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Tompkins County committee withdraws member-drafted energy-affordability resolutions for edits
Summary
The Planning, Energy and Environmental Quality committee withdrew two member-drafted resolutions on energy affordability and climate policy to allow volunteers to edit language and meet state budget deadlines; members said they support the bills in principle but want factual clarifications and cleaner language before sending them to the legislature.
The Tompkins County Planning, Energy and Environmental Quality Committee on March 5 withdrew two member-filed resolutions addressing energy affordability and state climate policy so volunteers can refine their language and ensure accuracy before the county forwards them to the legislature.
Chair Irene introduced a lengthy energy-affordability resolution and read a package of state bills the draft recommended supporting, including measures to standardize how the Public Service Commission determines utilities’ return on equity, require utilities to return revenue above authorized return-on-equity to ratepayers, prohibit service disconnections and late-fee accrual while utilities are under PSC investigation, and expand automatic deferred-payment agreements for low-income customers. Irene said the findings in the draft note “almost $2,000,000,000 of arrears from people more than 60 days behind on their utility bills.”
Committee members said they broadly back the goals but raised concerns about wording, factual precision and timing. Judith and Rachel both asked for clearer citations and shorter “whereas” language; Adam urged forming a small editing group of fewer than three committee members to do line edits so staff time would not be diverted. Rachel initially moved to table the measure, then withdrew that motion and signaled she would support withdrawing the resolution so volunteers could rework it offline. Chair Irene then formally withdrew the resolution with no objections.
The committee also withdrew a second, related resolution (ID 13917) that recommended support for cap-and-invest and other climate measures. Members said the draft contained charged language and inconsistent references (for example to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act), and requested editing to make statements strictly factual and to add or correct numerical citations where needed.
Irene asked volunteers to coordinate edits in a shared document (Google Drive or SharePoint) and to return final language as member-filed resolutions so they can meet the legislature’s March timeline. "I withdraw the resolution," Irene said when formally removing it from the committee’s agenda. The chair and several committee members said they will speak in favor of the bills when the member-filed resolutions appear on the legislature floor.
What happens next: Volunteers from the committee will revise the drafts in shared documents and refile them as member-filed resolutions to meet the county legislature’s packet and meeting deadlines this month. The committee did not take a formal vote on any of the policy proposals during this meeting.
