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Rep. Murdock’s bill would require outage notifications to help elderly and disabled residents
Summary
House Bill 15‑57 would require utilities to notify local officials before planned outages so communities can identify and assist vulnerable residents with warming or cooling centers; the Insurance & Commerce Committee passed the measure by voice vote.
Representative Reginald Murdock told the Senate Insurance & Commerce Committee that House Bill 15‑57 is a “real simple bill” designed to improve notifications to local authorities and officials ahead of power interruptions. He said the bill, which he developed in conjunction with Entergy, would give mayors, county judges and local contacts advance notice so they can identify elderly or disabled residents who may need access to warming or cooling centers.
“This is more of a notification and a communication,” Murdock said, arguing earlier storms had left some vulnerable people unaware of outages or without a way to respond. He told the committee the intent is to ensure that officials “can identify those that we know in our communities that are the most vulnerable to try to help them either get to warming centers or … cooling centers.”
The committee chair asked if there were questions; with none raised from the audience, a motion and second were made and the committee approved the bill by voice vote. The committee record shows no formal vote tally was taken in the hearing transcript.
The bill as described focuses on advance communications and does not create new emergency powers or operational mandates for utilities in the transcripted discussion. The committee did not take additional testimony at the hearing and moved the bill forward.
Next steps: the bill passed out of committee by voice vote and will proceed according to the Senate’s scheduling rules.
