2010 Pennsylvania Code
Title 66 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 14 - Responsible Utility Customer Protection
1402 - Declaration of policy.

     § 1402.  Declaration of policy.
        The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:
            (1)  Formal service rules were first adopted by the
        Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in 1978 with the
        stated goal of enforcing uniform, fair and equitable
        residential utility service standards governing eligibility
        criteria, credit and deposit practices, account billing,
        termination and restoration of service procedures and
        customer complaint procedures. These rules have not
        successfully managed the issue of bill payment. Increasing
        amounts of unpaid bills now threaten paying customers with
        higher rates due to other customers' delinquencies.
            (2)  The General Assembly believes that it is now time to
        revisit these rules and provide protections against rate
        increases for timely paying customers resulting from other
        customers' delinquencies. The General Assembly seeks to
        achieve greater equity by eliminating opportunities for
        customers capable of paying to avoid the timely payment of
        public utility bills.
            (3)  Through this chapter, the General Assembly seeks to
        provide public utilities with an equitable means to reduce
        their uncollectible accounts by modifying the procedures for
        delinquent account collections and by increasing timely
        collections. At the same time, the General Assembly seeks to
        ensure that service remains available to all customers on
        reasonable terms and conditions.
            (4)  The General Assembly believes that it is appropriate
        to provide additional collection tools to city natural gas
        distribution operations to recognize the financial
        circumstances of the operations and protect their ability to
        provide natural gas for the benefit of the residents of the
        city.