Vince Illuzzi, a longtime senator and candidate for state auditor, called the Public Service Board’s order approving a merger between Green Mountain Power and Central Vermont Public Service Corp. “a dark day for consumers” in a statement issued Monday.
Illuzzi became a party to the board proceedings on behalf of himself and a group of ratepayers asking for the Department of Public Service, the state’s public advocate before the board, to appoint independent counsel given its commissioner, Elizabeth Miller, is married to an attorney who works for the firm that represents Green Mountain Power.
Illuzzi later pushed for bills in the Senate that would allow the state to purchase up to 51 percent of VELCO, the company that operates the state’s transmission grid, and required the utilities to give ratepayers $21 million as part of a windfall requirement. Neither of those bills survived the legislative session.
“Sadly, the Public Service Board denied the ratepayers relief on both counts,” Illuzzi said in a statement.
He did give the board credit for ensuring a 38-percent public voting block on the VELCO board. Without that safeguard, the investor-owned utilities would have been able to control most transmission decisions in the state.
“In what was otherwise a dark day for consumers, I am pleased the PSB gave some credence to my arguments that the public should be represented on the VELCO board,” Illuzzi’s statement read.
