PSC Grants Direct Energy's Petition Clarifying Email Service Of Environmental Disclosure Is Acceptable

The Maryland PSC granted a petition filed by Direct Energy Business Marketing LLC and clarified that environmental notice disclosure reports that are required to be provided to customers under Commission Order No. 76241 in Case No. 87381 can be satisfied by use of electronic mail.

In Order No. 76241 in Case No. 8738 (June 15, 2000), the PSC ruled that, per Public Utilities §7-505(b)(4), suppliers shall provide to customers, every six months, a uniform, common set of information about the fuel mix of the electricity purchased by customers and the emissions on a pound per megawatt-hour basis of pollutants identified by the Commission, or disclosure of regional average data

"Disclosure should be made in the form of labels, approved by the Commission, that are disseminated by mail along with customer bills," the PSC had said in such order

Direct Energy had said in its petition, "[i]t is noteworthy that the 2000 Order stated that the Reports should be 'disseminated by mail'; it did not require that the Reports be disseminated by 'U.S. mail'. It could reasonably be argued that dissemination of the Reports to customers by email currently complies with the 'by mail' requirement in this Order."

"[T]he Commission clarifies that the emission disclosure and fuel mix information reports required by PUA § 7-504(b)(4) may be provided to customers either by email, or by U.S. mail if the customer does not provide an email address," the PSC said

The Commission did not however, accept RESA’s request that electricity suppliers that utilize utility consolidated billing be allowed merely to post a link on the utility-consolidated bill every six months, in order to satisfy their emissions disclosure requirement

"Posting a web-link on utility-consolidated bills, as RESA requests, fails to directly provide consumers with emission disclosure and fuel mix information reports, whereas providing reports via email directly communicates this information to customers," the PSC said