Senate Bill S6491B

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6491

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 Canada or any province of Canada

 
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 the government of Canada or
any province of Canada on the exportation of goods, services, or materi-
als 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 well. 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:

None.

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.

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S6491A              Revised 9/17/2025

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:

To require utility companies to disclose the estimated cost of tariffs
and the primary cost components of delivery charges in customers bills.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends section 44 of the Public Service law by adding a new
subdivision 8 which requires utilities to include a "tariff cost esti-
mate" in every billing statement that they send to customers. The
"tariff cost estimate" is defined as an estimate of the increase in the
price of the service provided by the utility due to tariffs imposed by
              

the United States or foreign governments.

Section 1 also adds a new subdivision 9 to section 44 of the Public
Service law which requires utility companies to disclose the primary
cost components of the delivery portion of a customer's bill. The
disclosure must include how much of the delivery charge goes to execu-
tive compensation, repairs and maintenance, depreciation of utility
assets, interest on loans and other debt, rents for facilities and
equipment, property taxes paid to local governments, income taxes on
earnings, shareholder return and payments to the utilities parent compa-
ny.

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-profit corpo-
ration responsible for operating the bulk electricity grid and adminis-
tering the competitive wholesale electricity market. NYISO monitors the
reliability of the state's power system and coordinates the daily oper-
ations 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 federal administration to impose tariffs on
foreign goods and services including energy will increase the cost of
electricity and gas in New York because utilities will attempt to pass
these charges along to consumers. Tariffs imposed by Canada or any of
its provinces will likewise increase costs, since utilities will attempt
to pass these charges along as well. The Province of Ontario has already

announced it would be placing tariffs on exports, including energy, to
the United States which includes energy exports to New York State.

However, tariffs are not the only cause of rising utility bills for
consumers. Increased delivery charges have been a driver of utility cost
increases for New Yorkers, yet there is no transparency on what makes up
these charges. Just like with "supply charges," consumers have a right
to know what actual costs are built into the category of "delivery
charges" that appears on their bill.

Ratepayers across the state are already experiencing financial stress
from their utility bills and the additional costs of tariffs and rising
delivery charges will only add to their difficulties.  The goal of this
legislation is simple: to provide ratepayers in New York with increased
billing transparency, including the impact of tariffs and a breakdown of
the broad "delivery charge" category.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

None. New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

None.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.