Prohibits public utilities, serving greater 100,000 customers from recovering through rates any direct or indirect cost associated with, amongst other costs, advertising, marketing, communications.

Plain-English Summary

This bill would prevent large public utilities in Rhode Island — specifically those serving more than 100,000 customers — from passing certain business expenses on to their customers through utility rates. Under current practice, utilities can sometimes include a wide range of operating costs when calculating the rates they charge customers. This bill would block that practice for specific types of costs, including advertising, marketing, and communications expenses.

In practical terms, this means that if a large electric, gas, or water utility spends money on advertising campaigns, promotional materials, or certain communications efforts, it would have to cover those costs on its own — it could not simply add them to the bills of its customers. The bill targets only the largest utilities in the state, meaning smaller providers with fewer than 100,000 customers would not be affected by these restrictions.

The people most directly affected would be residential and business customers of Rhode Island's largest utilities, who could potentially see lower rate increases if utilities are no longer allowed to recover these costs through billing. The utilities themselves would also be affected, as they would need to absorb these expenses from their own revenues rather than spreading them across their customer base. The bill has been referred to the House Corporations Committee for further review and consideration.