Landmark clean energy bill signed in Massachusetts, with good news for suppliers. On November 20, Massachusetts Gov. Healey signed into law Senate Bill S2967, which makes significant changes to the state’s energy policy framework. The legislation is comprehensive when it comes to clean energy, climate change, and energy efficiency initiatives and regulation but key provisions for retail energy suppliers include: (1) a central AMI data repository to allow customers and third parties, including competitive suppliers, access to advanced metering data, including billing, interval usage and load data, in near-real time for all customer classes; (2) electric utilities must implement accelerated switching, instant connect, and seamless move for residential or small commercial electric customers; (3) puts new restrictions on the DPU’s consideration of expansion of natural gas service; and (4) includes a requirement for cities and towns to approve small clean energy infrastructure project applications through a consolidated permitting process within 12 months.
New federal telemarketing solicitation rules take effect in January. Over at the FTC’s sister agency, the Federal Communications Commission, the regulator announced on November 6 the finalization of a new rule “requiring that texters and callers obtain a consumer’s prior express written consent to robocall or robotext the consumer soliciting their business. The Commission requires that such consent apply to a single seller at a time. The Commission also requires that the consent must be in response to a clear and conspicuous disclosure to the consumer and that the content of the robotexts and robocalls be logically and topically associated with the website where the consumer gave consent.” Compliance with the new rule is required as of January 27, 2025.
Pennsylvania House passes bill requiring a $1 million bond for retail suppliers and brokers. On October 23, in Pennsylvania, the House of Representatives passed House Bill 1578. This bill requires suppliers and brokers engaging in person-to-person sales of natural gas or electricity at the residence of a retail residential customer to furnish a bond or other security with the PAPUC in the amount of $1 million. It also requires the PAPUC to develop a training and education program for retail energy suppliers, at the conclusion of which a designated representative of each supplier must demonstrate through an online exam a thorough understanding of the PAPUC’s sales regulations. Passage by the state senate seems unlikely before end of the year and the current legislative session, but re-introduction is almost certain for the 2025-26 session that begins in January.
Commission Comings-and-Goings: In an unusual and possibly political situation, the four Republican members of the Arizona Corporation Commission voted on November 22 to direct the AZCC’s general counsel to investigate the lone Democratic commissioner, Anna Tovar, for alleged ethics code and regulatory violations. A recommendation from the general counsel is expected by the beginning of December…
In Brief: Maryland’s Office of People’s Counsel joined other consumer advocates in a complaint filed on November 18 with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against PJM. The complaint centers on the rules governing PJM’s capacity market and what the consumer advocates believe is an artificially-created increase in capacity prices…the Federal Trade Commission released the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2024 on November 15, which it said “shows that consumer reports about unwanted calls continue to drop for the third straight year, with complaint volume down by more than half since 2021.”…AltaGas, the parent company of gas utility WGL, has been hit with a $2.1 million fine by the District of Columbia Attorney-General for failure to comply with the terms of the original settlement approving AltaGas’s acquisition of the DC-based utility. Specifically, AltaGas has failed to develop 10MW of renewable energy or storage resources as it had originally agreed to do.
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