Happy Good Friday! We have 75,456 signers. There are two items I wanted to update you on:

1) Conversation with Senator Norm Needleman (D)

My last update, I trashed the Democrats pretty hard.  Now, I wanted to share with you Norm's take on this current energy crisis. I am sharing with his permission.

First, I wanted to say I have a great deal of respect for Norm. He has always answered my emails and text. He has always remain respectful to me. We don't agree on certain positions but that is the way life is. People and parties will never agree on everything but we need to get along. He is very likable and I feel that he has the best interest for us at heart under very difficult circumstances.

He has mentioned to me that an extremely lopsided party state (like CT) where either Dems or Republicans control all three branches in the House, Senate, and Gov is never a good thing. I agree. He also stated that the Republicans don't offer any good suggestions with regards to our energy policies. I disagree.

Senator Needleman, the man, is very intelligent and knows his away around hedging energy futures and procuments. He also serves as First Selectman of Essex, an office he has held since 2011. He also is a successful businessman and runs his own company, Tower Laboratories. I find our conversations enlightening.

Let's face it. Political postering is a fact in our society. To be in office, you need contributions from groups. It takes money. If elected, the political influence can be great. This goes for both sides of the isle. So when anyone responds to me, I always remain skeptical on hidden intent but appreciate the effort.

My Q&A with Norm:
Note: Personal content has been removed for privacy.

Hi Norm,

Hope all is well and you had a good time in [redacted]. I wanted your thoughts on this.
I know SB647 is dead. Before I put out another petition update (75 thousand now) I wonder if you would be open to more transparency in our electric bills and add this to SB4?

1 - Require UI and Eversource to have a complete breakdown on what is included in the public benefit charge
2- Customer transparency before PURA holds a meeting about possible rate hikes or changes - notifications on paper and online billing. I know there was some talk about public hearings.
3 - Would it be possible that PURA could do more to sperad the word when rate hikes are going to be implemented? Social Media, email, and public announcements in easy to understand language for everyone.

You know since [redacted], radical transparency worked there. I should think it could work in the state of Connecticut.

Thanks
Scott

From: "Sen. Needleman, Norm" <Norm.Needleman@cga.ct.gov>
To: "Scott Pearson" <scottp104@yahoo.com>
Sent: Wed, Apr 2, 2025 at 7:43 PM
Subject: Re: Hey Norm - Regarding SB4

Hi Scott, sorry for not responding yesterday but it’s been quite hectic. Every time I go through the public hearing time in the legislature, I neglect things at work and in town and [redacted] so I’m trying to get ready for the next phase of the legislative session.

There are some things in the Republican bill that I’m gonna talk to Ryan about and some of your ideas are certainly worth discussing.

I think that we actually Made the bills more confusing when we broke it down from 2 to 4 categories and I think more explanation may be helpful.

That says the Bill redesign was a multi year process and it cost a lot of money. I do want to try to work to make it clearer, but I don’t want to spend a lot of money to do it.

I am open to suggestions and in case you didn’t know it in her five years or so in the job as pure chair Marisa did over 50 Pura 101 sessions in different towns around the state. She really does a good job with that. I hope that when things settle down, she can get back to that.

The problem with the system that we have is that the bill addressed four times a year and that’s insane but it’s a function of the regulation and a private market for energy supply. It’s too complicated and I wish I could figure out a way to fix it.

The reason that Vermont, also in New England, has lower rates at the moment is because they’re a vertical state and they were able to smooth out weights when the bumps hit in 21 and 22. We have no ability to do that as a deregulated state. That had the other two commissioners on the authority, agreed with the chair and allowed the accumulated cost of the pandemic and the war to be spread out over a longer period of time you would not have seen the outcry that we’ve seen for the last 10 months.

Authority does have it within the power to smooth things out, however because it’s a vote to do that the majority would have to agree and two out of the three of them did not agree. In my opinion, that was because the utilities wanted their money sooner that’s another whole story.

I hope you’re doing well and I am as always open to suggestions. I’d like to catch up at some point after I get through the mountain of work that I have in Essex and in my business. Best, Norm.
Please excuse any typing errors

This was sent from my iPhone
Norman Needleman

*end of communique*

2) S.B.1560 from Sen. John Fonfara (D)

The news broke that State Sen. John Fonfara (D) unveiled a sweeping piece of legislation, S.B.1560 on Wednesday that would reorient the state’s system of energy purchasing and remove the controversial public benefit charge from ratepayers’ bills. Promising an immediate 20% reduction of the average electricity bill. You can watch or read it on WTNH Channel 8 news. You can also read the article by Karla Ciaglo from CT News Junkie here.

Something is off about this. He is going terminate his position as a legislator for his appointment to PURA board of directors. So why now after our CPB insane rate increase in August of 2024 ends in April 2025? 

Is it possible that with so much publicity state wide and your voices in this petition, the democratic party wants to get control of this insanity before they get voted out?

I wanted to point out that this a bill only, although we are a fully democrat controlled state, meaning there is very little bipartisan voting. 

My thoughts:

Senator Needleman has been a vocal advocate for Marissa Paslick Gillett, Chairman of PURA. I have no doubt she’s intelligent and understands energy policy well. I can tell you that it's quite complicated. Also, I have no doubt that she is pressured by political influences from this state.

That being said—Marissa and PURA need to take ownership of the absolute failure in protecting Connecticut ratepayers when it comes to electric rates and the socialist BS that is called Public Benefit Charges. The policy has failed to protect the middle class, seniors on fixed incomes, and those who can’t afford rising costs because Connecticut just keeps adding taxes upon taxes. The bleeding must be stopped!

Under the current assistance programs, you must qualify if you receive food stamps or you annual income falls below $45,505 for 1 person, $59,507 a couple. How does that even work living in one of the most expensitve state in the Union?

You can't bankrupt Connecticut ratepayers for the sake of funding green energy, EV's, and other policies. Find another way, end of story!

~scott