Under pressure from marketers and now from the state’s attorneygeneral about the legality of some of the rules, the Georgia PublicService Commission has dropped a proposal to require natural gasmarketers to forgive monthly bills sent to customers more than 90days late. Instead, the PSC unveiled a new package of rules thatamong other things would heavily fine marketers for repeated andwillful noncompliance.

The PSC fell back from its earlier proposals in a public hearingthis week, following an opinion by the Georgia attorney general’soffice, which said the “90-day rule” would likely not hold up incourt. The attorney general’s opinion stated that courts wouldexpect Georgia to “utilize less draconian measures.”

Commissioner Bobby Baker, who had proposed the original rule, saidthe state’s marketing companies consistently made errors despitecontinuing assurances that they would correct the problems. However,another commissioner, Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, had called Baker’sproposal unconstitutional, saying it would basically be a free gasprogram for some consumers. Georgia’ PSC has faced consumer complaintsabout billing, especially late billing and inaccurate statements,since the state deregulated natural gas two years ago (see Daily GPI,Nov. 9; Aug. 31; Sept. 21, 1998).

The proposed 90-day rule also came under fire by marketers at anearlier public hearing, in which the state’s largest marketer,Georgia Natural Gas, had called the rule “fraught with legal,technical and practical difficulties.”

This week, the PSC staff unveiled its new package of rules toaddress the continuing billing discrepancies. Under one newproposal, the PSC would allow consumers to have as much time to paya late bill as it took for the marketer to send it, minus interestand penalties. Marketers also would be required to itemize chargeson the monthly bills to make it easier for consumers to comparecompetitive marketer rates. PSC proposals would also require thefollowing:

PSC also is considering imposing penalties for repeated orwillful noncompliance, which would include suspending or revokingan operating certificate and fines of up to $15,000 per violationand $10,000 per day that the violation continues. However, the PSCproposal does not set a benchmark for the number of times a companyhas to violate the rules before the PSC acts.

Undeterred by the attorney general’s opinion, Commissioner Bakersaid he thought the new set of rules would work. Even McDonald, whohad opposed some of the earlier rules, also was optimistic aboutthe new package. Both Baker and McDonald support a proposalrequiring marketers to give 25 days’ written notice to increasecustomer service charges, despite protests from marketers. Gasmarketers contended in hearings this week that many customers havechosen variable prices that permit charges to fluctuate withvolatile wholesale gas and commodity prices.

“Twenty-five days in advance, we don’t know what the commodityrate will be,” said Robert Remar, an attorney for the state’sleading marketer, Georgia Natural Gas Services.

The hearings this week were more subdued, and marketers aregenerally supportive of the revised package, especially the dropped90-day rule. Georgia Natural Gas Services Inc., which came underfire earlier this month for back billing questions, told thecommission it would support the measures, including the 25 days’written notice provision. Energy America LLC also said it wouldsupport the measures. Shell Energy Services told the commission itstill would like to offer amendments to some proposals, but nospecifics were given.

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