Suit over energy fund raid

Clean power money targeted in state budget

A leading environmental group, several renewable energy businesses and a number of utility ratepayer groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court to prevent the Connecticut Legislature from raiding energy efficiency and clean power programs in an effort to balance the state’s budget.

The Connecticut Fund for the Environment and other participants in the litigation announced the filing of the lawsuit in U.S. during a news conference in front of U.S. District Court in Hartford Tuesday.

There are a total of 12 plaintiffs in the case, including CFE, New Haven-based Fight The Hike and Connecticut Citizen Action Group, and they are suing Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, state Treasurer Denise Nappier and state Comptroller Kevin Lembo.

Malloy said the legal challenge to the energy fund raid “should come as a surprise to no one,” and blamed legislative Republicans for pushing for the maneuver.

“I have long maintained that these shortsighted sweeps would increase energy costs for consumers and businesses and cause untold harm to our green energy economy,” the governor said in a statement.

“While the administration in Washington attacks environmental protections and investments in clean energy, we should be cementing our role as a national leader in our efforts to combat climate change and protect our communities. The energy sweeps ... represented a massive step backwards, and I continue to strongly oppose them.”

Roger Reynolds, chief legal director for CFE, said the lawsuit was triggered by a decision by Connecticut lawmakers last year to take $155 million in money utility customers pay on their electric bills and is used for specific energy efficiency and clean energy services.

Curt Johnson, executive director for CFE, said the lawsuit is based on the contracts clause of the U.S. Constitution.

“Ratepayer dollars which are set aside for a purpose like this constitute a contract under the U.S. Constitution,” Johnson said. “This (taking if the funds) represents an unconstitutional violation of the contract clause.”

He said the raid on the clean energy and efficiency funding is also illegal because nonprofits pay into the fund.

“There are strict laws against the taxation of nonprofits ,” Johnson said.

Connecticut lawmakers authorized the raid on the funds last October to fill a hole in the state budget. The money, however, won’t start to be collected until next month.

Mike Trahan, executive director of the trade group Solar Connecticut, said this is not the first time state lawmakers have raided the clean energy and efficiency funds.

“We’re not letting it go this time,” Trahan said. “If this raid is not stopped, it will add to the hundreds of millions that state lawmakers have quietly taken from people who pay a UI or Eversource electric bill over the past 10-plus years. That money was supposed to be returned back to ratepayers in the form of low cost clean energy and energy efficiency products and services.”

Reducing the funding for clean energy and efficiency efforts, could cost the state more than 6,600 jobs in each of the next two years, according to officials with the groups that are filing the lawsuit.

New Haven resident Frank Panzarella, a member of the consumer group Fight The Hike, called the funding raids “a major rip off” that threatens the health of residents in the city.

“We have some of the highest asthma rates in the country,” Panzarella said.