Crisco: Ban on variable rate electricity contracts a win for consumers

Lawmaker joins bipartisan group to push for protections

HARTFORD - Connecticut moved one step closer to becoming the first state in the nation to ban potentially deceptive and unpredictable variable-rate electricity contracts when senators added Senate Bill 573 to the chamber’s consent calendar for a unanimous vote late Wednesday. 

Once enacted, the bill would ban variable-rate contracts to residential electric customers for electric generation service.  

State Sen. Joseph J. Crisco

“This consumer friendly legislation keeps suppliers honest and accountable,” state Sen. Joseph J. Crisco, D-Woodbridge, said. “Unscrupulous business practices are leading consumers down an unstable path of severe rate hikes. Consumers deserve to be protected from this sort of deceptive business practice.”    

Variable-rate contracts can be highly unpredictable, allowing for significant fluctuations in electricity rate charges each month. Customers are often sold on a variable-rate contract by being offered a low “teaser” rate by sales agents who misrepresent the extent to which the rates will change. 

Customers, many of them seniors, have reported that several months after signing onto the variable-rate contract their electricity rates increased from the low teaser rate to an increase of over 100 percent in many cases and over 200 percent in some cases. 

No notice of the rate increases was given to consumers until their bill arrived and payment was demanded using the threat of disconnection of service if payment wasn’t made. 

Last year, the General Assembly passed Public Act 14-75, which enacted several reforms for the protection of electric consumers. Perhaps the most significant of these measures was a new requirement that, beginning this July, every residential electric customer’s monthly bill must display their rate for the coming month. 

Now that Senate Bill 573 has passed in the Senate, it moves to the House of Representatives for further consideration.

Crisco represents the 17th District. This is a press release from his office.