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Sponsors
11 Co-sponsors
History
- Ordered to third reading rules cal.63
- Rules report cal.63
- Reported
- Reported referred to rules
- Reported referred to codes
- Referred to energy
- Amended on third reading 1595a
- Advanced to third reading cal.86
- Reported
- Reported referred to codes
- Referred to energy
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:A1595A
Title of bill
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to penalties for the failure of gas and electric corporations to file or correct an annual report
Purpose or general idea of bill
In its January 2007 report, the Assem- bly Queens Power Outage Task Force recommended several measures to improve oversight of utilities and prevent future blackouts. This bill will help ensure compliance with reporting requirements in the Public Service Law by scaling the penalties for failure to file or correct an annual report to the size of a regulated entity.
Summary of provisions
Bill §1 amends subdivision 6 of §66 of the Public Service Law to increase the penalty for failure of gas and elec- tric corporations to file an annual report, or a correction to such a report when required by the Public Service Commission. The penalty currently fixed at $100 plus $100/day for each additional day that the violation continues - is essentially meaningless with respect to multi- billion dollar corporations. The amount of the penalty would be increased to one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) of the annual net revenues of the regulated entity for the past year, with the same penalty amount applied to continuing days of noncompliance. A maximum penalty of $25,000 would promote compliance by larger entities, while a $100 plus $100/day penalty would be retained as a floor to ensure that smaller entities would still have meaningful incentives to file on a timely basis.
Summary of amendments
The amendments to Public Service Law §66(6) are revised to clarify that the statutory penalty is increased to "not more than" 0.1% of annual net revenues, with a minimum penalty of $100 and a maximum of $25,000. This will ensure that penalties sought under this section can be targeted to levels that will effectuate compliance by larger entities while protecting small businesses against excessively burdensome penalties,
Effects of present law which this bill would alter
The current minimal penally for failure to file or correct an annual report would be scaled to the size of the reporting entity as outlined above.
Justification
Last summer, the western part of Queens suffered a massive power outage that lasted 9 days. The Assembly Queens Power Outage Task Force studied the outage's causes and the inadequate responses by the company responsible for the transmission and distrib- ution system, Consolidated Edison, and by the Public Service Commission. One underlying cause of this debacle was found to be the reliance by New York's utility regulators on antiquated laws, regulations and policies that let companies engaged in energy transmission and distribution oper- ate without effective oversight.
The Task Force found that in many cases the sanctions imposed by the PSC are neither timely nor meaningful. The $100 penalty in §66 is a perfect
case in point. The amounts that a major utility could be penalized for being one day -- or even one year late in meeting as deadline would be well beneath its notice. This bill would bring the penalties in line with the realities of today's energy markets.
Prior legislative history
A.8623-A ('07-'08): reported to Assembly Calendar #880 (3rd reading).
Fiscal implications for state and local governments
None.
Effective date
120th day after enactment; provided that the Public Service Commission is immediately authorized and directed to promulgate rules and take other actions needed to fully implement the bill on such date.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.