Josh Elliott is pushing a twist on “people power” in his gubernatorial campaign: municipally owned electric power. Elliott, a Hamden state representative who launched his political career from the foundry of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, is waging an uphill challenge this yea r to two-term incumbent Ned Lamont for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Elliott originally said he would seeek to win the nomination at the party’s June convention, then drop out if he failed; on Thursday he said he’s now committed to pursuing a primary challenge if Lamont wins the convention endorsement. One issue in this year’s gubernatorial race has been the cost of monthly utility bills. In a conversation Thursday about his campaign on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven,” Elliott called for promoting more municipal-owned electric distribution utilities to free people from state-sponsored monopolies United Illuminating and Eversource. He noted that across the country, public-power customers can pay up to 30 to 40 percent less each month for electricity. An estimated 2,000 municipal utilities exist in the U.S.; Connnecticut has seven (in Wallingford, Jewett City, Bozrah, South Norwalk, East Norwalk, Groton, and Norwich). “Eversource and UI are so expensive because they’re privately held. They are trying to make their shareholders happy. Eversource doubled their profits last year … Eversource’s CEO makes $19 million a year,” Elliott said. He noted that state regulators voted to allow UI a controversal 17 percent rate increase (including allowing a 9.25 percent return on investments) after the utilities sucessfully drove from office a critical top regular, Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) chief Marissa Gillett. Shareholder profit is only part of the reason UI and Eversource usually charge more for service, said David Meisinger, CEO of the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative. Six of Connecticut’s seven municipal public-power agencies own CMEEC, which purchases the electricity they distribute. Eversource and UI must follow strict guidelines on purchasing power in order to lock in predictability of long-term prices, he observed. CMEEC has more flexibility to buy energy from different sources over shorter periods of times. The local municipal power agencies also tend to have fewer and shorter blackouts. That’s because the people who work at them have more years’ experience tending to poles and wires just in their communities, and therefore know the grid better, Meisinger said. Wallingford created its municipal power company in 1899. Others in the state have existed for decades. One challenge for municipalities seeking to follow suit is cost. If elected, Elliott said, he would help interested municipalities form their own power distribution companies in two ways: Bonding to help cover up-front costs. And passing a law allowing municipalities to exercise eminent domain to take over the poles and wires needed to distribute electricity based on “book value” (what it costs to build them) versus market value (how much UI or Eversource might be able to sell them for). “That’s what these companies do to make sure that this doesn’t happen: They say, ‘Well, you can buy it from us,’ but it’s 100 times more expensive than what it actually has to be,” Elliott argued. Such a law would likely spark legal challenges from Eversource and UI. When he lived in Boulder, Colorado, Steve Winter once watched a utility force a local government to spend millions trying unsuccessfully to wrest poles and wires to form a municipal power company. Winter — New Haven government’s climate czar as well as a state representative — predicted that UI and Eversource would wage similar fights to stop new municipal ventures here. That said, he pointed to the proposed sale of Aquarion Water Company to the Regional Water Authority as an example of how some models might be feasible. He pointed to a project he’s overseeing in New Haven as another model: the creation of what’s effectively a small-scale municipally owned geothermal utility to provide clean energy to the renovated Union Station and planned housing complex across the street at the former Church Street South development. Winter said he could envision the state helping to boost similar small-scale municipally run clean-energy alternatives. Elliott argued, meanwhile, that switching to public power would offer ratepayers deeper long-term relief than a $200 one-time election-year tax rebate proposed by Gov. Lamont. Gov. Lamont’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Elliott’s public-power proprosal by the time this article was published. In the Thursday conversation, Elliott was asked about a statement he’d made in a September “Dateline” interview about dropping his campaign if he didn’t win the party convention endorsement. He changed his mind — deciding to continue running through a primary election — based on “feedback out in the field and conversations with my partner.” They decided it doesnt make sense to “spend 12 to 14 hours a day doing all this work, getting on the ballot, having the money, and then saying, ‘Well, I didn’t win the party over'” and then dropping out. Elliott has much work still to do to reach those goals. He said his campaign has raised about $150,000 so far; it needs to reach $340,000 by summer in order to qualify for the $3.4 million in public financing he’ll need to run a competitive primary. He said he has already passed the 15 percent point of convention delegate support he needs to make the primary ballot. He has met with about 60 local Democratic town committees so far, with 70 more on the schedule. He said the campaign has amassed over 750 volunteers and has picked up speed since he hired the progressive consultant group Nineteen Sixty Campaigns. Click on the below video to watch the full conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with gubernatorial candidate Joshua Elliott. Click here to subscribe or here to listen to other episodes of “Dateline New Haven.”  The post Elliott Plugs Public Power appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less