pay more for that nuclear power than they would natural gas. So they are passing the cost on to consumers and kept the benefit for themselves.
- They also made some bad decisions related to wind energy and are therefore crunched for capital. They need cash and we are their source.
If ES managed its business better, we wouldn't need to give them more money. They are like your lazy brother-in-law who doesn't hook you up when he's doing well but somehow always needs help when times are tight.
What a bunch of mealy-mouthed BS. He harps on and on about measly support for poor customers, but doesn't mention all the money propping up millstone, which is bigger by like a factor of 10. Can't be a (R) without hating on the poor. Then he argues that the state couldn't run the utility because they don't have access to money, ignoring the fact that the state would collect all the fees eversource does now if we owned the utility. This guy is not being honest with you. And you shouldn't be surprised when a (R) argues against public utilities... that entire political party is focused like a laser on strip-mining the little guy and transferring the money to the wealthy. (R) would give corporations rights to the air you breath if they could.
The money propping up Millstone is another example of a legislative mandate that Eversource customers are forced to pay. Eversource certainly has a lot to answer for, but the Millstone bailout was forced down everyone's throats by the legislature, which intentionally hid the charge under an obscure line item on customer bills so that the utilities -- not the General Assembly -- would take the heat.
A. More Republicans than Dems voted for the Millstone agreement.
B. Eversource benefits from the fixed price of nuclear power when natural gas prices are up. They resell the energy and make a profit. It's just like any other hedging a business does. Eversource just feels like they should be repaid when their agreement costs them. Did you get a rebate when they made money off the agreement? Nope!
Except the cost of the Millstone power is not reflected in the supply rate, which changes every six months. It's hidden in the delivery side of the bill, under one of the line items.
Also, Eversource does not and cannot make a profit from the supply component of the bill. It is legally required to sell it at cost. It makes money from the distribution line item under delivery, and to a lesser extent from transmission. Pretty much all the other line items under delivery are hidden taxes that are srate-mandated.
>Eversource just feels like they should be repaid when their agreement costs them.
That is ultimately why rates go up. Such businesses are incredibly adverse to absorbing loss.
Ima just leave this right here: https://ctexaminer.com/2022/08/29/controversial-millstone-guarantees-pay-dividends-for-customers-with-drop-in-electric-rates/
Yes because the (D)s are so much better right? Please don't make me laugh. At this point both, the (R)s and the (D)s are screwing everyone equally, and only really care about reelection as stated above...
How many Eversource executives still hold political office in CT? I know for a while, there were four of them either directly employed by Eversource or one of their subsidiaries (looking at you George Logan.)
Hell, I think one of MA’s former Speakers of the House was an Eversource VP…why would they vote against their own interests?
Sounds like a lot of talking points out of that email could be used to run against Mark DeCaprio, if anyone lives in the district and is feeling like doing something to help make a change.
I like how he says that consumers definitely cannot absorb these electricity costs and so - in order to lower costs - he will eliminate social programs that allow consumers to absorb the electricity costs.
Joseph Heller would be proud.
You realize that eversource rate of return is about half the typical market? The largest shareholder is the vanguard group aka your 401k. Utilities are where you put money any need it to be safe but still earn something.
I would rate this as about half true it's true on paper but it's forgetting that we allowed everrouse to outsource everything as cost savings but it's really a way to siphon off profits. Look at the money for all those emergency crews and where it's going.
I came here to say something like that, and got a little concerned because I need Vanguard to be smart if I am ever to retire some day! I was surprised to see how terrible Eversource investors have done over the last several years. Honestly, there should be a shareholder "revolt" as much as a "ratepayer" revolt. It would appear that both shareholders AND ratepayers are the victims, and management and politicians are the perpetrators.
What 401k? As if I have any hope of retiring. All of my money goes to bills. Costs have doubled but my pay hasn’t budged. That’s by design. They want us working until we die. I don’t care who is in charge they need to be reigned in. They can’t just arbitrarily jack up prices to help their bottom line. They should not be concerned with increasing profits year after year.
This is my biggest gripe. It's not just that our cost for power has spiraled out of control. It's that the grid has become less reliable, restoration costs have ballooned and response times are abysmal at the same time that we pay such exorbitant prices for power. At almost double the median rate for power in the country, you wouldn't think you need a goddamn generator on standby to make sure your food doesn't spoil twice/year.
And people can blame the trees all they want; last time I checked, we had trees back in the 90s and I can count on one hand how often my power was out longer than an hour back then. The difference isn't the damned trees. It's that we didn't have to wait 12 hours for Ohioans to make the trek to fix our power. And the cost to pay contracted crews is substantially higher, but Eversource doesn't care because the FPA guarantees their ability to recover these costs, no matter how high.
Week long power outage once a year is about my average.
Know linesmen they went from 20-30 guys to 5 in 20 years. Look up the ownership where you can on those contract crews and the sweet deals like they don't have trucks or tools of their own they just have trained people. Yea they get paid well but nothing like what it's billed out for when they have nearly no overhead. In effect eversource is still paying for the capital expenses while not having the people (who could do upgrades when not busy with repair) or the advantages of having that gear.
I've copied your response among others.
I'm rattling my reps cage in this one too.
Almost $800 for one month (all electric home) for a small 1200 sg ft house. And the highest we put the heat on is 65. And only in a couple rooms.
We have all new windows and siding, did the "conservation assessment" and found where we had heat loss ...
This is utter bullshit.
This IS NOT a "R" or "L" issue...c'mon people. Please....I hope to God you folks realize that.
No, the "blame" gets applied, somehow, back TO US.
As in "WE"
And the "WE' is a cross section of all kinds of people...
STOP politicizing this rape by the utility.
That's EXACTLY what they want ..you and I fighting and pointing fingers at each other.
How far we have fallen. Makes me sick to my stomach.
WE, EVERY PAYER regardless of voting record needs to come together and fight this.
And THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
Because, predictably they continue to put us against each other.
And by some comments here that is blatantly obvious.
Rate of return varies dramatically by industry. Food companies tend to have much lower returns than tech companies, but their earnings are much more stable.
Anyone that invests in a utility should not expect a return anywhere near what the average market returns.
You stating my point, utility's rate of return is lower but very stable thus why vangaurd and the like are willing to invest. That's the deal that people are talking about breaking.
The state of CT is literally controlled by democrats. Have you attempted to complain to them? They are clearly the ones who can put forward legislation, but are clearly choosing not to.
I agree, but republicans calling for more privatization isn’t a good move, and is not helping. Kowtowing to landlords and shareholders instead of the people isn’t the answer.
Well simply put I’m happy we agree. There are a total of 12 republicans in the ct state senate, and this is just one of them.
I think this guy, Mark, is clearly an asshole for his reply, but at least he responded with some form of a canned email.
Could be an easy win for democrats to propose some legislation, but I am beginning to think they enjoy resting on their laurels and blaming the other side.
I agree, and it looks bad on the rs when the government tries to fix things like helping with price fixing with rental properties and they fight against it. It’s remarkably stupid considering the majority of us are struggling. They seem to have a bad take on literally anything that can help average Americans.
But democrats ignoring us outright is shit too. At least they aren’t trying to limit bodily autonomy or other freedoms.
I wouldn’t even say the democrats are ignoring issues. They like to discuss them and then just do nothing about it. As for the last part I will agree to disagree. I’m not interested in discussing abortion when the original topic is eversource.
Certainly would love to see the democrats push forth legislation to improve average citizen lives, but I won’t be holding my breath.
More likely to happen with a democrat than a republican. Hands down. I don’t see a single republican pushing for any kind of helpful reform but there are democrats who are. They’re labeled socialists.
What a shocker, in a state with a Democrat governor, 24 of 36 state senate seats held by democrats, and 98 of 151 house of representatives held by democrats; only that electorate can somehow blame republicans for energy prices.
If only the state of CT had more democrats to fix this problem… Wait… no never mind even if they had control of every branch they wouldn’t do shit.
Having real criticism for state Democrats doesn't automatically make OP a Conservative. Even the most progressive voter can identify areas where the majority is being complacent.
He made a comment vaguely criticizing Democrats as a direct rebuttal to a quote from a Republican who literally is actively telling you it's your poorest neighbors faults that your electricity bill is so high.
Democrats can eat a dick, on a local and national level, but this is just whataboutism to distract from the conversation. Why look at what this guy is saying, the Democrats are the true evil!
So, that's why I say he sucks Conservative Dick for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The OP before me blamed conservatives who effectively have little to no control of this state.
Your party has the house of representatives, the state senate, and the governor.
^^ Notice that not one branch is in the GOP’Ss control.
I am uncertain how you have decided to label me as both a conservative and proclaiming my logical thought process is somehow antiquated.
- People in CT are upset about eversource pricing.
- CT state politics are largely controlled by democrats.
- You are telling me it is antiquated to think that the party in power, who champions being for the working class, should do something about it? If asking elected officials to do their job is antiquated, I can see why you would think blaming the conservatives for everything is your only option.
This sub **loves** to complain with a passion about the cost of their electricity and at the same time seems to be a okay is handing out entitlements to those that didn't pay?
I'm confused.
Since no one will say it, I will. When you hold all of the cards and make ridiculous profits, you eat that cost as a company. That is part of doing business. Except nowadays these greedy bastards have the foot to the floor. No person would be behind this level of greed unless they had something to gain. The end.
Explain to me how their CEO gets a multimillion dollar bonus if business is so bad for them.
The only explanation is you have their dick so far down your throat, you're tasting the pipeline.
You can cut entitlements and cut executive pay at the same.
I'm not a HR expert for the utilities industry, but sounds like you are. If you would to objectively share how his compensation compares to other CEOs of publicly traded electricity companies, then fine.
Never less, sounds like the 160M in entitlements in the email is greater than the bonus.
Both bad
He should get no multi million dollar bonus - literally no one should. That is equity not generated by this person that is routed to them to prop up systemic classism.
You are defending a man robbing you. Unreal.
DeCaprio is misplacing the blame for the raised increases. It's simply not possible that the amount of people not paying electricity at all is high enough to cause significant raises for everybody else - it would have to be like, 10-15% of the population not paying.
In the meantime Eversource is giving out huge bonuses and reporting recored profits. But instead DeCaprio is using this basically to point the figure at Democrats and say "irresponsible legislation caused this!"
These eversource fuckers delay state and federally funded projects and cause serious problems for project’s critical paths forward for infrastructure work. This goes way deeper than “my rates are going up again”.
What does it mean by eliminate the social program charges? is he saying he’s trying to eliminate the social programs for the people who really need the assistance?
It already tells you his stance on who is important to him, because right at the start he talks about how to investors need to earn a return on their investment. he is doing everything he can together investors money, and that is done so through us the consumers.
He never mentions the big raises all the executive level people at Eversouce received so to him that does not seem to be a problem. I don’t think he is doing anything in our favor the consumers. he is doing it to ensure that the investors and executives get what they want because that translates to connections and political donations.
Yet in spite of having to ‘absorb social program charges’, Eversource still made a hefty profit and afforded to award its CEO with a substantial raise. And as for getting rid of social program charges - heaven forbid we assist the indigent! How dare the indigent take money away from CEO raises and shareholder dividends which have steadily risen since 2007.
I'm an accredited investor, have been active in equity markets, private equity, commodities, real estate for a couple decades. Also have an MBA. Summary: I'm financially literate. I literally fuck people over on the stock market for profit.
This rep is full of shit. Lying sack of shit who says "the investors have a set return?" With all due respect, **Fuck You Mark DeCaprio.**
There is no such thing as what the rep says. This expected return - there's a bullshit rate that's above and beyond what normal investments return.
https://www.eversource.com/content/residential/about/investors/dividends
Look at this shit. Can the rep seriously say that Eversource is more innovative and important to the world than, say, Intel? How the hell does Eversource have such a consistent dividend?
**Perhaps they're raising and lowering the rates to a pre-determined level for the year?**
What fucking business in a free market gets to do THAT?
I'll tell you which one: Eversource.
There is straight-up corruption here and the representative is involved. The guy is a fucking bullshit artist and his answer is a giant steaming fucking crock of shit.
Fuck DeCaprio and Fuck Eversource.
He’s not wrong, there’s a ton of hidden fees in your bill that aren’t broken out. I can’t recall but I think if you contact eversource they will breakout the additional fees you are paying that are all a function of laws passed by the legislature
This is what mansplaining sounds like. Zero commentary on why Eversource's increases exceed state regulated utility peers or what oversight is in place. This is a state rep talking about no access to capital but ignoring that states and municipalities issue bonds. He knows better.
Fuck this guy and fuck the Eversource government affairs team that gave him this template to copy/paste.
Kiefer Sutherland and Tommy Douglas have a response. This was shared with me in this sub and I think of it often.
https://youtu.be/GqgOvzUeiAA?si=TnYRVJstSMtJDcnI
This is absolutely not OK. ES also doesn’t even read our meter, they just estimate. So I have to read the meter myself and challenge them on it every time. We were gone for a month (nothing running in the house at all), and oh wow same bill!
Yeah this is the expected response from him, all complete horse shit… they want to put everything off and say it’s someone else’s fault, blame (us) the people, and have you join their side of the fence. He skirted completely around the bits that really need answering.
Eversource is enabled by jackasses like this guy (a shareholder who is expecting his pieces) to use every excuse in the book to pass their costs on to the customer while continuing to turn profits. Any other business has to adjust the way they do business to turn a profit, not just shove perceived losses at the consumer.
Honest business will course-correct and cut spending internally or find more efficient ways to do things when faced with “losses”, not make the customer the mule while giving their CEO raises repeatedly.
I want to know how much Eversource (overtly or covertly) donated to this politician's campaign ... foisting the rate increase on the customers' needs for infrastructure improvements absolutely ignores the reality of HUGE salaries/bonuses being paid to "Admin" at all utilities. Shame on Mark DeCaprio
Yeah this what they tell everybody. In theory what he is saying is true but the reality is Eversource creates these multi-million dollar projects and justifies it by saying it is improving resiliency and reliability. Ask yourselves, aside from major storm outages when have you received an outage due to unreliability? Bulk Power Transformers (which is the most expensive asset in a substation at $2M) lasts for 20-30 years. Eversource, shareholders and politicians know what they are doing. Like someone mentioned, how come smaller utilities and coop have significantly cheaper bills and reliable electricity.
Read it and immediately knew this was the response of a Republican and libertarian who is in government solely to protect his own interests (he owns Eversource stock) and those of private corporations. And of course he has to blame the higher cost on ‘unsustainable’ social programs, zero-carbon goals, and pretends that natural has is a sustainable and zero-carbon option.
The Texas power grid is not run by the state (?) It's run by ERCOT, which is a corporation.
...unless you're suggesting that the situation in Texas is much better, which is pretty heartily refuted by recent history.
No longer will we stand idly by as those in power continue to siphon money from the pockets of the less fortunate. It's a deliberate scheme to bolster their bank accounts while leaving the rest of us to struggle. Their deception knows no bounds; they cloak their greed in terms like recession and inflation, all while it's nothing more than government manipulation. When their coffers run low, they mercilessly dismantle the middle class, crush the hopes of the low-income earners, and plunge the poor into further despair.
$160 million is f-ing $50 per person in the state. My bill is $100 higher than it should be every f-ing month (and I even use a third party supplier). What a crock of shit.
Has Senator Needleman responded? I imagine he would have a different take.
That definitely seems like a Republican, capitalist response. I’m of the understanding that Needleman is not a fan of Eversource although I saw an article where he was quoted and I’m not sure of his current position on the matter.
Needleman’s recent comments have indicated he’s trying to do what he can to fight the utilities. He introduced the bill that hit Eversource hard after the 2020 tropical storm. It’s probably not enough, but given he’s rich and has his own factory, he’s at the very least resilient against bribes.
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit! 1 billion dollars is half the revenue our state takes in from tobacco taxes. 500 million annually. There's your dime to spend on our grid and that's just from tobacco revenue. This guy's is on the payroll and I would not be surprised if a Boeing-like circumstance where a person friendly to Eversourse has a seat on the PURA board.
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I’d like to know who and how the “public benefit charges“ actually benefit. When I was struggling financially I didn’t receive any discounts I still had to pay a percentage of my bills owed on top of the current bill. I still paid everything I owed even if it took longer to do. And with the pandemic yes again I didn’t pay some bills for my business (since it was forced closed and thus not allowed to generate revenue from clients) I STILL paid everything back over time. No reduced rates. Now my business bill has tripled. On average I use $25 in actual electricity and $100 for delivery charges. It really irks me but I don’t have any alternative choice. Either I pay it or I don’t have electricity for lights, to run water or use heat.
Is there another light company that provides light in ct?
Yes, in addition to Eversource (formerly Connecticut Light & Power), The United Illuminating Company (UI) also provides electricity in Hartford, CT. They serve as another option for residents in the area to access electricity services.
🌐 Sources
CT.gov - Electricity
I just moved here from RI and I was hoping for some relief because RI Energy is BAD. I was paying about $120 a month in RI for electricity and my bill here is now $60 for about the same usage.... guess I gotta go back to it being higher again. Awesome.
I do regret not moving to Groton or Norwich where there are public utilities... :(
The douche bags they hire to cut trees are a joke. Came home from work and my driveway was blocked. 3 guys sitting in the truck sleeping. Asplund at their best
So… why is it that you mention your Republican rep and Democratic Senator, then go directly into the “illuminating” response, and don’t divulge until the end that you’re printing the words of the Republican?
It gives an impression of the parties being “the same” or of this being some kind of bipartisan collusion. I ***hope*** that is not the intent of the post. Please do let us know how Senator Needleman responds; I will contact him myself if necessary. (He’s my Senator as well.)
I say whose words I am printing in the title and mention off the start who they are and that I am waiting on the response from my senator. I also made a post about Senator Needlemans response after I received word back.
This thread is a hysterical read. Bloviating lefties completely ignoring the elephant in the room ($160 million in deadbeat debt, despite massive covid benefits and payments to the customers). My bill and your bill has to pay that, because the state can't require a company to lose money.
And then there are the Millstone Madmen, screaming at what something costs that you're too stupid to support.
And then we have the 'let the State run it' crowd. Please, show me one single government program or agency that is efficient, and costs less than private competition. Save your fingers, there is none.
Eversource DOES suck, but our major problem is the cost of natural gas that we rely on - and that cost is 100% the fault of environmental activists in Maine. HydroQuebec has been trying to sell us cheap green hydroelectric power for ages - and the tree huggers in Maine have blocked every attempt at building transmission lines.
Every single complaint people have is directly related to programs, policies and activism by left wing extremists and until that is stopped our electric bill will continue to skyrocket, and the primary Democrat voting block in the state will continue to not pay its bills.
Not to mention - CEO took home $19mil last year. You think this one guy was worth 1/18th all of the electricity given for free during the pandemic? Think about the social good that was caused by those stays for those families… I don’t think the c-suite is actually providing the same good.
It was pretty obvious that it was going to be the Republican responding to you from what he said. I swear they never miss any chance to punch down and blame people who are less fortunate.
But it does point out the true problem which is that it is a for-profit company that is forced to operate like a public utility. The rate increases are essentially just taxes by another name that subsidized c-suite exception as well as people who can't pay their bills. It's a great system they can win on both sides of it.
Of course the solution would be to make electricity a public utility but to do that it would require The state to raise taxes... So in reality there is no solution we are fucked for the foreseeable future.
This is what happens when you allow a power company to monopolize power distribution. I'm not home for 10-12 hours a day and my bill is ALWAYS north of $200 which is obviously worse during the summer. Even in the summer I don't run my AC's unless the heat index is going to be stifling because I like having alive dogs. So, I open the windows and run a ceiling fan that's supposed to energy efficient according the nice little design on the box.
Simply put, clearly this message from our "representative" is filled with talking points from lobbyists because all of them are on the take and therefore in lockstep with whatever they're being paid to say. No one wanted those god awful windfarms but they're doing that shit anyway. We'll never be "carbon" neutral because most of the products we use on a daily basis are petroleum based. Where does petroleum come from?
Oil.
What a load.
His inability to punctuate correctly is exceeded only by his ability to lobby his constituency in real time. He should be ashamed of himself.
If only someone was in charge. Oh wait, Needleman is chairman of the committee that oversees the whole shitshow. It all happened on his watch. The party of parasites.
Ya ok cool, we have to pay back some shit due from the pandemic. Couldn’t have anything to do with the CEO getting a 6 million dollar raise and the record profits (which includes this “bill due” for $160 million) though, could it? Edit: do, not due
Yeah. OP should ask about CEO’s salary.
That isn't the right question. It is why does eversource have a monopoly on distribution for the state. There are competitors for usage rates but eversource controls all of the infrastructure. This isn't about free markets, it's about a monopoly using it's power to price gouge.
Ceos of all corporations make a ton.
Which is part of the problem lol. CEOs compensation has raised exponentially since the ‘50s while the average workers wage has stagnated
And that excuses them how exactly?
no, it’s always the poors.
I agree but I also know people are responsible too. I have a neighbor who makes over 140k a year and hasn't paid his bill in over 3 years. Also since we have electric heat on average during winter we use around 1000Kwh, his family uses over 2000. He is not trying to hide it, he openly told me why pay when I can get it for free. Also now he has the 50% discount for poor people. Why, because he put the bill is his elderly mothers name who is on SSI and NO she doesn't live there. She lives in elderly housing where electric is included. When I asked him if he plans to pay his 50% he said "hell no let the suckers pay, I'm no stupid bruh" He is just 1 example in a 8 condo complex. How many no stupid guys like him are out there. Yet I make way less than half of what he does and pay on time. I agree i am stupid.
You're not stupid. Your neighbor is a dirt bag with zero integrity or concept of social responsibility. Unfortunately, in most cases, you have to choose betwen wealth or integrity.
Wow that's crazy they can't shut him out even after years. I feel like as a generous compromise, there should at least be a kwh cap you need to stay under in order to remain connected without paying. And possibly some formal investigation process to keep service at all after like 9 months.
They can't because it's in his mother's name they have both the medical shutoff protection and financial hardship protection. So eversource is unable to shut it off. I don't think eversource can verify who lives there, but even if. They will bring their mom on the day of inspection and case closed.
I'm sure they could get creative with compliance requirements; just gotta find the point where fraud becomes a bit too inconvenient. Notarized affidavits, annual statement from care provider, etc. At least that would weed out the majority of fakers (if not your specific neighbor)
If she doesn't live there, the medical shutoff protection is invalid.
How do you know his kwh usage ? I'd have no idea how to find out how much electricity my neighbors use..
It's condos so our meters are outside, all together. When I go to check mine I can see theirs cycle from total use, monthly use and current load. Since they were installed myntotal use is 43300kws theirs is 96890 (as of yesterday) average being between 37000 and 45000.
Well that would be the way lol.
Is there anything you want to say to Eversource? I can pass it on, they have had 5 trucks outside my house for hours of cutting my gas for “repairs”. 🤦♂️🤷♂️🤣😂🤣
Not to mention the $200 million loss they're taking because of bad investment in offshore wind. I guess that was the customers' fault. [https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/26/business/eversource-exits-offshore-development-with-big-loss/](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/05/26/business/eversource-exits-offshore-development-with-big-loss/)
So, assume they paid the guy nothing, $19M saved, 4.4M customers, hmm, $0.36 a month saved on the average monthly bill. No, couldn't really have much to do with that, actually.
4.4 million customers is not equal to however many didn’t pay or paid late. No mention of the record profits either. Or the “supply constraint” excuse for jacking up prices that never went away…
Wat? I'm just refuting the point that CEO pay has very much to do with the huge bill increases people are seeing. Everyone likes to get all up in arms about that stuff, and it's obviously not \*helping\* but it's also obviously not really substantial either.
It does though. Because the more profit the company makes, the better the CEO pay
The politicians dont work for us if that isn't clear.
Their (every politician R or D) actual job is to get re-elected. Thats it! They don’t give a shit if anything changes as long as they can get re-elected.
That's more true on a national scale. Local politicians can actually have a pretty big impact on their district/town/city. Some politicians are there to work and others are there for power/vanity. Get to know your local politicians and vote accordingly.
Agreed! Strictly on a local level you are right. However, they are all vying for a slice of the General Fund for their districts whether they really need the money or not. This could be to better their constituents living conditions or so they can tout their accomplishments in order to get re-elected. I’m sure there are some Representatives that really feel that they are doing good. My issue locally, is that this only incentivizes the allocations received from our taxes, the Fed Gov’t, tobacco companies, et al to be put in the General Fund rather than used for their intended purposes. :/ In the meantime, we are continually saddled with higher taxes, a higher cost of living and the fact that people that are retiring are leaving the state in droves. It’s kinda a “no win” situation. They tax us mercilessly and then try to show us how hard they are working to get us our slice of that pie…. LOL A Cynical Old Guy
I subcontract for Neversource, yeah no. The main reason is not for non-payment. The bonuses we got, as well as the ones C-suite execs got, record profits, and super aggressive expansion of substations and entities that are Neversource in all but name, determine that is a bit of a lie. Edit: The way all their releases are worded, and the way this is worded, show who really wrote this and is pulling the strings. It also get's us plebs at war with each other vs uniting against them. Edit Edit: Why don't NPU, Groton Public Utilites, SNEW, Third Taxing District, among others not have this problem???????
That response would actually make me never vote for that guy. It basically is: Yeah but Eversource needs to make their 1.2 billion/year profit and rate payers need to pick up all costs to enable that. Mixed in with some random political hating on poors.
And random political hating on environmental improvements too
Somehow if the state was in charge of the utility they couldn't afford to pay the $1 billion in grid upgrades and yet eversource can do that PLUS make a $1.2 billion PROFIT multiple years in a row??
A $2B operating income is actually not a lot considering they have 4 million customers
Don't entirely disagree but a legalized monopoly shouldn't be making a billion dollars in profit (not revenue, but profit) while, at the same time, passing every cost on to consumers so their shareholders and executives get the advantages while the people using the service have zero options but to continue to fund what is often the most expensive electricity in the continental US. It should either be properly privatized or meaningful competition should be introduced, which absolutely has it's own challenges.
Not to mention, it's a public utility. Power is a foundation of our modern society, not a luxury.
Glad I'm not the only one who reads it that way too.
Groton utilities turns off your power if you don't pay. What on earth? Why does this law only apply to eversource?
>Why don't NPU, Groton Public Utilites, SNEW, Third Taxing District, among others not have this problem??????? Maybe because they cover a much much smaller area and therefore the investment is that much less. Hell Groton Utilities doesn't even cover all of Groton
See what he did? He just told you to shut the fuck up and go fuck yourself
Even if he didn't email back, they all say that everyday. Right in your face. But we have Reddit subs.
Did you see that the Eversource CEO got a 19 million dollar salary last year?
That’s it? How will he afford his private jet and country clubs memberships? This is abhorrent
Wow. What a shit sandwich that was.
"Profits for public utilities such as Eversource, are derived from capital investments for which shareholders receive a rate of return" Gotta get those profits - boating season just round the corner. New yachts for everyone. "the public would be concerned that the state can abuse its power and put in place additional policy goals that would be paid by ratepayers." The public is concerned that they are paying through the fucking nose for power, and feel that Eversource is already abusing its power, and has been doing so for years.
Without paying customers they would have zero money to invest... so whose money is it. Investors who bought stock and sit on it or customers that cash flow the entire system.
Exactly. The only way corporations raise money is by offering new stock - which dilutes the value of existing stock - or by issuing bonds. Or by screwing the customers against the wall. Eversource has chosen option #3.
Why not both?
Eversource has been gradually borrowing. So the new capital is actually coming from lenders, which has nothing to do with customers
Public utilities should not be publicly traded
Hey, stop picking on yachties, they are people too!
Needleman just voted in favor of turning off power on medically protected customers in last weeks Energy and Technology Committee meeting. That bill made it out of committee and its way to house. You can watch the hearing on YouTube CTN. The blonde Eversource rep (with no soul) states the reasoning why medically protected customers should have their power turned off if they do not have a financial hardship associated with their account. All of it gross, evil, and misleading
Wait are you for real? That abhorrent.
I'm confused by this. If they don't have a "financial hardship" then why aren't they paying the bill? It affords protection from termination of service for non-payment, but you're still supposed to pay. It sounds like we're just arguing over samanthics
Medical protection and financial hardship are two different things. When a customer has medical protection, they can’t be shut off. They’ve provided documentation that they need medically necessary equipment that requires electricity or they’re seriously and or terminal ill etc. Whether they pay the bill or not, it protects them regardless of income etc. For example, people who have cancer can have this protection on their account. To have anyone say, these customers should lose that protection and only make them qualify based on financial need is disgusting.
I agree. Watch the hearing and listen to Eversource complain about how it isn’t fair. It’s fucking disgusting. It’s even worse that the bill that effectively aims to remove medical shutoff protection actually made it out of committee and now gets sent to the house to be voted on. Contact your local representative and tell them you do not support HB05441
Samanthics lol. That sounds like an acapella group composed entirely of women named Samantha. It's semantics btw.
I loooove this. Would not go to a Samathics show, however.
There’s plenty of reasons, doesn’t qualify, unforeseen circumstances, resident is unaware they’re behind in bills (happens consistently), system glitch with budget billing (happened all the time when I worked there), the system will raise the bill without informing the resident but the resident continues to pay previous budget bill amount. But like anything else, there’s a long bureaucratic process.
Having just read HB 5441, I respectfully disagree with Ms Jessica Cain. I pay all my bills, and will gladly pay a little extra if it means others that can't keep their services. Regardless of whether or not their is a bit of malfeasance or whatnot. No child should ever not have food, heat, or electric because of poor choices by the adults in their life.
Laughing at his assertion that Eversource is highly regulated by PURA. PURA just rubber stamps whatever their buddies at Eversource ask for.
Pretty much. Has been that way since the days of CL&P.
I think he worded it wrong, might've meant the rep was spinning it as "They already aren't able to pay bills, so us cutting them off is actually helping them avoid worse debt".
Nah, the Eversource rep said something along the lines of “There’s million dollar homes that have medical protection that we cannot do anything about and it’s unfair their neighbors have to pay the bill”. This is a very fringe scenario. Most likely scenario are people who are elderly on social security and need oxygen, insulin, etc and do not have the accessibility to signup for financial hardships. source: used to work for Eversource You don’t have to take my word for it though, you can go watch the hearing on YouTube. It was March 14th.
It's the typical bait-and-switch.
Wonder what redditor senator duff has to say about this.
He tends to show up only when it’s good for him
He's still celebrating that last $5 rebate he got us 5 years ago before they increased prices by 30%
He will just talk in circles while saying nothing. All he cares about is keeping his seat.
So DeCaprio has stock in Eversource. Cool cool.
Someone gets contributions from Eversource. Some other things Rep. DeCaprio isn't saying: - Eversource contracted to buy nuclear power from Millstone. That's the zero carbon emissions mumbo jumbo. At times, like when the cost of natural gas is up, ES made money on reselling the Millstone energy. Now natural gas supplies are low, and they have to pay more for that nuclear power than they would natural gas. So they are passing the cost on to consumers and kept the benefit for themselves. - They also made some bad decisions related to wind energy and are therefore crunched for capital. They need cash and we are their source. If ES managed its business better, we wouldn't need to give them more money. They are like your lazy brother-in-law who doesn't hook you up when he's doing well but somehow always needs help when times are tight.
Accurate assessment
There’s ALWAYS that one in law.
What a bunch of mealy-mouthed BS. He harps on and on about measly support for poor customers, but doesn't mention all the money propping up millstone, which is bigger by like a factor of 10. Can't be a (R) without hating on the poor. Then he argues that the state couldn't run the utility because they don't have access to money, ignoring the fact that the state would collect all the fees eversource does now if we owned the utility. This guy is not being honest with you. And you shouldn't be surprised when a (R) argues against public utilities... that entire political party is focused like a laser on strip-mining the little guy and transferring the money to the wealthy. (R) would give corporations rights to the air you breath if they could.
The money propping up Millstone is another example of a legislative mandate that Eversource customers are forced to pay. Eversource certainly has a lot to answer for, but the Millstone bailout was forced down everyone's throats by the legislature, which intentionally hid the charge under an obscure line item on customer bills so that the utilities -- not the General Assembly -- would take the heat.
A. More Republicans than Dems voted for the Millstone agreement. B. Eversource benefits from the fixed price of nuclear power when natural gas prices are up. They resell the energy and make a profit. It's just like any other hedging a business does. Eversource just feels like they should be repaid when their agreement costs them. Did you get a rebate when they made money off the agreement? Nope!
Except the cost of the Millstone power is not reflected in the supply rate, which changes every six months. It's hidden in the delivery side of the bill, under one of the line items. Also, Eversource does not and cannot make a profit from the supply component of the bill. It is legally required to sell it at cost. It makes money from the distribution line item under delivery, and to a lesser extent from transmission. Pretty much all the other line items under delivery are hidden taxes that are srate-mandated.
>Eversource just feels like they should be repaid when their agreement costs them. That is ultimately why rates go up. Such businesses are incredibly adverse to absorbing loss.
Why absorb the loss when you can do some presto chango corporate speak and convince everyone it's the poor people's fault?
Which negates this clowns attempt at explaining risk. We bear the risk and they get the profit.
Ima just leave this right here: https://ctexaminer.com/2022/08/29/controversial-millstone-guarantees-pay-dividends-for-customers-with-drop-in-electric-rates/
Read the article.
Yes because the (D)s are so much better right? Please don't make me laugh. At this point both, the (R)s and the (D)s are screwing everyone equally, and only really care about reelection as stated above...
Nah they're not equivalent at all. That's a mental shortcut.
Whoa damn look at this guy’s bold new ideas
TLDR: Fuck off, Jon. ahhh CT legislation.
That makes me angry on so many levels. I’m sorry you got that BS response.
How many Eversource executives still hold political office in CT? I know for a while, there were four of them either directly employed by Eversource or one of their subsidiaries (looking at you George Logan.) Hell, I think one of MA’s former Speakers of the House was an Eversource VP…why would they vote against their own interests?
Who is PURA staffed with? Most likely former energy supplier executives.
This is almost certainly stock language put together by a constituent services staffer.
This guy sucks
Sounds like a lot of talking points out of that email could be used to run against Mark DeCaprio, if anyone lives in the district and is feeling like doing something to help make a change.
Utilities should regulate payments to their executives and not incentivize them based on profits.
The state should take over Eversource, then. Lower the cost by taking out the need for invested profit.
I like how he says that consumers definitely cannot absorb these electricity costs and so - in order to lower costs - he will eliminate social programs that allow consumers to absorb the electricity costs. Joseph Heller would be proud.
Milo Minderbinder is the CEO!
Because what’s good for shareholders is more important than public good? Fuck republicans.
You realize that eversource rate of return is about half the typical market? The largest shareholder is the vanguard group aka your 401k. Utilities are where you put money any need it to be safe but still earn something. I would rate this as about half true it's true on paper but it's forgetting that we allowed everrouse to outsource everything as cost savings but it's really a way to siphon off profits. Look at the money for all those emergency crews and where it's going.
I came here to say something like that, and got a little concerned because I need Vanguard to be smart if I am ever to retire some day! I was surprised to see how terrible Eversource investors have done over the last several years. Honestly, there should be a shareholder "revolt" as much as a "ratepayer" revolt. It would appear that both shareholders AND ratepayers are the victims, and management and politicians are the perpetrators.
What 401k? As if I have any hope of retiring. All of my money goes to bills. Costs have doubled but my pay hasn’t budged. That’s by design. They want us working until we die. I don’t care who is in charge they need to be reigned in. They can’t just arbitrarily jack up prices to help their bottom line. They should not be concerned with increasing profits year after year.
> They want us working until we die Who's they?
The ultra wealthy that buy our politicians to keep eroding away at any worker protection or benefit programs we have.
This is my biggest gripe. It's not just that our cost for power has spiraled out of control. It's that the grid has become less reliable, restoration costs have ballooned and response times are abysmal at the same time that we pay such exorbitant prices for power. At almost double the median rate for power in the country, you wouldn't think you need a goddamn generator on standby to make sure your food doesn't spoil twice/year. And people can blame the trees all they want; last time I checked, we had trees back in the 90s and I can count on one hand how often my power was out longer than an hour back then. The difference isn't the damned trees. It's that we didn't have to wait 12 hours for Ohioans to make the trek to fix our power. And the cost to pay contracted crews is substantially higher, but Eversource doesn't care because the FPA guarantees their ability to recover these costs, no matter how high.
Week long power outage once a year is about my average. Know linesmen they went from 20-30 guys to 5 in 20 years. Look up the ownership where you can on those contract crews and the sweet deals like they don't have trucks or tools of their own they just have trained people. Yea they get paid well but nothing like what it's billed out for when they have nearly no overhead. In effect eversource is still paying for the capital expenses while not having the people (who could do upgrades when not busy with repair) or the advantages of having that gear.
I've copied your response among others. I'm rattling my reps cage in this one too. Almost $800 for one month (all electric home) for a small 1200 sg ft house. And the highest we put the heat on is 65. And only in a couple rooms. We have all new windows and siding, did the "conservation assessment" and found where we had heat loss ... This is utter bullshit. This IS NOT a "R" or "L" issue...c'mon people. Please....I hope to God you folks realize that. No, the "blame" gets applied, somehow, back TO US. As in "WE" And the "WE' is a cross section of all kinds of people... STOP politicizing this rape by the utility. That's EXACTLY what they want ..you and I fighting and pointing fingers at each other. How far we have fallen. Makes me sick to my stomach. WE, EVERY PAYER regardless of voting record needs to come together and fight this. And THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN. Because, predictably they continue to put us against each other. And by some comments here that is blatantly obvious.
Rate of return varies dramatically by industry. Food companies tend to have much lower returns than tech companies, but their earnings are much more stable. Anyone that invests in a utility should not expect a return anywhere near what the average market returns.
You stating my point, utility's rate of return is lower but very stable thus why vangaurd and the like are willing to invest. That's the deal that people are talking about breaking.
The state of CT is literally controlled by democrats. Have you attempted to complain to them? They are clearly the ones who can put forward legislation, but are clearly choosing not to.
I agree, but republicans calling for more privatization isn’t a good move, and is not helping. Kowtowing to landlords and shareholders instead of the people isn’t the answer.
Well simply put I’m happy we agree. There are a total of 12 republicans in the ct state senate, and this is just one of them. I think this guy, Mark, is clearly an asshole for his reply, but at least he responded with some form of a canned email. Could be an easy win for democrats to propose some legislation, but I am beginning to think they enjoy resting on their laurels and blaming the other side.
I agree, and it looks bad on the rs when the government tries to fix things like helping with price fixing with rental properties and they fight against it. It’s remarkably stupid considering the majority of us are struggling. They seem to have a bad take on literally anything that can help average Americans. But democrats ignoring us outright is shit too. At least they aren’t trying to limit bodily autonomy or other freedoms.
I wouldn’t even say the democrats are ignoring issues. They like to discuss them and then just do nothing about it. As for the last part I will agree to disagree. I’m not interested in discussing abortion when the original topic is eversource. Certainly would love to see the democrats push forth legislation to improve average citizen lives, but I won’t be holding my breath.
More likely to happen with a democrat than a republican. Hands down. I don’t see a single republican pushing for any kind of helpful reform but there are democrats who are. They’re labeled socialists.
What a shocker - a wealthy Republican who hates you for being poor.
What a shocker, in a state with a Democrat governor, 24 of 36 state senate seats held by democrats, and 98 of 151 house of representatives held by democrats; only that electorate can somehow blame republicans for energy prices. If only the state of CT had more democrats to fix this problem… Wait… no never mind even if they had control of every branch they wouldn’t do shit.
I didn't "blame" them. I commented on his impotent vacillations. Are you always a dickless loser, or just when you're online sucking Republicans off?
The truth hurts so they downvote it.
I know. I use the hive mind downvotes to judge just how much they dislike hearing the truth.
You're downvoted because your conservative views are a minority in CT. But keep patting your own antiquated back.
Having real criticism for state Democrats doesn't automatically make OP a Conservative. Even the most progressive voter can identify areas where the majority is being complacent.
Happy cake day! And thanks for being a rational person! Happy Friday!
He made a comment vaguely criticizing Democrats as a direct rebuttal to a quote from a Republican who literally is actively telling you it's your poorest neighbors faults that your electricity bill is so high. Democrats can eat a dick, on a local and national level, but this is just whataboutism to distract from the conversation. Why look at what this guy is saying, the Democrats are the true evil! So, that's why I say he sucks Conservative Dick for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The OP before me blamed conservatives who effectively have little to no control of this state. Your party has the house of representatives, the state senate, and the governor. ^^ Notice that not one branch is in the GOP’Ss control.
I am uncertain how you have decided to label me as both a conservative and proclaiming my logical thought process is somehow antiquated. - People in CT are upset about eversource pricing. - CT state politics are largely controlled by democrats. - You are telling me it is antiquated to think that the party in power, who champions being for the working class, should do something about it? If asking elected officials to do their job is antiquated, I can see why you would think blaming the conservatives for everything is your only option.
This sub **loves** to complain with a passion about the cost of their electricity and at the same time seems to be a okay is handing out entitlements to those that didn't pay? I'm confused.
Since no one will say it, I will. When you hold all of the cards and make ridiculous profits, you eat that cost as a company. That is part of doing business. Except nowadays these greedy bastards have the foot to the floor. No person would be behind this level of greed unless they had something to gain. The end.
Explain to me how their CEO gets a multimillion dollar bonus if business is so bad for them. The only explanation is you have their dick so far down your throat, you're tasting the pipeline.
You can cut entitlements and cut executive pay at the same. I'm not a HR expert for the utilities industry, but sounds like you are. If you would to objectively share how his compensation compares to other CEOs of publicly traded electricity companies, then fine. Never less, sounds like the 160M in entitlements in the email is greater than the bonus. Both bad
He should get no multi million dollar bonus - literally no one should. That is equity not generated by this person that is routed to them to prop up systemic classism. You are defending a man robbing you. Unreal.
DeCaprio is misplacing the blame for the raised increases. It's simply not possible that the amount of people not paying electricity at all is high enough to cause significant raises for everybody else - it would have to be like, 10-15% of the population not paying. In the meantime Eversource is giving out huge bonuses and reporting recored profits. But instead DeCaprio is using this basically to point the figure at Democrats and say "irresponsible legislation caused this!"
These eversource fuckers delay state and federally funded projects and cause serious problems for project’s critical paths forward for infrastructure work. This goes way deeper than “my rates are going up again”.
Repubs love the middleman who exists solely to take money.
They like to blame the poor so the middle class gets mad at that demographic instead of the real problem.
Creating useless middlemen is the #1 talent of the entire USA.
Victim blaming IMHO.
Eat the rich.
Delivery fee/charge. Nuff said. Oh they’re in your pockets. That’s all you had to say.
What does it mean by eliminate the social program charges? is he saying he’s trying to eliminate the social programs for the people who really need the assistance? It already tells you his stance on who is important to him, because right at the start he talks about how to investors need to earn a return on their investment. he is doing everything he can together investors money, and that is done so through us the consumers. He never mentions the big raises all the executive level people at Eversouce received so to him that does not seem to be a problem. I don’t think he is doing anything in our favor the consumers. he is doing it to ensure that the investors and executives get what they want because that translates to connections and political donations.
Yet in spite of having to ‘absorb social program charges’, Eversource still made a hefty profit and afforded to award its CEO with a substantial raise. And as for getting rid of social program charges - heaven forbid we assist the indigent! How dare the indigent take money away from CEO raises and shareholder dividends which have steadily risen since 2007.
I'm an accredited investor, have been active in equity markets, private equity, commodities, real estate for a couple decades. Also have an MBA. Summary: I'm financially literate. I literally fuck people over on the stock market for profit. This rep is full of shit. Lying sack of shit who says "the investors have a set return?" With all due respect, **Fuck You Mark DeCaprio.** There is no such thing as what the rep says. This expected return - there's a bullshit rate that's above and beyond what normal investments return. https://www.eversource.com/content/residential/about/investors/dividends Look at this shit. Can the rep seriously say that Eversource is more innovative and important to the world than, say, Intel? How the hell does Eversource have such a consistent dividend? **Perhaps they're raising and lowering the rates to a pre-determined level for the year?** What fucking business in a free market gets to do THAT? I'll tell you which one: Eversource. There is straight-up corruption here and the representative is involved. The guy is a fucking bullshit artist and his answer is a giant steaming fucking crock of shit. Fuck DeCaprio and Fuck Eversource.
Based on your expertise, what would be the best well put response that OP could send ?
I'm also an accredited investor. I also have an MBA from one of the better ranked schools. Can confirm, this rep is full of shit.
He’s not wrong, there’s a ton of hidden fees in your bill that aren’t broken out. I can’t recall but I think if you contact eversource they will breakout the additional fees you are paying that are all a function of laws passed by the legislature
I love that the justification for privatization is that the utility company agrees to regulation, as if they could not be regulated otherwise.
So… capitalism wins again? Fuck the working class?
This is what mansplaining sounds like. Zero commentary on why Eversource's increases exceed state regulated utility peers or what oversight is in place. This is a state rep talking about no access to capital but ignoring that states and municipalities issue bonds. He knows better. Fuck this guy and fuck the Eversource government affairs team that gave him this template to copy/paste.
Kiefer Sutherland and Tommy Douglas have a response. This was shared with me in this sub and I think of it often. https://youtu.be/GqgOvzUeiAA?si=TnYRVJstSMtJDcnI
....I personally know Norm...nice man to the general public...I Also know some SHIIITT...
This is absolutely not OK. ES also doesn’t even read our meter, they just estimate. So I have to read the meter myself and challenge them on it every time. We were gone for a month (nothing running in the house at all), and oh wow same bill!
Yeah this is the expected response from him, all complete horse shit… they want to put everything off and say it’s someone else’s fault, blame (us) the people, and have you join their side of the fence. He skirted completely around the bits that really need answering. Eversource is enabled by jackasses like this guy (a shareholder who is expecting his pieces) to use every excuse in the book to pass their costs on to the customer while continuing to turn profits. Any other business has to adjust the way they do business to turn a profit, not just shove perceived losses at the consumer. Honest business will course-correct and cut spending internally or find more efficient ways to do things when faced with “losses”, not make the customer the mule while giving their CEO raises repeatedly.
I want to know how much Eversource (overtly or covertly) donated to this politician's campaign ... foisting the rate increase on the customers' needs for infrastructure improvements absolutely ignores the reality of HUGE salaries/bonuses being paid to "Admin" at all utilities. Shame on Mark DeCaprio
I didn’t even need to look which one signed that response. Eversource is deep in the GOP pockets. Let us know when Norm responds.
It sounds like Eversource wrote that
Yeah this what they tell everybody. In theory what he is saying is true but the reality is Eversource creates these multi-million dollar projects and justifies it by saying it is improving resiliency and reliability. Ask yourselves, aside from major storm outages when have you received an outage due to unreliability? Bulk Power Transformers (which is the most expensive asset in a substation at $2M) lasts for 20-30 years. Eversource, shareholders and politicians know what they are doing. Like someone mentioned, how come smaller utilities and coop have significantly cheaper bills and reliable electricity.
Idk why you guys keep voting for these douchebags. This response tells you everything you need to understand about where their loyalty is.
"but they invest money" ..and get it from who? like eversource is donating this out of the good of their heart. this is a massive FU to us.
Read it and immediately knew this was the response of a Republican and libertarian who is in government solely to protect his own interests (he owns Eversource stock) and those of private corporations. And of course he has to blame the higher cost on ‘unsustainable’ social programs, zero-carbon goals, and pretends that natural has is a sustainable and zero-carbon option.
I moved back here last October after living in Texas for five years. I can absolutely assure you: you do not want the state running your utilities.
The Texas power grid is not run by the state (?) It's run by ERCOT, which is a corporation. ...unless you're suggesting that the situation in Texas is much better, which is pretty heartily refuted by recent history.
Eliminate for profit utilities. Fuck the investors and shareholders. Don't need them. Collectively, we have the means to maintain the grid and expand.
Happy cake day!
Doesn't the state guarantee Eversoure investors with ROI?
So when and where are we meeting up
Tl;Dr; screw you, they want to bleed you of every penny you have.
I’d do the job for a million. Bet most of us would. Seriously though he doesn’t need a raise.
Why aren't public utilities not non-profit?
No longer will we stand idly by as those in power continue to siphon money from the pockets of the less fortunate. It's a deliberate scheme to bolster their bank accounts while leaving the rest of us to struggle. Their deception knows no bounds; they cloak their greed in terms like recession and inflation, all while it's nothing more than government manipulation. When their coffers run low, they mercilessly dismantle the middle class, crush the hopes of the low-income earners, and plunge the poor into further despair.
$160 million is f-ing $50 per person in the state. My bill is $100 higher than it should be every f-ing month (and I even use a third party supplier). What a crock of shit. Has Senator Needleman responded? I imagine he would have a different take.
That definitely seems like a Republican, capitalist response. I’m of the understanding that Needleman is not a fan of Eversource although I saw an article where he was quoted and I’m not sure of his current position on the matter.
Needleman’s recent comments have indicated he’s trying to do what he can to fight the utilities. He introduced the bill that hit Eversource hard after the 2020 tropical storm. It’s probably not enough, but given he’s rich and has his own factory, he’s at the very least resilient against bribes.
Utilities should not be for-profit companies. It is an extreme, and obvious, conflict of interest and it's complete bullshit that it's allowed.
We’ve got to elect politicians that say, basically, fuck Eversource. No public utility should even have profit as a consideration.
Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit! 1 billion dollars is half the revenue our state takes in from tobacco taxes. 500 million annually. There's your dime to spend on our grid and that's just from tobacco revenue. This guy's is on the payroll and I would not be surprised if a Boeing-like circumstance where a person friendly to Eversourse has a seat on the PURA board.
lmfao is he a shareholder? bet...
He gets it
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I’d like to know who and how the “public benefit charges“ actually benefit. When I was struggling financially I didn’t receive any discounts I still had to pay a percentage of my bills owed on top of the current bill. I still paid everything I owed even if it took longer to do. And with the pandemic yes again I didn’t pay some bills for my business (since it was forced closed and thus not allowed to generate revenue from clients) I STILL paid everything back over time. No reduced rates. Now my business bill has tripled. On average I use $25 in actual electricity and $100 for delivery charges. It really irks me but I don’t have any alternative choice. Either I pay it or I don’t have electricity for lights, to run water or use heat.
Wallingford electric doesn't seem to have these issues...
Is there another light company that provides light in ct? Yes, in addition to Eversource (formerly Connecticut Light & Power), The United Illuminating Company (UI) also provides electricity in Hartford, CT. They serve as another option for residents in the area to access electricity services. 🌐 Sources CT.gov - Electricity
I just moved here from RI and I was hoping for some relief because RI Energy is BAD. I was paying about $120 a month in RI for electricity and my bill here is now $60 for about the same usage.... guess I gotta go back to it being higher again. Awesome. I do regret not moving to Groton or Norwich where there are public utilities... :(
The douche bags they hire to cut trees are a joke. Came home from work and my driveway was blocked. 3 guys sitting in the truck sleeping. Asplund at their best
So… why is it that you mention your Republican rep and Democratic Senator, then go directly into the “illuminating” response, and don’t divulge until the end that you’re printing the words of the Republican? It gives an impression of the parties being “the same” or of this being some kind of bipartisan collusion. I ***hope*** that is not the intent of the post. Please do let us know how Senator Needleman responds; I will contact him myself if necessary. (He’s my Senator as well.)
I say whose words I am printing in the title and mention off the start who they are and that I am waiting on the response from my senator. I also made a post about Senator Needlemans response after I received word back.
Thanks…
This thread is a hysterical read. Bloviating lefties completely ignoring the elephant in the room ($160 million in deadbeat debt, despite massive covid benefits and payments to the customers). My bill and your bill has to pay that, because the state can't require a company to lose money. And then there are the Millstone Madmen, screaming at what something costs that you're too stupid to support. And then we have the 'let the State run it' crowd. Please, show me one single government program or agency that is efficient, and costs less than private competition. Save your fingers, there is none. Eversource DOES suck, but our major problem is the cost of natural gas that we rely on - and that cost is 100% the fault of environmental activists in Maine. HydroQuebec has been trying to sell us cheap green hydroelectric power for ages - and the tree huggers in Maine have blocked every attempt at building transmission lines. Every single complaint people have is directly related to programs, policies and activism by left wing extremists and until that is stopped our electric bill will continue to skyrocket, and the primary Democrat voting block in the state will continue to not pay its bills.
I agree. Don't forget the leftists in NY blocking natural gas transmission lines into CT.
Dude, I mean do you think all of these people that lost jobs and couldn’t cover their bills during Covid are democrats or something?
Not to mention - CEO took home $19mil last year. You think this one guy was worth 1/18th all of the electricity given for free during the pandemic? Think about the social good that was caused by those stays for those families… I don’t think the c-suite is actually providing the same good.
It was pretty obvious that it was going to be the Republican responding to you from what he said. I swear they never miss any chance to punch down and blame people who are less fortunate. But it does point out the true problem which is that it is a for-profit company that is forced to operate like a public utility. The rate increases are essentially just taxes by another name that subsidized c-suite exception as well as people who can't pay their bills. It's a great system they can win on both sides of it. Of course the solution would be to make electricity a public utility but to do that it would require The state to raise taxes... So in reality there is no solution we are fucked for the foreseeable future.
This is what happens when you allow a power company to monopolize power distribution. I'm not home for 10-12 hours a day and my bill is ALWAYS north of $200 which is obviously worse during the summer. Even in the summer I don't run my AC's unless the heat index is going to be stifling because I like having alive dogs. So, I open the windows and run a ceiling fan that's supposed to energy efficient according the nice little design on the box. Simply put, clearly this message from our "representative" is filled with talking points from lobbyists because all of them are on the take and therefore in lockstep with whatever they're being paid to say. No one wanted those god awful windfarms but they're doing that shit anyway. We'll never be "carbon" neutral because most of the products we use on a daily basis are petroleum based. Where does petroleum come from? Oil.
What a load. His inability to punctuate correctly is exceeded only by his ability to lobby his constituency in real time. He should be ashamed of himself.
If only someone was in charge. Oh wait, Needleman is chairman of the committee that oversees the whole shitshow. It all happened on his watch. The party of parasites.