NY State Senate Bill 2017-S2674

Senate Bill S2674

2017-2018 Legislative Session

Prohibits any gas or electric corporation from absolving itself from liability for service interruption arising from employee negligence

download bill text pdf

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Energy And Telecommunications Committee

Introduced
- In Committee Assembly
- In Committee Senate
- On Floor Calendar Assembly
- On Floor Calendar Senate
- Passed Assembly
- Passed Senate
Delivered to Governor
Signed By Governor

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 03, 2018	referred to energy and telecommunications
Jan 17, 2017	referred to energy and telecommunications

2017-S2674 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Energy And Telecommunications
Law Section:: Public Service Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §66, Pub Serv L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2011-2012: S2533
2013-2014: S566
2015-2016: S2431
2019-2020: S1284
2021-2022: S1247
2023-2024: S173

2017-S2674 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Prohibits gas and electric corporations from filing any schedules setting forth rules or regulations which absolve or attempt to absolve such corporations from liability for the interruption of its supply of service arising from the ordinary negligence of its employees, servants or agents and provides that any such schedules filed are void as against public policy.

2017-S2674 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S2674

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the public service law, in relation
to the liability of gas and electric corporations arising from the
negligence of their employees, servants or agents


 SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :

Section 1 amends subdivision 12 of § 66 of the Public Service Law to
prohibit the filing by gas or electric corporations of any schedules
absolving any such corporation from liability for the interruption of
its supply of services arising from the ordinary negligence of its
employees, servants, or agents. Any such schedule currently filed is
deemed void as against public Policy.

 JUSTIFICATION :

In the Summer of 2011, the western part of Queens suffered a massive
power outage that lasted 9 days. The Assembly Queens Power Outage Task
Force studied the outage's causes and the inadequate responses by the
company responsible for the transmission and distribution system,
Consolidated Edison, and by the Public Service Commission.  One
underlying cause of this debacle was found to be the reliance by New
York's utility regulators on antiquated laws, regulations and policies
that let companies engaged in energy transmission and distribution

operate without effective oversight.

Several of the findings and recommendations of the Task Force
concerned the inadequacy of Consolidated Edison's policies regarding
reimbursement for its failure to deliver a safe and adequate supply of
electricity, as the Public Service Law requires. One fundamental
barrier to the public's ability to be appropriately compensated is the
current language in the tariffs filed by electric and gas utilities
disclaiming any responsibility for disruptions of service, except in
cases of gross negligence.

The Task Force recommended that the Legislature should amend the
Public Service Law to remove the tariff bar against suits for damages
from outages due to simple negligence. This bill would accomplish this
goal, which would result in assigning the same degree of legal
responsibility to operators of energy transmission and distribution
systems as virtually every other business currently bears.

 PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2016: Died in Energy and Telecommunications
2015: Died in Energy and Telecommunications
2014: Senate Bill 566 (Gianaris) Died in Senate Energy & Telecommuni-
cations Committee
2012: Senate Bill 2533 (Gianaris) Died in Senate Energy &
Telecommunications Committee

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
Immediately.

2017-S2674 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   2674
 
                        2017-2018 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 17, 2017
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by Sen. GIANARIS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
   printed to be committed to the Committee on  Energy  and  Telecommuni-
   cations
 
 AN  ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to the liability of
   gas and electric corporations arising from  the  negligence  of  their
   employees, servants or agents

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
    Section 1.  Subdivision 12 of section 66 of the public service law is
 amended by adding a new undesignated paragraph to read as follows:
   NOTHING CONTAINED IN THIS SUBDIVISION SHALL BE CONSTRUED  TO,  AND  NO
 RULE,  REGULATION,  ORDER  OR PRACTICE OF THE COMMISSION SHALL AUTHORIZE
 THE FILING BY ANY GAS CORPORATION OR ELECTRIC CORPORATION OF ANY  SCHED-
 ULE  SETTING  FORTH  RULES  OR  REGULATIONS RELATING TO RATES OR SERVICE
 WHICH, IN WORDS OR EFFECT, ABSOLVE OR ATTEMPT  TO  ABSOLVE  SUCH  CORPO-
 RATION  FROM  LIABILITY  FOR  THE  INTERRUPTION OF ITS SUPPLY OF SERVICE
 ARISING FROM THE ORDINARY  NEGLIGENCE  OF  ITS  EMPLOYEES,  SERVANTS  OR
 AGENTS.    ANY  PART  OF  ANY SCHEDULE FILED BY SUCH CORPORATION SETTING
 FORTH ANY SUCH RULES OR REGULATIONS RELATING TO ABSOLUTION FROM  LIABIL-
 ITY SHALL BE DEEMED VOID AS AGAINST PUBLIC POLICY.
   § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
 
 
 
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                            LBD06989-01-7

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