Commissioner Dan Esty, Connecticut’s chief regulator of the environment and utilities, was paid by United Illuminating in 2009, the smaller of the state’s two electric utilities, according to a disclosure by his wife, former state Rep. Elizabeth Esty.
In 2009, before he was Commissioner of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, United Illuminating paid Dan Esty $7,500 to give a speech, according to DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain. Esty has not recused himself from dealing with the company.
In 2008, Esty received $10,000 from UTC Power and $10,000 from ING, both for speeches in Connecticut. Schain said there may have been an additional speech to ING, but he was looking for more information.
According to Schain, Commissioner Esty recused himself from dealing with companies with which he had a consulting relationship.
“The five year lookback was intended to cover consulting relationships,” Schain said. “Those are long-term, deep involvements.”
He said speaking engagements are “so different” from consulting.
“You’re in, you’re out,” Schain said. “He was there to espouse a point of view.”
“This was a key part of his life, you know, before he became a public official,” he said.
More recently, Dan and Elizabeth Esty have disclosed income from Esty & Associates LLC, but not that company’s sources of revenue. Schain said Esty & Associates does not include any consulting income.
According to Schain, forming a limited liability company “is a standard step that many people take.” Rep. Esty reported wages from the company, while Commissioner Esty is an owner and received income from it.
In another case, Commissioner Esty went beyond the legally-required disclosures by reporting the consulting relationships from his other company, Esty Environmental Partners.
As a state representative, Rep. Esty filed a 26-page statement of financial interests, which she signed on April 30, 2010. The disclosure covers 2009.
In addition to disclosing three trust funds and her family’s regular sources of income, Rep. Esty included a two-page addendum of her husband’s income sources during 2009.
The 18 sources of income are: 3M Company, the Business Council for Sustainable Development, Disney Worldwide Services, Duquesne University, Government Information Group Events/1105 Media, Institute Scrap Recycling Industries, Management Focus/HSM Mexico, Media and Entertainment Services Alliance, New Page Corporation, PG&E Corporation, Pineapple Hospitality, Pomona College, Premier Management Group LLC, Unilever UK, United Illuminating, Utilities Service Alliance Inc., Yale University Press/Sagalyn and YPO New England.
Commissioner Esty only recused himself from dealing with two companies on his wife’s disclosure form, Unilever and Yale.
Government Information Group, HSM and Premier Management Group host conferences, according to their websites.
Rep. Esty disclosed her husband’s income from ING and UTC Power in an earlier disclosure.
On Aug. 30, Commissioner Esty intervened in smart meter applications by Connecticut Light & Power and UI, the day after the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority issued a draft rejection of CL&P’s proposal.
It turned Esty’s effort on behalf UI was moot, since the state approved its application in 2008, but Esty has stalled the rejection of the CL&P proposal.
The Hartford Courant reported Northeast Utilities, CL&P’s parent company, paid Commissioner Esty $205,000 between 1997 and 2005.
Rep. Esty is now a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 5th District.