Danbury Mayor on Eversource: ‘We Are Preparing Our Lawsuit’

Danbury Mayor, Mark Boughton, joined the Ethan and Lou Show Thursday (8/20/20) in his regular weekly spot. We asked the Mayor about the new class action lawsuit against Eversource and what the next steps are for holding the power company accountable for their lack of preparation ahead of Tropical Storm Isaias. This is what Boughton had to say:

Next week, there's some key hearings, we have filed documents in what they call the PURA hearing and that is the oversight agency over Eversource, explaining fines we want and new regulations that we're asking to be put in. The Legislature, actually, a Danbury Legislator, Dave Arcoti, who is the Chairman of the Energy and Technology Committee, rolled out a bunch of proposals on Monday. Things like reimbursing people for food, paying fines. The Governor has said this is the most ridiculous system he's ever seen, to get rewarded for delivering poor service, so he wants to restructure the way Eversource actually makes a profit.

He continued:

I think we got the ball going in the right direction, we are preparing our lawsuit, but we have to exhaust all of the administrative remedies first because otherwise, the Judge will throw it out. I'm going to the hearing, I'm going to be a featured speaker at the Energy and Technology Committee hearing on their bill, so we're going to basically be taking a bite out of them like McGruff.

Full Eversource/Mark Boughton segment below 

I didn't see a McGruff the Crime Dog reference coming, but I'm sure glad it is there. We will never get the change we need from Eversource if we don't insist on our local and State reps to ride this company. If we all take it easy and let the pressure off, Eversource will go back to the same playbook. They will not prepare properly for storms and will gouge our prices.