MISSOURI, USA — Members of a Missouri body that regulates the state's utility companies nearly required utility providers to disclose which areas had the highest number of electricity, water and gas shutoffs.
Missouri Public Service Commission (PSC) members were considering a new rule that would mandate utility companies in the state to disclose disconnection data publicly. The rule was recently approved, but without an important provision consumer and residential advocates had been rooting for.
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Advocates argued that data shared by utility companies should be broken down by ZIP code, to determine what areas around the state needed the most help and faced the most severe energy burden. PSC members previously indicated they would approve of the new rule, ZIP code provision included.
But a few days before the rule's approval, the governor's office sent a memo sharing the governor's concerns about the ZIP code provision.
"The governor's office, who we used as a final review of the rule ... indicated they did not approve this rule," Judge John Clark said during a PSC meeting. "They did, in fact, indicate the increased costs related to the ZIP code reporting requirements were the primary reasons for not approving this rule."
A week after Parson's disapproval was read, the rule was passed without the ZIP code provision attached. The rule now mandates that Missouri utilities must provide bulk disconnect data monthly, but advocates won't know what areas in Missouri are seeing the highest rates of electricity, water and gas shut-offs.
Gov. Parson appointed four of the commission's five members.
Multiple utility companies previously submitted comments to the PSC, telling commissioners they would have to create new positions and allocate thousands in new funding if they were required to supply disconnect data by ZIP code. Advocates and one of the commissioners said the benefits of providing the data outweighed the costs.
"Having to meet disconnection reporting data by five-digit ZIP codes will allow utilities and all stakeholders to identify and address their delinquencies and disconnection trends," Commissioner Maida Coleman, the only commissioner not appointed by Parson, said. "The more specific the disconnection data is, the more useful it is for taking meaningful action."
Consumer advocates agree with what Coleman said. John Coffman, an attorney for the Consumers Council of Missouri who worked the case, said the detailed ZIP code data would have allowed advocacy groups to see which areas needed the greatest assistance.
"We suggested that the rule be done by ZIP codes to allow us to chart and map out the problem to find out where utility disconnections are the most severe," Coffman said. "Unfortunately ... at the very last minute, that amendment was taken out of the rule the Public Service Commission approved."
Utility companies have provided data on customers by ZIP code in previous PSC cases.
When asked by 5 On Your Side why they disapproved of the ZIP code provision, the governor's office released the following statement:
"The final rule included significant policy changes – the requirement for investor-owned utilities to begin collecting data at the zip code level – that were not included in the initial proposed rule. Due to this significant change and the public and private costs associated with the added reporting requirements, our office was not in support."
The governor's office estimated the public's cost of the ZIP code provision would be between $934,806 and $1.11 million over the life of the rule. Missouri's current total budget is about $50 billion. The governor's office did not have an estimation of what the rule would cost the utility companies.
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