Senate committee hears bill to shift some utility consumer protections from PUC to Department of Energy

Senator Howard Pearl (District 17) opened a committee hearing on Senate Bill 108, saying the bill would transfer some regulatory and adjudicative responsibilities from the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to the Department of Energy (DOE). "This bill transfers specific regulatory and adjudicative responsibilities from Public Utilities Commission to the Department of Energy," Pearl said at the start of the hearing.

The bill, presented to the Energy and Natural Resources Committee on behalf of the Department of Energy, would reallocate several statutory duties related to consumer protection, ratepayer communications, net energy metering and complaint handling. David Shulock, general counsel for the Department of Energy, described the draft as a collection of statutory fixes and said the department and stakeholders had identified several technical edits after publication.

Why it matters: supporters and opponents said the measure is intended to reduce confusion about where consumers should file complaints and to update outdated net‑metering language. Opponents and some stakeholders warned that without careful drafting it could create jurisdictional gaps, slow adjudicative processes for residential ratepayers, or unintentionally change longstanding protections tied to PUC orders.

What the bill would do (high points reported at the hearing): - Slamming (unauthorized service switches): the department originally proposed moving enforcement to DOE, but the department asked that the language be deleted so…