Attorney General Urges Eversource to Reimburse Connecticut Consumers
There have been multiple frustrations in the state ever since, and even before, Tropical Storm Isaias touched down in Connecticut.
At first, Eversource surprised everyone with a rate hike on their bill. Then after the Tropical Storm hit, they took their sweet time to restore everyone's power.
We have been keeping up with Danbury Mayor, Mark Boughton, as he voiced his frustrations about Eversource. Now it has been taken another step further.
Connecticut Attorney General, William Tong, urged both Eversource and United Illuminating to immediately reimburse consumers for food and prescriptions that were lost due to the power outage. He also made it a point to say "use shareholder, not ratepayer funds," according to a recent press release. He continued by saying "they have millions of dollars in profits they can use to cover this cost immediately without putting the burden back on ratepayers. Families were already struggling to pay for groceries before this storm. No one should go hungry because Eversource and UI didn't do their jobs."
Attorney General, William Tong, additionally took to Twitter to post his thoughts:
It looks like Attorney General Tong isn't the only person openly frustrated with the company. It was reported that three Connecticut residents and a local business owner have filed a class action lawsuit on Eversource, according to Fox 61. The lawsuit is on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents who lost power due to the storm. Eversource is being accused of negligence, breach of contract, recklessness, and violating the CT fair trade practices, according to the article. It was noted that "they did not take appropriate and effective measures to prevent the interruption of electrical service caused by a storm," and that the company "did not have backup and/or supplemental work crews ready and available to be deployed for electrical power restoration efforts."
Will Eversource be willing to reimburse lost food or prescriptions? I guess we will need to wait and see. For now, let's make sure everyone in the state gets their power back. It has been tough week and a half for our state.