CEA Deputy Northeast Director Bryson Hull, a Connecticut native and former journalist, wrote a stinging criticism of glowing media coverage surrounding the resignation of state’s top utility regulator, Marissa Gillett, for RTO Insider – an influential publication aimed at utility regulators and professionals.
Comparing her exit under threat of impeachment to that of former President Richard Nixon, Hull corrected a record that has been dressed up to praise Gillett’s disastrous term running Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA).
“One of the foundational lessons of journalism holding the powerful to account is the downfall of President Richard Nixon, who resigned rather than face impeachment after reporting uncovered evidence he’d lied about Watergate. No one ever called Nixon “probably the best president.”
Yet after Connecticut’s chief utility regulator, Marissa Gillett, resigned while facing an impeachment hearing, we are reading fans of her advocacy calling her “probably the best regulator in the country.”
Gillett’s exit tracks President Nixon’s — and the lesson that the cover-up is worse than the lie is being proven again because certain journalists are doing their job.”
Hull then lays out the facts: that Gillett – a lawyer – lied under oath, hid public records and made decisions that caused all of the state’s utilities to suffer credit rating cuts that will only cause rates to rise. Whitewashing those facts harms not only Connecticut’s people, but would wrongfully color Gillett’s tenure as a success in national conversations about the future of regulation when it was in fact a disaster underpinned by dishonesty.
“For PURA to succeed, an honest, thorough accounting of the Gillett era is required. Since collaboration is at the core of smoothly functioning regulation, trust with the regulated companies and the ultimate end users — the people of the state of Connecticut bearing some of the nation’s highest retail electricity rates — must be rebuilt.
This is not just to ensure that Connecticut’s regulation is proper, reasonable and working in the interest of the people, but to ensure that PURA’s record under Gillett is not portrayed as a model of propriety or best practices in the national conversation about the future of regulation.
The facts speak otherwise, thanks to good, old-fashioned journalism that uncovered a record riddled with deceptions. If Gillett is the nation’s best regulator, the U.S. is in real trouble. Let Connecticut’s embarrassing regulatory saga be a lesson for other jurisdictions on what not to do.”
CEA advocated strongly on behalf of consumers during Gillett’s tenure, providing a reasoned counterpoint to claims that PURA’s actions benefited ratepayers, and remains an influential voice on behalf of Connecticut consumers as further evidence of misconduct unfolds.
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