Rob Blanchard's Best Energy Idea Died on the House Calendar in April

Lori Hashizume and Douglas Fried write that Rob Blanchard wants towns to have the option of purchasing power in bulk, steadier and more predictable pricing, and closer scrutiny of infrastructure costs before they land on ratepayers. I agree with all three. So let's look at what happened to them.

Bulk purchasing leads their letter, so start there. That is municipal electric aggregation, and Connecticut does not allow it. Ten other states do, including Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and New Jersey. House Bill 5245 would have changed that. The Energy and Technology Committee approved it 24 to 2. Every Republican on the committee voted yes. Both no votes were Democrats. It was reported favorably and calendared April 2. The session adjourned May 7. In five weeks the House never called it, and the bill is listed as dead.

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Democrats hold the House. Nobody blocked this. It was simply not a priority for the people who decide what reaches the floor. Mr. Blanchard is now campaigning on it.

On rates, credit where it is due. Connecticut residential bills fell about 10.6 percent between June 2025 and June 2026 while the national average rose about 5 percent, and we went from the fifth-highest rates in the country to twelfth. That is real.

Now read how. In April, PURA nearly eliminated the public benefits charge, worth roughly $30 to $34 a month. Those rates run from May 1 through April 30, 2027. Eversource's own spokeswoman called the decrease temporary and said customers are "basically seeing a refund" of last year's overcharge, with another increase possible when the payback period ends. The credit arrives before the election and expires after it.

The state also borrowed. The 2025 energy law, Public Act 25-173, authorized up to $250 million in general obligation bonds to hold down hardship protection costs on the public benefits charge, plus $50 million for electric vehicle charging, with terms up to 20 years. That does not eliminate a cost. It moves it off your electric bill and onto the state's credit card for two decades.

Which brings us to the third promise, closer scrutiny of infrastructure costs before they land on ratepayers. There is a live example.

Eversource says it has more than $1 billion in unresolved storm costs from 2018 through 2023. In that same April decision, PURA allowed the company to set aside $100 million toward them. PURA's own interim commissioner, Everett Smith, said on the record that he would have preferred to set aside up to $250 million while rates were low, because "accumulated storm costs are a bill that will have to be paid." He got $100 million.

And Public Act 25-173 authorized up to $2.2 billion in rate reduction bonds, repaid through a charge on your bill. Eversource has asked PURA to use that tool on the storm costs. Securitizing a cost does not make it go away. It stretches it out and adds interest. New distribution rates arrive in mid-2027.

You do not have to take my word that the relief is thinner than advertised. House Speaker Matt Ritter, a Democrat, said of the same decision: "The issue is supply, and at the end of the day you're nibbling around the edges when you're talking about public benefits."

The letter closes by calling Rob Blanchard "the only qualified candidate in this race." Amybeth LaRoche serves on Newtown's Board of Finance, the town body that goes through budgets line by line. You can prefer another candidate without informing your neighbors that the woman on the finance board is unqualified to ask what things cost.

Here is the fair question. Every item on Mr. Blanchard's energy list is something the current majority could have delivered and did not. One of them had 24 committee votes, bipartisan support, and five weeks on the calendar. If the argument for Hartford is that he will finally get these done, what stopped his own party in May?