Lifetime Citizen Portal Access — AI Briefings, Alerts & Unlimited Follows
Senate Finance hears utilities and regulators on disconnect protections; debate centers on rulemaking vs statute
Loading...
Summary
The committee reviewed H.753 (ratepayer protections) with testimony from the Public Service Department and utilities about reporting, summer high-heat rules and physician certificates for medical exemptions; utilities warned of cost-shifting and administrative burdens while the department and some senators urged clarifying language and PUC rulemaking.
The Senate Finance Committee spent substantial time on H.753, a bill that would require reporting of disconnections and direct the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to address service-protection rules for residential electric, gas and water customers during extreme conditions.
Carol Flint, a department representative, told senators the bill should say "natural gas" rather than "propane," because the department regulates natural gas disconnections while the attorney general's office handles propane. She also warned that the annual energy report is due Jan. 15, so any data the bill references will reflect either a fall point-in-time collection or state fiscal-year reporting, not calendar-year-end data.
Andrea Cohen of Vermont Electric Cooperative said the cooperative serves a high proportion of older customers and stressed utilities already use payment plans and customer outreach to avoid disconnections. "About 57% of our members are age 65 and older," Cohen said, emphasizing that more prescriptive rules could create administrative headaches and not necessarily fix underlying affordability problems.
A central point of contention was a draft clause requiring "due consideration of medical judgment" for physician certificates that protect customers from disconnection. Under current practice the PUC accepts certificates signed by a medical doctor, physician assistant or nurse practitioner; many witnesses recommended putting details about duration and qualifying clinicians into PUC rulemaking rather than into statute. Senators and utilities worried that open-ended or longer durations (for example, moving beyond the existing 30‑day increments) could encourage repeat filings, increase arrearages and shift costs to other customers.
Municipal and cooperative utility witnesses described operational concerns and pandemic experience: Ken Nolan of the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority said a COVID-era ban on disconnects produced multi-year arrearages and administrative burdens, warning that indefinite or broad no-disconnect periods can generate unpaid balances that ultimately flow into future rate cases.
Several witnesses said a PUC-run rulemaking process would be a practical path forward. Utilities recommended the committee preserve the commission's flexibility to craft technical definitions and to consider limiting statutory language to reporting requirements and a directive to open rulemaking on summer heat windows and physician-certificate issues.
Next steps: the committee plans additional work with legislative counsel, the department and the PUC; senators signaled they will request more detailed rule language and may hold further testimony from utilities, assistance agencies and the state auditor before drafting final amendments.
