Bill Text: NY S00916 | 2015-2016 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Directs the public service commission to undertake a study of consumer protections adopted by electric corporations and utilities; includes reporting on the adequacy of the public service commission's assistance to customers facing disconnection of utility service.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-04-13 - PRINT NUMBER 916A [S00916 Detail]
Download: New_York-2015-S00916-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 916--A 2015-2016 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 7, 2015 ___________ Introduced by Sen. AVELLA -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni- cations -- recommitted to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni- cations in accordance with Senate Rule 6, sec. 8 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to direct the public service commission to undertake a study of consumer protections adopted by electric corporations and utilities The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The New York State public service commission shall under- 2 take an immediate study of consumer protections adopted by electric 3 corporations and municipalities ("utilities") pursuant to article 2 of 4 the public service law and provide a report to the governor, the tempo- 5 rary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of 6 the senate committee on energy and telecommunications and the chair of 7 the assembly committee on energy. Such report shall include an analysis 8 of the effectiveness of current utility procedures for notifying custom- 9 ers in arrears on utility charges of how they may avoid termination of 10 electric, gas or steam service, including the availability of deferred 11 payment agreements. In addition, such report shall review the adequacy 12 of the commission's assistance to customers negotiating deferred payment 13 agreements with utilities in lieu of disconnection of service including 14 the number of deferred payment plans by utility service territory; the 15 number of incidences, if any, in which utilities have required more than 16 the lawfully allowed level of down payments or deferred payments from 17 customers seeking to connect service or avoid disconnection; the effec- 18 tiveness and availability of the commission's shutoff hotline in receiv- 19 ing calls from customers facing termination of electric, gas and steam 20 service; the call volume to such hotline in each utility service terri- 21 tory; the monthly number of electric and natural gas customers who EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD01298-04-6
