on 09-09-2009 03:14

By JIM BARON

PAWTUCKET — Both National Grid and the Public Utilities Commission took it on the chin Tuesday from residents and ratepayers objecting to an 11.2 percent hike in rates sought by the electricity company in the first of six public hearings that will be held across the state in the next week and a half.

One after another, speakers came to the microphone at the front of the room to say that at a time when the national economy is in crisis, when Rhode Island’s unemployment rate exceeds 12 percent, when home foreclosures are at an all time high and when National Grid’s parent company is reporting record profits and paying stockholders an 11.8 percent return on equity, now is no time for a rate increase.
“What are you thinking?” demanded Duncan Smith, staring over at the National Grid executives and attorneys in the front row of the City Council Chamber. “You have the audacity to come in here and ask for these increases? It’s ridiculous.”
“You have to shoot them down,” Louis Pinga told the PUC commissioners seated in the front of the room, referring to National Grid’s request for an increase. “You just have to. You have to do it for the people.
“People are suffering really bad right now and we can’t afford to pay any more,” Pinga added. “Our jobs have been sent overseas; we don’t have big paying jobs right now.”
Like several others Tuesday night, Pinga wondered out loud whether the PUC had the public’s interest at heart.
“Sometimes I wonder if you are (here) on behalf of the people,” he said.
Frequent PUC critic Maggi Rogers picked up that line of thought, likening the PUC’s increases to Ponzi scheme run by financier Bernard Madoff.
In that situation, Rogers alleges, “who was it who was asleep at the switch, it was the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), the regulators.” Rogers and two of her sisters formed a chorus during the testimony and serenaded the commission with a parody version of “Three Blind Mice,” a derogatory nickname for the three PUC commissioners:
“We pay them close to a hundred grand/ They treat us like dirt, telling us to pound sand/While National Grid eats right out of their hand/Three blind mice.”
“Don’t quit your day job,” PUC Chairman Elia Germani told the women after they had finished their song.
“I’m very disappointed in the PUC,” added Savino Salerno. “You are supposed to represent us, but when the utility company comes in, I don’t think we’re getting represented.” 
National Grid attorney Thomas Tehan acknowledged at the start of the hearing that, “there is never a good time,” for a rate increase and “this may be as bad a time as any.”
But he said National Grid needs the additional revenue to make investments “that will keep our equipment acceptable, reliable and safe. The company is at a point where it can not continue to meet this challenge without an increase in the distribution rate.
He said the low rate of return that local investors are receiving “is not sufficient to attract funding” needed to make improvements.
The company wants to increase its distribution rate, the amount it charges to bring electricity to homes and businesses, by 11.2 percent, which would hike the average residential customer’s monthly bill by $8.95. 
Germani told The Times Tuesday that no PUC vote on the increase is likely until next February. If approved, the hike would take effect in March 2010. Among the other public hearings scheduled are one Thursday in Woonsocket’s historic Harris Hall and one at the PUC’s Warwick headquarters Sept. 17. All of the hearings are at 6 p.m.
National Grid pointed out that it has not had an increase in its distribution rate since 1998 and the rate has actually dropped twice during that period, so it is actually bringing in less in distribution charges than it did a decade ago.
“National Grid is doing famously well,” declared Jack Colby, a Brown University research assistant and volunteer with Pawtucket’s George Wiley Center.
Reading from National Grid parent company’s May 14, 2009 report, Colby cited the utility’s “strong financial and operating performance” with operating profit increasing by 12 percent.
“Anyone seeing a raise anywhere near 12 percent?” Colby asked the audience. “Are you seeing a CD anywhere near that? Are your mutual funds returning anything near that? No.”
Colby said the report projects an increase in dividends to investors of 8 percent each year between now and 2012.
“It is time for us to start thinking about balance,” Colby said. “To the commissioners, I would say, you have a moral responsibility, not only to capitalist profitability, which I have no problem with in the context of fairness. But you have to think about the people who are workers, the people who are out of work and the circumstances they find themselves in. They can’t afford it; they don’t need to pay it. They shouldn’t pay it.
“In light of their profitability, the commissioners should say no to National Grid,” he said. “In light of the Rhode Island economy, the commissioners should say no to National Grid.”