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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | July 2, 2024 11:56 AM |
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| From: | Representative Joe Ciresi |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Facilitating Public Participation in Utility Rate Cases |
| Utility services such as water, wastewater, and electricity have become essential to modern daily life. Our constituents rely on these services to be safe, reliable, and affordable, and our state has given the Public Utility Commission (PUC) the responsibility of ensuring this. For the PUC to be effective in considering the interests of consumers when it considers important cases involving utility rate changes and acquisitions, it’s important that they hear from concerned members of the public and that ratepayer voices are at the table. The ratemaking process should be inclusive of and accessible to the public, which means ratepayers should be aware of proposed rate changes and can easily participate. Utilities are currently required to send notice of proposed rate changes and include instructions on how to submit public comments by mail. But those notices can get lost in the volume of other notices sent by utilities and other companies, and modern government can be more accessible than expecting the public to send comments through the mail. To make it easier for the public to stay informed and participate in PUC rate cases, I plan to introduce two bills to improve the current process. These bills would call additional attention to notices sent by utilities about proposed rate changes and require the PUC to accept public comments on these cases online, with information on how to do that included in those notices. Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Document #1
Introduced as HB2496
| Description: | This bill would require public utilities to conspicuously write on the envelope or the outside of the mailing that the envelope includes a notification of a proposed rate change, making it more noticeable to ratepayers. | |
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| View Attachment | ||
Document #2
Introduced as HB2495
| Description: | This bill would require the Public Utility Commission to accept public comments on proposed rate changes or system acquisitions by both mail and electronically, and for instructions for both methods to be included in notices sent to utility customers. This would ensure an online option, either by e-mail or on a website, for submitting public comments on these cases to the PUC. | |
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| View Attachment | ||
Memo Updated: July 2, 2024 11:59 AM