Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Dec 10, 2015
Ratepayer Fairness Act of 2015
This bill amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) to require a state regulatory authority and a nonregulated electric utility (entities), to the extent that they allow electric utility rates to include charges that subsidize customer-side technology, to consider whether that subsidy would:
result in benefits predominately enjoyed by only the users of the customer-side technology;
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shift costs of a customer-side technology to electricity consumers that do not use it, particularly in cases in which disparate economic or resource conditions exist among the electricity consumers cross-subsidizing the customer-side technology;
give any unfair competitive advantage to market the customer-side technology, including an analysis of whether a state regulatory authority has uncovered fraudulent customer-side technology marketing practices; and
be necessary to fulfill an obligation to serve electric consumers.
The bill sets deadlines within which the entities must set a hearing date to consider and subsequently determine the subsidization of customer-side technology.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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