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SB 1531 Connecticut Senate · 2025 Regular Session

AN ACT CONCERNING PUBLIC UTILITY TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE PUBLIC UTILITIES REGULATORY AUTHORITY.

SB 1531 restricts large electric, gas, pipeline, and water utilities (with over 200,000 customers) from passing certain costs to customers through their rates. The bill specifically prohibits utilities from recovering costs related to trade association memberships, lobbying, marketing aimed at influencing public opinion, excessive executive travel/entertainment, and investor relations. Utilities with over 75,000 customers must annually report detailed itemizations of these restricted costs to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, including vendor invoices and employee hours. The law takes effect on October 1, 2025, with the reporting requirement starting January 2024.
Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Mar 2025
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Mar 19, 2025 Last action Apr 14, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Raised Bill → GAE Joint Favorable Substitute · 5 edits
MODERATE
This bill updates the definition of 'public agency' to include judicial offices performing administrative functions and clarifies which utility companies must report lobbying and other costs. It also changes the effective date for one section from October 1, 2025 to July 1, 2026.
Scope change
The bill's scope was expanded to include judicial offices in the definition of public agencies and refined which utility companies are subject to reporting requirements.
DEFINITION

Added judicial offices performing administrative functions to the definition of 'public agency' or 'agency'.

Changed the definition of covered utility companies from 'public service company' to specific types: electric distribution, gas, pipeline, and water companies.

REQUIREMENT

Added an exception allowing recovery of Freedom of Information Act compliance costs if recognized as proper business expenses by the authority.

Expanded reporting requirements to include costs associated with work performed by parent company or affiliate employees that were directly billed or allocated to the utility company.

TIMELINE

Changed the effective date for Section 3 from October 1, 2025 to July 1, 2026.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions
9
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Mar 27, 2025
Upper · Passed
Joint Favorable Substitute
upper
Mar 19, 2025
Committee
REF. TO JOINT COMM. ON Government Administration and Elections
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors

Sponsors

No sponsor information available.