The state’s controversial and outgoing chief utility regulator has agreed to remove herself from any decisions during the period leading to her final day in office on October 10.

The announcement by Gov. Ned Lamont’s office defuses threats of new legal challenges from the state’s two biggest utilities, which have opposed Marissa Gillett for years — in and out of court — over law and regulatory policy. But it raises more questions about how a leaderless regulatory authority settles questions in coming days that affect electrical, gas and water service rates for tens of thousands of customers.

Eversource and Avangrid delivered letters to Lamont and other state officials this week saying they would go to court to fight any decisions by the Public Utility Regulatory Authority in w

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