Letter to James P. Torgerson Chief Executive Officer The United Illuminating Company

Letter

James P. Torgerson Chief Executive Officer The United Illuminating Company 157 Church Street New Haven, Connecticut 06510-2100

Dear Jim,

I am writing to you to share some concerns I have begun to hear from constituents in several towns across my District as to United Illuminating's ability under state law to recoup losses via rate increases. While I know and understand that your first priority remains restoration of power to your customers throughout Connecticut, I wanted to bring these issues to your attention in the hopes that you may be able to alleviate these concerns now.

Tropical Storm Irene caused serious damage throughout the state and seriously impacted your company's ability to deliver electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers throughout the state. Utilizing all of your own personnel assets, bringing in crews from other states and working diligently over the last many days, much progress has been made in clearing roads as well as replacing broken poles, transformers, and downed lines. While I certainly understand that complete recovery and restoration efforts takes time, particularly to ensure the safety of the linemen and crews, as I am sure you know, the level of frustration among customers and municipal leaders has been palpable.

This frustration has been further aggravated by news reports that Connecticut state statutes allow United Illuminating to recoup losses associated with such outage events through rate increases. I and my staff have already heard from several constituents outraged that the state's utility companies would even consider such an option and most have cited the fact the Connecticut residents already pay some of the highest electrical rates in the country.

It is my understanding that utility companies such as United Illuminating often carry insurance to recover the costs associated with these types of natural disasters. I would appreciate clarification on how you plan to proceed as far as recouping the expenses the company has incurred and hope that you will also make every effort to make this information available to your customers.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I look forward to your response and to continuing our work together.

Sincerely,

ROSA L. DeLAURO Member of Congress

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