News
Blumenthal calls for CT Natural Gas penalty
By CT Attorney General's Office
May 12, 2008 - 10:25:53 AM

ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS CNG SHOULD FOREGO COLLECTION OF $1.4 MILLION IN IMPROPER BILLS TO 3,400 CUSTOMERS

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is calling on state regulators to bar Connecticut Natural Gas (CNG) from collecting $1.4 million from 3,400 customers as a penalty for illegal and improper bills it sent them in January.

In November and December 2007, CNG mistakenly under-billed about 3,400 customers. The utility sought to make up for the mistake in January, sending those same consumers bills that included that month’s usage plus the under-billed amounts from the previous two months.

As a result, those customers’ January bills were astoundingly high -- hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars more than usual.

In a brief filed with the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC), Blumenthal said state law prohibits CNG from issuing “make-up bills” requiring immediate payment of amounts under-billed in prior months.

Blumenthal said state law requires CNG to recover under-billings over a period no shorter than the customer was undercharged -- in this case two months -- and no longer than a year. State law also prohibits CNG from imposing make-up amounts exceeding 50 percent of the customer’s average bills over the previous 12 months. CNG must forego any amounts that it cannot recover within the law’s limits.

“Consumers should not have to suffer from CNG’s faulty, fabricated bills and illegal collections,” Blumenthal said. “CNG failed to respond in a reasonable manner to billing problems, failed to consider the profound impact that its billing problems would have on customers and failed to comply with Connecticut law. The DPUC should demand that CNG forego recovery of these improper bills -- or, at the very least, follow the law.”

CNG claimed that it first became aware of its inaccurate billing on Jan. 15, after an internal investigation. The company alleged that by that time it had received roughly 30 complaints, six of which it verified. CNG also claimed at that time the fabricated meter reads were the result of a single meter reader. The evidence, however, contradicts CNG’s claim.

“CNG had ample notice of a major billing problem prior to Jan. 15, and its response was slow, inadequate and failed to consider the impact its billing errors would have on its customers,” Blumenthal said.

Approximately 3,195 of the impacted customers were residential and about 204 were commercial and industrial.

Affected residential customers received bills in January 2008 with an average additional charge of $345 to “make up” for the amounts previously under-billed.

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