Nearly 100,000 New Hampshire ratepayers could see bills rise more than 16% under Liberty’s $35.8 million rate request
Concord, N.H. — On Monday, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander (NH-02) filed a petition with the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (PUC) seeking to intervene in Liberty Utilities’ pending rate case, as the utility requests changes to its permanent rates that would increase operating revenues by more than $35.8 million. If approved, the increase would raise a typical residential heating customer’s monthly bill by nearly 26 dollars — a 16.54 percent increase — and a non-heating customer’s bill by more than 12 dollars, a 20.52 percent increase, according to Liberty’s own customer notice. Those costs would fall on the nearly 100,000 New Hampshire customers Liberty serves across 35 cities and towns.
Read the full petition HERE.
If granted, Goodlander’s petition would make her an intervenor in the proceeding, allowing her to advocate for the interests of constituents and communities across New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District as the Commission considers Liberty’s requested rate increase, capital investments, and recovery of those costs from ratepayers.
Liberty has also asked the Commission to approve a temporary rate increase of nearly $11 million, according to the PUC’s August 17 Order of Notice — an increase ratepayers could see on their bills as soon as November 1, months before the Commission rules on the full request.
“Granite Staters are already getting crushed by the high cost of energy, and they deserve to know that every dollar they are being asked to pay is necessary and that Liberty is making the investments it needs to reliably serve our communities,” said Congresswoman Goodlander. “For months, I’ve been demanding answers from Liberty on behalf of families, small businesses, and communities that have been left in the dark about whether they can count on the natural gas service they need. Now Liberty is asking its customers to pay more. I’m seeking to intervene in this case because Granite Staters deserve affordability, transparency, and accountability, and I will leave no stone unturned in fighting for them.”
Today’s filing extends months of sustained utility oversight from Goodlander’s office. Since convening local officials, developers, businesses, and other stakeholders in the Lakes Region on April 7 to examine Liberty’s refusal to connect new customers in Franklin and surrounding communities — a policy that has stalled housing and economic development for the roughly 5,000 customers Liberty already serves there — Goodlander has pressed the company for answers.
Her June 11 oversight letter demanded specifics on the scope of Liberty’s refusal to provide service and Liberty’s plan to fix it. Liberty’s response left significant questions unanswered — questions that now sit squarely inside the PUC’s review of how Liberty’s capital investments, and their cost, will be recovered from ratepayers.
The rate case turns on the very infrastructure spending at the heart of Liberty’s “moratorium” and decision to deny its customers service. Liberty’s own testimony lays out its plan to replace the aging 22-mile “High Line” pipeline serving the Lakes Region — the same project Goodlander has spent months investigating. Goodlander’s petition makes her distinct interest in this rate case clear: the same ratepayers Goodlander represents in Congress may be asked to disproportionately shoulder the cost of that investment.
Lowering energy costs has been a defining priority of Goodlander’s time in Congress. She has called on the Public Utilities Commission to reconsider an Eversource rate hike, introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to accelerate hydropower production and lower energy costs, joined a bipartisan letter urging President Trump to address skyrocketing energy prices, launched the Lowering Costs Caucus, and cosponsored bipartisan legislation to lower utility costs for Granite Staters.
The stakes are immediate: if approved, Liberty’s $35.8 million rate hike would mean double-digit bill increases for nearly 100,000 ratepayers — the very people Goodlander has spent months fighting to protect.
As a member of Congress’s Litigation and Rapid Response Task Force, Goodlander has taken her fight for lower costs to the courts. She helped lead successful amicus briefs at the Court of International Trade and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit challenging President Trump’s unlawful tariffs — a fight that culminated in a 6-3 U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the tariffs as an unconstitutional tax on American families and businesses. She has also filed briefs defending the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency consumers rely on to hold banks and corporations accountable.
Goodlander has also pushed for accountability in the bankruptcy courts on behalf of New Hampshire nursing home residents, including at Genesis Healthcare facilities in Concord, Keene, Lebanon, and elsewhere in her district. She joined Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal in an amicus brief urging the court to appoint an independent examiner after Genesis tried to use bankruptcy to dodge paying victims, workers, and other businesses. Days later, the judge rejected Genesis’s insider sale over “too many irregularities” and ordered a new auction — a result KFF Health News said gave families fresh hope of compensation. Goodlander is also House co-leading the Corporate Crimes Against Health Care Act to crack down on the private equity abuse behind the Genesis and Steward Health Care bankruptcies.
Before she was elected to Congress, Goodlander served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, where she took on the corporate monopolies driving up the cost of healthcare, housing, food, and more for hardworking people across New Hampshire and America.
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