NY State Senate Bill 2021-S3698

Senate Bill S3698

2021-2022 Legislative Session

Relates to civil penalties on certain public utility companies, corporations or persons and the officers, agents and employees thereof

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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Actions

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	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 05, 2022	referred to energy and telecommunications
Jan 30, 2021	referred to energy and telecommunications

2021-S3698 (ACTIVE) - Details

See Assembly Version of this Bill:: A2469
Current Committee:: Senate Energy And Telecommunications
Law Section:: Public Service Law
Laws Affected:: Amd §§25 & 25-a, Pub Serv L
Versions Introduced in Other Legislative Sessions:: 2019-2020: S9081, A10995
2023-2024: S1662, A1741

2021-S3698 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Increases civil penalties on certain combination gas and electric corporations that fail to comply with the public service law.

2021-S3698 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

                                
 
BILL NUMBER: S3698

SPONSOR: BAILEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public service law, in relation to civil penalties
on certain public utility companies, corporations or persons and the
officers, agents and employees thereof

 
PURPOSE:

The purpose of this bill is to increase the maximum (dollar-amount)
penalties for utility companies, corporations (including combination gas
and electric corporations) or persons, officers, agents and employees
thereof that knowingly fail or neglect to obey or comply with a
provision of public service law, regulation or order adopted by the
commission.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section one amends subdivisions two, three and four of section twenty-

five of public service law (titled: "Penalties") to, for the benefit of
people of the state of New York:
-increase the maximum civil penalty from one-hundred thousand dollars to
two million dollars that a utility company shall forfeit for knowingly
failing or neglecting to obey or comply with a provision of public
service law, regulation or order adopted by the commission, whereby each
day shall be deemed a separate and distinct offense;
-increase the maximum civil penalty from two-hundred and fifty thousand
dollars to five million dollars that a utility company shall forfeit for
knowingly failing or neglecting to obey or comply with public service
law, regulation or order adopted by the commission that was adopted
specifically for the protection of human safety and such violation
caused or constituted a contributing factor in bringing about a death or
personal injury; and
-increase the maximum civil penalty from five-hundred thousand dollars
to ten million dollars that a utility company shall forfeit for knowing-
ly failing or neglecting to obey or comply with public service law,
regulation or order adopted by the commission that was designed to
protect the overall reliability and continuity of electric service.

Section two amends subdivisions three, four and five of section twenty-
five-a of public service law (titled: "Combination gas and electric
corporations; administrative sanctions; recovery of penalties") to, for
the benefit of ratepayers:
-increase the maximum (dollar-amount) civil penalty from one-hundred"
thousand dollars to two million dollars that a combination gas and elec-
tric corporation shall forfeit for failing to reasonably comply with a
provision of public service law, regulation or order adopted by the
commission, as shown by a preponderance of evidence, whereby each day
shall be deemed a separate and distinct offense;
-increase the maximum (dollar-amount) civil penalty from two-hundred and
fifty thousand dollars to five million dollars that a combination gas
and electric corporation shall forfeit for failing to reasonably comply
with a provision of public service law, regulation or order adopted by
the commission that was adopted specifically for the protection of human
safety and such violation caused or constituted a contributing factor in
bringing about a death or personal injury or damage to real property in

excess of fifty thousand dollars, as shown by a preponderance of
evidence; and
-increase the maximum (dollar-amount) civil penalty from five-hundred
thousand dollars to ten million dollars that a combination gas and elec-
tric corporation shall forfeit for failing to reasonably comply with a
provision of public service law, regulation or order adopted by the
commission that was designed to protect the overall reliability and
continuity of electric service, including but not limited to the resto-
ration of electric service following a major outage, as shown by a
preponderance of evidence.

Section three sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Tropical Storm Isaias resulted in power outages for hundreds of thou-
sands of New Yorkers across New York City, Long Island, Westchester,
Rockland, the Hudson Valley, and other areas of the state. Service
disruptions lasted multiple days and impacted a number of utilities'
operations and facilities. Time and again utilities fail to improve
their response to an outage and at the time of this bill being intro-
duced the public service commission is conducting an investigation into
the failings of relevant utilities to adhere to provisions of public
service law, regulation or commission order regarding the response to
Isais. The current maximum (dollar-amount) penalty is far too low and a
drop-in-the bucket for many utility companies. This bill would increase
such penalties for the various tiers of violations for the benefit of
ratepayers or the people of the state of New York, pursuant to public
service law.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2019-20: S9081/A10995 (Dinowitz) - Referred to Rules

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

Undetermined.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.

2021-S3698 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                            
 
                     S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
 ________________________________________________________________________
 
                                   3698
 
                        2021-2022 Regular Sessions
 
                             I N  S E N A T E
 
                             January 30, 2021
                                ___________
 
 Introduced  by  Sen.  BAILEY -- 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 civil penalties
   on certain public utility companies, corporations or persons  and  the
   officers, agents and employees thereof

   THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
 BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
 
   Section 1. Subdivision 2, paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 and paragraph
 (a) of subdivision 4 of section 25 the public service law, as amended by
 chapter 375 of the laws of 1986, are amended to read as follows:
   2. Any public utility company, corporation or person and the officers,
 agents and employees thereof that knowingly fails or neglects to obey or
 comply with a provision of  this  chapter  or  an  order  adopted  under
 authority  of  this chapter so long as the same shall be in force, shall
 forfeit to the people of the state of New York a sum not exceeding  [one
 hundred  thousand]  TWO MILLION dollars constituting a civil penalty for
 each and every offense and, in the case of a continuing violation,  each
 day shall be deemed a separate and distinct offense.
   (a) [two hundred and fifty thousand] FIVE MILLION dollars constituting
 a civil penalty for each separate and distinct offense; provided, howev-
 er,  that  for  purposes  of  this  paragraph  each  day of a continuing
 violation shall not be deemed a separate and distinct offense. The total
 period of a continuing violation, as well as every  distinct  violation,
 shall  be  similarly  treated  as  a  separate  and distinct offense for
 purposes of this paragraph; or
   (a) [five hundred thousand] TEN MILLION dollars constituting  a  civil
 penalty  for each separate and distinct offense; provided, however, that
 for purposes of this paragraph each day of a continuing violation  shall
 not  be  deemed  a  separate and distinct offense. The total period of a
 continuing violation, as well as  every  distinct  violation,  shall  be
 
  EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                       [ ] is old law to be omitted.

                                                            LBD05772-01-1

 S. 3698                             2
 
 similarly  treated  as  a  separate and distinct offense for purposes of
 this paragraph; or
   § 2. Subdivision 3, subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subdivision 4
 and paragraph (a) of subdivision 5 of section 25-a of the public service
 law,  as added by section 2 of part X of chapter 57 of the laws of 2013,
 are amended to read as follows:
   3. Any combination gas and  electric  corporation  determined  by  the
 commission  to have failed to reasonably comply as shown by a preponder-
 ance of the evidence with a provision of this chapter, regulation or  an
 order  adopted under authority of this chapter so long as the same shall
 be in force shall forfeit a  sum  not  exceeding  the  greater  of  [one
 hundred  thousand]  TWO  MILLION  dollars  or  two one-hundredths of one
 percent of the annual intrastate gross operating revenue of  the  corpo-
 ration,  not including taxes paid to and revenues collected on behalf of
 government entities, constituting a civil penalty  for  each  and  every
 offense  and,  in  the case of a continuing violation, each day shall be
 deemed a separate and distinct offense.
   (i) [two hundred fifty thousand] FIVE MILLION dollars  or  three  one-
 hundredths  of  one  percent  of  the  annual intrastate gross operating
 revenue of the corporation, not including taxes  paid  to  and  revenues
 collected  on  behalf  of  government  entities,  whichever  is greater,
 constituting a civil penalty for each  separate  and  distinct  offense;
 provided,  however,  that  for purposes of this paragraph, each day of a
 continuing violation  shall  not  be  deemed  a  separate  and  distinct
 offense.  The  total  period of a continuing violation, as well as every
 distinct violation,  shall  be  similarly  treated  as  a  separate  and
 distinct offense for purposes of this paragraph; or
   (a) [five hundred thousand] TEN MILLION dollars or four one-hundredths
 of  one  percent of the annual intrastate gross operating revenue of the
 corporation, not including taxes  paid  to  and  revenues  collected  on
 behalf  of  government  entities,  whichever  is greater, constituting a
 civil penalty for each separate and distinct offense; provided, however,
 that for purposes of this paragraph each day of a  continuing  violation
 shall not be deemed a separate and distinct offense. The total period of
 a  continuing  violation,  as  well as every distinct violation shall be
 similarly treated as a separate and distinct  offense  for  purposes  of
 this paragraph; or
   § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.

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