Prosecutorial Staff Withdraw From Settlement With Retail Supplier

Prosecutorial Staff of the Connecticut PURA have withdrawn their support of a previously reported settlement with Palmco Power CT, LLC concerning an investigation into Palmco's marketing activities.

As previously reported, the settlement between Prosecutorial Staff and Palmco would have required Palmco to make a $141,000 donation to Operation Fuel and to make changes to its door-to-door marketing practices (click here for full details)

The settlement has been opposed by the Office of Consumer Counsel and the Connecticut Attorney General

From responses to interrogatories issued to Palmco by the OCC and AG, Prosecutorial Staff said that it learned that a Palmco affiliate, Columbia Utilities Power LLC, had reached an Assurance of Discontinuance settlement with the New York Attorney General in 2011, with such Assurance of Discontinuance including $2 million in refunds to customers. Prosecutorial Staff said that it was not aware of the New York Assurance of Discontinuance when entering into the settlement with Palmco.

"PRO feels that this information is material to creating a full evidentiary record in the instant docket, particularly in light of Section 16-245-6(3) of the Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies, referenced above. Accordingly, PRO must withdraw its support from the Proposed Settlement Agreement at this time pending the development of a complete evidentiary record. In PRO’s opinion the full development of the evidentiary record in this case is necessary before fruitful settlement discussions can take place," Prosecutorial Staff said

Palmco provided the following statement to EnergyChoiceMatters.com:

"We are disappointed with this latest development, which involves the decision of a few select individuals at the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to back away from a mutually agreed upon settlement. This case involves an investigation of marketing activities in Connecticut, some of which were clearly unacceptable to Palmco and violated Palmco’s written practices and procedures. Now government investigators seem determined to extend the scope of this case beyond Connecticut’s borders and into matters that were settled several years ago, involving a Palmco affiliate in another state. Palmco did not improperly withhold this information, as the filing suggests. To the contrary, the information was filed with Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority promptly upon request. Nonetheless, Palmco will continue to cooperate in good faith in this matter and provide requested materials. As we seek a fair resolution of this matter, we remain focused on our primary concern, which is providing quality service to our customers."