Electric and gas utilities; rates and charges for service, political influence activities, report.
Summary
Electric and gas utilities; rates and charges for service; political influence activities; promotional advertising; annual report. Prohibits an electric or gas utility subject to regulation by the State Corporation Commission from recovering certain costs through its retail rates and charges for service. The costs prohibited for such recovery include political influence activities and promotional advertising, as such terms are defined in the bill. Under the bill, each electric and gas utility subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission shall submit an annual report by January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, of information related to the categories of expenses listed in the bill, including political influence activities and promotional advertising. The bill permits the Commission to impose a fine on utilities that violate the provisions of the bill by improperly recovering costs for activities and expenses prohibited for cost recovery by the bill. The bill requires the Commission to make such annual reports publicly available online.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 21, 2026
Last action Feb 9, 2026
Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison
What changed between versions
Introduced
→
Commerce and Labor Substitute
·
3 edits
MINOR
The bill was converted from an introduced draft to a formal Senate Committee substitute, refining the legal definitions of prohibited activities. The most significant policy change is the addition of 'lobbying' to the definition of 'political influence activity,' explicitly prohibiting utilities from recovering costs associated with lobbying efforts. Additionally, the definition of 'political influence activity' was streamlined to remove references to specific rate-setting mechanisms and public officials' decisions, while retaining core prohibitions on influencing legislation and elections.
Scope change
The bill's scope regarding prohibited recoverable costs was expanded to explicitly include lobbying activities, whereas the original draft did not explicitly name lobbying in the definition of political influence.
DEFINITION
Added 'lobbying' to the definition of 'political influence activity' to explicitly ban the recovery of lobbying costs from utility rates.
Removed references to influencing 'rate setting mechanisms' and 'decisions of public officials' from the definition of political influence activity, narrowing the scope of what constitutes a prohibited political activity.
TECHNICAL
Changed the header from 'Introduced' to 'Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute' and updated the date to February 9, 2026, reflecting the bill's progression through the legislative process.
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
6
Key actions
1
Committee
2
Feb 9, 2026
Upper · Passed
Senate committee offered
upper
Jan 21, 2026
Introduced
Unanimous consent to introduce
upper
Jan 21, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor
upper
Jan 21, 2026
Introduced
Presented and ordered printed 26105196D
upper
0 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
No sponsor information available.
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