BILL NUMBER: S2301
SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public service law, in relation to civil penalties
on certain public utility companies, corporations or persons and the
officers, agents and employees thereof
 
PURPOSE:
To increase the maximum dollar amount in penalties for public utility
companies; corporations (including combination gas and electric corpo-
rations); or persons, officers, agents and employees thereof, that know-
ingly fail or neglect to obey or comply with a provision of public
service law, regulation or order adopted by the commission.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
The various sections of the bill amend the relevant provisions of law to
increase the dollar amounts in civil penalties in a manner consistent
with the title, purpose, and justification of this bill.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
In 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias resulted in power outages for hundreds of
thousands of New Yorkers across New York City, Long Island, Westchester
County, Rockland County, the Hudson Valley, and other areas of the
state. Service disruptions lasted multiple days and had an adverse
impact on the operations and facilities of our public utilities. Time
and again, utilities fail to improve their response to an outage. When
this bill was first introduced, the Public Service Commission was inves-
tigating the failures of utilities in responding to Isaias. Their fail-
ures were later substantiated. The current maximum statutory penalty is
far too low. This bill will increase the penalties for the various tiers
of violations for the benefit of ratepayers and the people of New York
State.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-22: Referred to Energy and Telecommunications
2023-24: referred to Energy and Telecommunications
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Undetermined.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.