SENATE ECONOMIC GROWTH COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 3029

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  JANUARY 24, 2019

      The Senate Economic Growth Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 3029.

      As reported, this bill is to be known as “Linda’s Law” in memory of Linda Daniels, who depended on an oxygen machine powered by electricity to survive, and who died after electric service to her home was discontinued.

      This bill requires an electric public utility (utility) to request from every residential customer, on a semi-annual basis, information determined by the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), as to whether the residential customer, or any person living at the customer’s residence, uses life-sustaining equipment powered by electricity at the residential customer's premises.  If a residential customer responds to the utility’s request for information indicating the residential customer or a person living at the residential customer’s address uses life-sustaining equipment powered by electricity, the utility is to designate that residential customer as a “medical customer.”

      The bill requires that, except when a utility experiences an “emergency,” as that term is defined in the bill, a utility is prohibited from discontinuing service to a medical customer for utility bill nonpayment if a medical customer’s condition would be aggravated by a discontinuance of service. A utility is to require the medical customer to: 1) provide reasonable proof of an inability to pay a utility bill on or before the bill’s due date; and 2) semi-annually submit a written physician's statement to the utility.

      The bill provides that a medical customer who does not pay a utility bill on or before the date the bill is due is liable for any bill payment balance for service rendered by the utility.