Senate panel delays vote on H.753, asks PUC study and drafts to address disconnection protections

The Senate Finance Committee took up H.753, a bill directing the Public Utility Commission to update rules on utility disconnections, and agreed to delay a final vote to allow counsel and stakeholders time to refine language.

Maria Royal, legislative counsel, told the committee that H.753 requires PUC rulemaking on disconnections and reporting on trends and monthly utility filings, and that the bill’s third section contains two competing amendments: one (highlighted in yellow) would direct the PUC to curtail electric-service disconnections during periods of extreme heat and permit lower temperature thresholds for households including people 62 or older and those 8 or younger or pregnant; the other (blue) would require the PUC, when undertaking rulemaking, to consider whether medical judgment should determine the duration of any disconnection-protection period.

Committee members and a utility representative raised operational and privacy concerns about explicitly enumerating protected groups. A Green Mountain Power representative said utilities generally do not collect pregnancy or minor-age data and rely on outside verification for some assistance programs, and cautioned that expanding exempted classes could increase costs passed to ratepayers.

Members discussed how the PUC currently handles medical exemptions: a licensed clinician can provide a statement that disconnection would create an immediate and serious health hazard, which the commission has treated as sufficient in practice. Lawmakers debated whether the statute should list specific vulnerable groups or leave protections broadly defined so clinicians can apply judgment case by case.

To gather evidence before finalizing statutory language, members asked that the Department of Public Service include any available health or disconnection-related data in its required report (committee members cited a possible return date in January) and that counsel prepare a revised draft that could either remove the age/pregnancy listing, retain the medical-judgment approach, or require the PUC to consider other vulnerable groups during rulemaking. The committee agreed to place the bill on the agenda for a vote the following day once counsel circulates a redraft.

Next steps: counsel will circulate a revised text for committee consideration and the committee will take up H.753 at its next meeting; the DPS was asked to provide relevant data as part of its reporting obligations to inform the PUC rulemaking.