Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Regulated electric utilities hold special privileges and obligations to serve the public interest, including keeping energy bills reasonable and affordable for residential consumers. (2) Spurious charges by regulated electric utilities constitute an unjustified extraction of money from residential consumers beyond the legitimate costs of electricity delivery, contradicting utilities’ fundamental obligation as stewards of public infrastructure. (3) Payment convenience fees and other junk fees directly increase the total cost of energy for residential consumers, making electricity less affordable and undermining efforts to expand access to reliable energy. (4) Many regulated electric utilities impose fees on payment channels that cost them little to nothing to process, extracting pure profit under the guise of cost recovery. (5) Conditioning the granting of State energy program financial assistance on the elimination of spurious charges is a reasonable exercise of the spending power of Congress to ensure Federal energy efficiency investments benefit residential consumers rather than subsidize utility fee extraction.