For Tinian residents on the ground, the Commonwealth Utilities Corporation’s (CUC) projection that an average household bill would rise from $278 to $308 a month later this year- and to $347 in late 2027-felt completely detached from the bills already landing in their mailboxes.
Following Monday night’s opening hearing on Saipan, long time Tinian resident Carmen Farrell’s testimony set the tone for an intensifying an hour and a half confrontation between Tinian residents and representatives of CUC and the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
Farrell recounted walking into the local CUC office to pay a staggering $972 utility bill, just days after Super Typhoon Sinlaku tore through the Marianas, before departing off-island for her husband’s surgery. While Tinian families were sweating in the dark, rationing every kilowatt, and piecing their homes back together, the CUC customer service office had its air conditioning blasting at a frigid 62 degrees.
“I was freezing—you had to wear a sweater . . . and then all of a sudden, somebody’s going to pay the fuel charges out of their own pocket, like myself”, Farrell shared during the public hearing.
By the next 30-day billing cycle, from August 18 to September 18, Farrell’s statement had climbed even higher. Her household used roughly $200 worth of actual electricity and water. On top of that baseline usage, CUC tacked on an $844 Fuel Adjustment Charge, pushing her single-month residential bill past $1,085. Holding her billing records up to a panel of mainland utility consultants, Farrell demanded to know how an island family is supposed to survive when the surcharge for diesel fuel alone is more than quadruple the cost of the power they actually consume.
From the audience, a resident’s voice rang out across the room - “It’s higher than my paycheck!”
Armed with PowerPoint slides and two decades of financial data, CUC consultants, Economists.com, Dan Jackson and Robert Young had arrived on the island to make what they described as an unavoidable economic case. In 2026 alone, CUC lost $24 million, bringing in $104 million in revenues against $128 million in expenses—nearly half of which went straight to purchasing $55 million in diesel fuel. Because CUC has not raised its electric base rates in 12 years, water base rates in 14 years, or wastewater base rates in 16 years, the consultants argued the utility is on an unsustainable trajectory that threatens its survival as an independent provider.
Under a stipulated rate plan negotiated between CUC and CPUC staff ahead of a final commission vote slated for November 20, 2026, the utility is proposing two initial phases of base rate adjustments alongside a dedicated Maintenance Tracker Charge and Capital Outlay Tracker Charge. According to Jackson, an average residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity and 5,000 gallons of water would see their combined monthly bill increase by roughly 10 percent in December 2026, rising from $278 to $308, followed by another 12 percent increase in December 2027 to reach $347.
To residents staring at 400 percent fuel markups, those spreadsheet averages sounded like fiction. When the consultants explained that Middle East conflicts and Singapore diesel benchmarks had driven CUC’s fuel charge from 21 cents to 44 cents per kilowatt-hour—and suggested Farrell visit the local CUC office to have her meter checked—the frustration in the room boiled over.
One by one, residents stepped to the microphone to explain that Tinian is facing a full-blown survival crisis. Battered by back-to-back storms, 25 percent work-hour cuts and furloughs, and fixed Social Security checks, the community has nothing left to give.
Resident Richard Farrell described passing his neighbor’s pitch-black house at night, lit only by flickering candles placed beside statues of saints so the home wouldn’t burn down. His own yard stays completely dark at night, leaving his dog to bark blindly at passersby in the shadows. Reminding the panel that Tinian residents survived six months without power after Super Typhoon Yutu and know how to live without the grid, he told the consultants that raising rates will only push more households to disconnect entirely.
In addition, what infuriated the residents most, however, was not just the size of their bills, but who isn't paying theirs. While an ordinary resident who falls $30 short on a monthly bill faces disconnection, government agencies have racked up tens of millions of dollars in unpaid utility debt.
Taking the floor and turning his back to the consultants to address the people of Tinian face-to-face, Rep. Vincent Aldan held up CUC’s own Accounts Receivable aging report from November 30, 2025. Reading the numbers aloud, Aldan revealed that uncollected arrears across the Commonwealth stood at a staggering $58.8 million—more than double CUC’s annual operating loss. That total included $30 million owed by the Commonwealth Healthcare Corporation, $2.6 million owed by the Commonwealth Ports Authority, $1.5 million owed by the central government, and $1.3 million across other public agencies, alongside $11.7 million in residential arrears and $10.6 million in commercial debt.
Aldan noted that the arrears had previously topped $75 million before the central government wiped away its balance not by paying cash to CUC, but by offsetting its utility bills against the 1 percent fee CUC is required by law to pay the Office of the Public Auditor. Reminding the crowd that the government takes roughly 30 cents of every dollar workers earn in taxes to fund agency budgets, Aldan asked why ratepayers are being double-billed to subsidize government non-payment. Compounding the outrage was the consultants' admission that under the proposed rate plan, government water rates will actually be ratcheted down from a historic $54 per 1,000 gallons to align with commercial rates, meaning government water bills will drop while residential bills climb.
Pressed by residents on whether collecting government debt would eliminate the need for rate hikes, an Assistant Attorney General advising CUC explained that roughly 75 to 80 percent of central government offices have now been switched to prepaid meters that automatically cut power when funds run out. As for the hospital’s massive $30 million balance, legal counsel confirmed that CHCC entered a repayment agreement a year ago to pay its regular monthly bill plus an additional $150,000 per month toward its arrears—a pace that will take nearly 20 years to pay off. For Carmen Farrell, who pointed out that the Public School System relies heavily on solar power while other government offices burn imported diesel to run air conditioners all day, the arrangement was cold comfort.
Meanwhile, Tinian Mayor Edwin P. Aldan questioned why CUC remains locked into buying expensive Singapore-refined fuel, prompting legal counsel to admit that whenever CUC puts its fuel supply contract out for bid, Mobil is the sole bidder in the CNMI, leaving ratepayers at the mercy of a monopoly without the price competition seen in Guam.
By the end of the night, both Carmen Farrell and Rep. Aldan converged on the same demand, which is an independent, top-to-bottom forensic utility audit conducted by specialized outside utility auditors rather than standard accounting firms. Farrell urged officials to investigate how many commercial apartment buildings and businesses on Saipan are still paying tiny flat monthly fees of $150 or $200 rather than metered rates, while Aldan demanded full transparency on every procurement contract and fuel agreement.
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