Senate Bill S2533

                                BILL NUMBER:S2533

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

PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
In its January 2007 report, the Assembly Queens Power Outage Task Force
recommended several measures to improve oversight of utilities and
prevent future blackouts. This bill will provide incentives for
utilities to ensure that their systems provide safe and adequate service
by eliminating special treatment for electricity and gas suppliers with
respect to their responsibility for negligent operations.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Bill § 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.

EFFECTS OF PRESENT LAW WHICH THIS BILL WOULD ALTER:
No current statutory language addresses waivers of ordinary negligence
              

by gas or electric corporations.

JUSTIFICATION:
Last summer, 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:
None.


FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.

EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately.