Being held hostage by Eversource must end

If last week was an example of how Eversource responds after a tropical storm, God help us if we get whacked by a hurricane.

I live in Franklin, close to Bozrah and Norwich, both covered by municipal power companies. Those towns had their power restored quickly. Nearly all in my town were without power for five days. Eversource is charging customers top dollar, but giving them the service one could expect in Uzbekistan.

Connecticut has for decades had among the most expensive electrical rates. Currently Connecticut has the second highest residential electric rates in the country, behind only Hawaii, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Yet in the wake of this disaster, Gov. Ned Lamont wants to give Eversource “incentives” to improve its job performance. Why should Eversource, which earned over $900 million last year, get incentives for ordinary competence?

The state should more easily enable towns, and beleaguered ratepayers, to join municipal electric companies and give incentives for the formation of nonprofit regional electric companies for better service and lower rates. Enough of being held hostage by the likes of Eversource CEO James Judge, who wouldn’t interrupt his golf game to address sweltering ratepayers who provide his over-generous salary.

Maura J. Casey Franklin

Editor’s note: Casey is a former Day editor, editorial writer and columnist.