CT judge rules state agency broke laws, interfered with rights

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A court has delivered a resounding victory to the utility industry in its long-running fight with state regulators, concluding that the Public Utility Regulatory Authority under former Chairman Marisa Gillett broke an array of laws in order to impose what turned out to be flawed or illegal rate decisions.

In a sharply worded ruling , Superior Court Judge Matthew Budzik upheld every allegation two Avangrid gas subsidiaries made in lawsuits seeking to overturn year-old PURA rate decisions that not only denied the companies rate increases, but slashed then existing rates.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) at the Joseph H. Harper, Jr. Building at 10 Franklin Square in New Britain in March 2025. (Aaron Flaum/Hartford Courant)

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