Goodlander Demands Answers Around Refusal to Serve Lakes Region in Liberty Utilities Rate Case

Concord, N.H. — Continuing her fight to hold Liberty Utilities accountable after its refusal to provide new or expanded natural gas service for customers in the Lakes Region, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, D-NH, today served discovery questions in the company’s rate case before the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission.

The questions build on Goodlander’s months of oversight and successful effort to put Liberty’s Lakes Region service denials under review, demanding answers on the company’s decisions, costs, and plans to end the moratorium.

Liberty is asking the Commission to approve a $35.8 million annual increase in distribution rates, which would add about $26 a month to a typical residential heating bill, while also continuing to refuse new or expanded service in the Lakes Region.

In June, Goodlander sent Liberty 13 questions about the moratorium. Liberty responded with a five-page letter leaving the majority of questions unanswered, including basic ones regarding who at the company made the decision, how many customers have been turned away, and what the pipeline upgrade will cost. As a formal party to the rate case, Goodlander can now require answers through the Commission’s discovery process.

The questions press Liberty to explain who decided to impose the moratorium, how many customers have been denied service and why, and why critical pipeline upgrades were delayed. 

Goodlander is also demanding details on the cost and timing of temporary and permanent fixes, whether affected customers will be compensated, and the company’s profits and payments to its parent company.

“For months, families and small businesses across our Lakes Region have been left in limbo while Liberty leaves basic questions unanswered. Who decided to deny them service? Why does the timeline for a permanent fix keep slipping? Who will foot the bill?” said Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander. “Families in New Hampshire deserve answers, reliable service, and real accountability. Now that we’ve secured a seat at the table in this case, I’m using every tool available to demand those answers on the record. I won’t quit until the people I work for get the answers and solutions they deserve.”

Read the full questions HERE.

Goodlander has made lower energy costs and investor-owned utility accountability a focus of her work in Congress:

• Goodlander previously filed a petition to intervene in Liberty Utilities’ rate case, with the Public Utilities Commission granting it last month. Following Goodlander’s advocacy, the PUC also agreed to take up Liberty’s decision to deny new or expanded service to towns across the Lakes Region – identifying Liberty’s “moratorium” on new natural gas service in the Lakes Region as an issue that belongs in this PUC proceeding.
• Goodlander urged the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission to reconsider Eversource’s approved 43.4 percent rate increase and helped introduce the Lowering Utility Bills Act to rein in excessive profits at investor-owned utilities.
• She introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to accelerate hydropower production and lower energy costs, launched a bipartisan Hydropower Caucus to do the same, and joined efforts to protect ratepayers from potentially costly utility transactions.
• Before taking office, Goodlander served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where she took on corporate monopolies driving up costs for families and small businesses.

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