After months of blaming others for energy cost increases largely driven by Republican-backed policies, Connecticut Republicans had little to say this week as ratepayers braced for an impending price hike caused by tariffs imposed by Republican President Donald Trump.
As of midway through this week, it was unclear whether tariffs on energy from Canada had taken effect as the Trump administration repeatedly flip-flopped on whether he would impose the new tax on American ratepayers.
If they are imposed by the Republican president, the tariffs are expected to cost the New England region about $66 million a year, according to reporting by Hearst Connecticut columnist Dan Haar.
The tariffs, or the threat of tariffs, had already slowed shipments dramatically, New England Power Generators Association CEO Dan Dolan told Haar.
“It’s difficult to speak in absolutes in what is about as unprecedented a situation as I’ve seen in my career,” Dolan said, according to Hearst.
But even as the energy industry grappled with “unprecedented” disruption and ratepayers prepared to bear the costs, Connecticut Republicans continued to deflect attention away from the new costs imposed by their party’s president.
In a Tuesday statement to the Hartford Courant, Connecticut Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding brushed aside Trump’s tariffs as a “bipartisan” concern and focused on a Republican plan to shift the burden of a “public benefit charge” to Connecticut taxpayers.
The charge is a section of energy bills that is overwhelmingly dedicated to covering the cost of an energy purchasing agreement with Millstone nuclear power plant. That purchasing agreement was a priority for state Republicans when they had partial control of the state Senate in 2017.
Although Harding told the Courant’s Chris Keating that “Republicans want to get rid of the hidden ‘public benefits’ tax on our bills,” legislative Republicans’ policy plan actually called on the legislature to “study moving public policy charges off of ratepayer bills and into the budget,” which would place that cost on state taxpayers.
While legislative Republicans had little or nothing to say about Trump’s energy tariffs, Claire Coleman, Connecticut’s consumer counsel, did. Coleman told the Courant that the Trump tariffs would cost ratepayers money.
“Consumers should not bear the brunt of these tariffs, and that’s what will happen if they’re imposed,” Coleman told the Courant.
