Bill Text: MI SB0284 | 2013-2014 | 97th Legislature | Chaptered
Bill Title: Public utilities; other; creation and funding of the low-income energy assistance fund; provide for. Amends 1939 PA 3 (MCL 460.1 - 460.11) by adding sec. 9t.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 9-4)
Status: (Passed) 2013-07-31 - Assigned Pa 0095'13 With Immediate Effect [SB0284 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2013-SB0284-Chaptered.html
Act No. 95
Public Acts of 2013
Approved by the Governor
July 1, 2013
Filed with the Secretary of State
July 1, 2013
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2013
STATE OF MICHIGAN
97TH LEGISLATURE
REGULAR SESSION OF 2013
Introduced by Senators Nofs, Bieda, Caswell, Hopgood, Proos, Young, Anderson, Brandenburg, Jones, Schuitmaker, Walker, Marleau and Pappageorge
ENROLLED SENATE BILL No. 284
AN ACT to amend 1939 PA 3, entitled “An act to provide for the regulation and control of public and certain private utilities and other services affected with a public interest within this state; to provide for alternative energy suppliers; to provide for licensing; to include municipally owned utilities and other providers of energy under certain provisions of this act; to create a public service commission and to prescribe and define its powers and duties; to abolish the Michigan public utilities commission and to confer the powers and duties vested by law on the public service commission; to provide for the continuance, transfer, and completion of certain matters and proceedings; to abolish automatic adjustment clauses; to prohibit certain rate increases without notice and hearing; to qualify residential energy conservation programs permitted under state law for certain federal exemption; to create a fund; to provide for a restructuring of the manner in which energy is provided in this state; to encourage the utilization of resource recovery facilities; to prohibit certain acts and practices of providers of energy; to allow for the securitization of stranded costs; to reduce rates; to provide for appeals; to provide appropriations; to declare the effect and purpose of this act; to prescribe remedies and penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,” (MCL 460.1 to 460.11) by adding section 9t.
The People of the State of Michigan enact:
Sec. 9t. (1) The low-income energy assistance fund is created within the state treasury.
(2) The state treasurer may receive money or other assets from any source for deposit into the fund. The state treasurer shall direct the investment of the fund. The state treasurer shall credit to the fund interest and earnings from fund investments.
(3) Money in the fund at the close of the fiscal year shall remain in the fund and shall not lapse to the general fund.
(4) The department of licensing and regulatory affairs shall be the administrator of the fund for auditing purposes.
(5) Subject to the limitations imposed in this section, the department of human services shall expend money from the fund, upon appropriation, as provided in the Michigan energy assistance act, 2012 PA 615, MCL 400.1231 to 400.1236. The department of human services, in consultation with the public service commission, shall ensure that all money collected for the fund from a geographic area is returned, to the extent possible, to that geographic area.
(6) Subject to the limitations imposed in this subsection, the public service commission may, after an opportunity to comment, annually approve a low-income energy assistance funding factor no later than July 31 of each year for the subsequent fiscal year. The low-income energy assistance funding factor shall be the same across all customer classes and shall not exceed $1.00. The amount used by the public service commission to calculate a low-income energy assistance funding factor during each fiscal year shall not exceed $50,000,000.00 minus both the amount appropriated from the general fund in that fiscal year for home energy assistance and the amount remaining in the fund from the prior fiscal year. An electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility that collects money under this subsection shall remit that money to the state treasurer for deposit in the fund on a monthly basis no later than 30 days after the last day in each calendar month. The electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility shall list the low-income energy assistance funding factor as a separate line item on each customer’s bill.
(7) An electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility may elect to not collect a low-income energy assistance funding factor under this section by annually filing a notice with the public service commission by July 1. Notwithstanding any other provision of this act, an electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility that elects to not collect a low-income energy assistance funding factor under this section shall not shut off service to any residential customer from November 1 to April 15 for nonpayment of a delinquent account.
(8) An electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility that does not opt out under subsection (7), or an association representing a municipally owned electric utility or cooperative electric utility that does not opt out under subsection (7), shall annually provide to the public service commission by July 1 the number of retail billing meters it serves in this state that are subject to the low-income energy assistance funding factor.
(9) Nothing in this act gives the public service commission the power to regulate a municipally owned electric utility.
(10) As used in this section:
(a) “Fund” means the low-income energy assistance fund created in subsection (1).
(b) “Low-income energy assistance funding factor” means a nonbypassable surcharge on each retail billing meter payable monthly by every customer receiving a retail distribution service from an electric utility, municipally owned electric utility, or cooperative electric utility that does not opt out under subsection (7), regardless of the identity of the customer’s electric generation supplier. The low-income energy assistance funding factor shall not be charged on more than 1 residential meter per residential site.
This act is ordered to take immediate effect.
Secretary of the Senate
Clerk of the House of Representatives
Approved
Governor
