Sen. Chris Koster (R-Harrisonville) introduced legislation today that would hold utility companies more accountable for electric services they provide, and blasted them for their tree trimming and maintenance upkeep.
"Tired of Living in the Dark?" headlines the release sent out Tuesday.
"When a utility monopoly fails to maintain adequate tree trimming and line maintenance, they can't blame the resulting power outages solely on Mother Nature," Koster said. "Their maintenance policies have courted danger in pursuit of higher profits, and Missouri's utility customers have paid the price for their bad choices," he added.
Koster's "Electrical Utility Responsibility Act" does the following:
*Creates a minimum standard for service reliability and implements "financial penalties" if they are not met
*Rebates to customers the monthly service charge ($10/mo.) each and every time a customer experiences more than 4 hours of downed service in a month
*Mandates the Mo. Public Service Commission rank utilities for reliability and customer service
*Mandates that companies providing "substandard" service be publicly identified for "poor service"
*Mandates the Public Service Comm. put together rules for vegetation management and penalize companies that fail to follow tree-trimming guidelines
"One Missouri utility company has recently seen an 11% growth in stock price and enjoyed record breaking profits, even as they repeatedly left hundreds of thousands of customers in the dark for days on end," Koster said.
Koster's legislation will head to committee for a hearing later this week.
A few questions . . .
How would you mandate "minimum service standards?" If a horrible storm hits, and the lights go out, how would the PSC evaluate whether its due to "poor service" or just a bad storm?
What standards would be used to identify "poor service?"
And where would City Utilities rank in that statewide ratings system?
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