BILL NUMBER: S6491A

SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the public service law, in relation to prohibiting elec-
tric corporations and gas corporations from increasing charges due to
tariffs imposed by the United States or governments of countries or
their political subdivisions outside the United States

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

Prohibits electric and gas utilities from passing along the costs of
United States and foreign tariffs to ratepayers.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 66 of the Public Service Law by adding a new
subdivision 33 which shall prohibit electric, gas, and any other utility
corporation from passing along costs or increasing charges to ratepayers
for electricity and natural gas, or any other associated goods and
services as a result of tariffs placed by the United States government
              

on the importation of goods, services or materials from outside the
United States or due to tariffs placed by foreign governments on the
exportation of goods, services, or materials to the United States.

Section 2 sets forth the effective date which shall be immediately.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Outside of Canada itself, New York State is the largest consumer of
Canadian electricity with 7.7TWh being imported in 2024.

The New York State Independent System Operator (NYISO) is a not-for-pro-
fit corporation responsible for operating the bulk electricity grid and
administering the competitive wholesale electricity market. NYISO moni-
tors the reliability of the state's power system and coordinates the
daily operations to distribute electricity supply. The NYISO provides
open access to New York State's transmission system to allow competitive
generation services.  It is interconnected with two Canadian system
operators, Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator and Hydro-
Quebec. Electricity distributed by New York State utility companies
comes from generating plants in New York State, Canada and other states
in the United States.

The actions of the current administration of the United States to impose
25% tariffs on foreign goods and services including energy will undoubt-
edly increase the costs of electricity and gas in New York since utili-
ties will attempt to pass these charges along.  Tariffs imposed by Cana-
da or any of its provinces, will likewise increase costs since utilities
will attempt to pass these charges along as welt. The Province of Ontar-
io has already announced it would be placing tariffs on exports, includ-
ing energy, to the United States which includes energy exports to New
York State.

Ratepayers across the state are already experiencing financial stress
from their utility bills and the additional costs of tariffs will only
add to their difficulties.

The goal of this legislation is simple: to prevent ratepayers in New
York from the costly fallout of this misguided policy. This bill explic-
itly prohibits electric and gas utility companies from passing along the
cost of the tariffs to ratepayers whether the tariffs are imposed by the
United States, Canada or any Canadian province.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None. Passage of this bill could save State and local governments money.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.