SENATE, No. 1504

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

INTRODUCED SEPTEMBER 19, 1996

By Senators MARTIN, ADLER and Bassano

An Act concerning electric public utility rates, and supplementing Title 48 of the Revised Statutes.

    Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

    1. The provisions of any other law, rule or regulation to the contrary notwithstanding, in determining just and reasonable rates for any electric public utility pursuant to R.S. 48:2-21, R.S.48:2-21.1, section 31 of P.L.1962, c.198 (C.48:2-21.2) or P.L.1995, c.80 (C.48:2-21.24 et seq.), the board shall not allow as an operating expense, or as part of an off-tariff rate agreement, or as a factor in the rate, or any other charge to the ratepayer, in a plan for alternative form of regulation, any costs of an outage related to the operations of a nuclear generating facility that resulted in fines or penalties imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

    2. The board shall promulgate, in accordance with the "Administrative Procedure Act," P.L.1968, c.410 (C.52:14B-1 et seq.), such rules and regulations as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this act.

    3. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

    This bill would provide that in determining just and reasonable rates for any electric public utility, the Board of Public Utilities shall not allow as an operating expense, or as part of an off-tariff rate agreement, or as a factor in the rate, or any other charge to the ratepayer, in a plan for alternative form of regulation, any costs of an outage related to the operations of a nuclear generating facility that resulted in fines or penalties imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Prohibits electric public utilities from including nuclear facility outage costs as part of operating expenses when outage leads to fines and penalties.