AARP presses Pataki to sign measure

Albany-- Bill passed in June would help consumers who buy electricity from competitive suppliers

By KENNETH AARON, Business writer  - Friday, December 20, 2002

Gov. George Pataki has less than a day left to sign a bill that would extend consumer protections to people who buy their electricity from a competitive supplier, and groups that support the measure are urging him to act on it.

A dozen AARP members, in yellow T-shirts, gathered Thursday in the Legislative Office Building to back their organization as it called for the bill's passage. "People shouldn't just check their protections at the door if they want to go out and get a better rate," said Bill Ferris, an AARP spokesman.

Consumers who buy their electricity from utilities receive several protections, including the right to have disputes settled by the state Public Service Commission and assurances that service won't be cut off to the elderly, blind, disabled or those with medical emergencies. But consumers who buy power from energy service companies -- ESCOs -- get no such guarantees under the law.

Both the state Senate and Assembly unanimously approved the Energy Consumer Protection Act in June. Pataki called the bill to his desk Dec. 9, but hasn't said anything about it since. He has until midnight today sign it; if he does nothing, the bill is vetoed.

Ferris said the silence led to Thursday's event. Later in the day, Pataki's office did not respond to a call asking for the governor's stance on the bill.

Utilities are opposing the legislation. Patrick Curran, whose Energy Association of New York State represents companies including Niagara Mohawk and New York State Electric & Gas, which serve the Capital Region, said the companies support the concept behind it, but fear that some provisions would actually strip consumers of protections.

He acknowledged, though, that the industry supports the general concept. "We think the goals of this bill are laudable," Curran said.

Utilities object to provisions of the bill that make them responsible for disconnecting service when told to by the electricity supplier. They don't want to run the risk of switching off power at the behest of an ESCO if that ESCO makes a mistake.

But Ferris said that by the time an electricity seller directs a utility to turn out the lights, it already had to run a gantlet of checks.

The companies that would sell electricity back the bill, saying it would help the struggling competitive energy market get off the ground. Usher Fogel, an Albany attorney who represents a group of ESCOs known as the Small Customer Marketer Coalition, said a law could be a good selling point to convince customers to switch their service.

"We're doing something that's very difficult to do, and that's to create a competitive market where there was a regulated monopoly market," he said.

The AARP is not encouraging its 2.5 million New York members to make the leap to a new electricity supplier, even though it might save them money. With many of those members on fixed incomes, they'd be prime candidates to save even a few dollars a month, which is about what most residential customers could expect to see.

Ferris said the group's stance would change with a law in place. And his members would likely follow in short order.

"I am not comfortable in switching until there is something like this available," said Betty Vondracek, an AARP member from Elmira.