The Office of the Consumer Advocate is a six-person office that represents the interests of residential ratepayers before boards like the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates all the state’s electric, natural gas, water and sewer utilities. But, Rep. Ross Berry, R-Weare, is sponsoring a bill that would absorb the advocate’s office into the Department of Energy, which is under the direct control of the governor.

As a member of the Cheshire County Board of Commissioners, I believe the consumer advocate is right to say the change would create “a mouthpiece for whatever the policy agenda of the executive branch is.” He said “ratepayers are an important constituency but not the only constituency, and so if you don’t have an independent ratepayer advocate, then that distinctive voice of the ratepayers is lost.”

This wouldn’t be Berry’s first undemocratic action. He was removed as chairman of the House Election Law Committee in 2024 for holding an early vote before many members had returned from a mandatory safety meeting. My family has lived in New Hampshire for 259 years, and I am baffled at why a 12-year transplant like Berry thinks he understands the long heritage of independence held by the people of this state. The New England ISO and the state’s energy law is already stacked heavily in favor of the legacy utilities.

Tell your representatives to defeat this undemocratic bill.

Terry Michael Clark

Keene