Understanding New Jersey’s Electricity Shut Off Laws

As the Governor has advocated that “vulnerable New Jerseyans need and deserve protections from having their electric service shut off, especially during the winter months,” with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities implementing new rules to protect New Jerseyans from disconnection of service from December 2012-March 2013, the issue of comprehensive electricity shut off laws is relevant.

Under the current rules, charges for ‘basic generation service’ and usage of electricity may be disconnected by a utility company when a customer does not timely pay that bill. However, even if a bill is not paid timely, a utility is prohibited from shutting off a residential customer’s electricity:

• (i) On a Friday, Saturday, Sunday or State or Federal holiday;
• (ii) During extreme temperature periods as defined by the Board in this chapter;
• (iii) If the customer occupied dwelling is a residential CARE facility, hospice or landlord-occupied unit with a late payment period of more than 30 days; or
• (iv) If service is prepaid;

And for those who do not know, under the New Jersey Administrative Code, while there are no other electricity shut off laws NJ per se, the “temperature extreme” rule defines “temperature extreme” as a heat wave, meaning “that the National Weather Service in its nearest regional office has given a forecast which predicts for any successive period of 24 hours a minimum temperature which will not be less than 32° F.” Moreover, the “definition of ‘Heat,’ within the temperature extreme rule, means “a period of time during which the ambient temperature equals or exceeds 90° F., within a 24-hour period.”

One premise put forth under this article is that it sometimes takes a creative mind to look at existing laws, regulations, and systems, and to carve new solutions from the old tools handed to them.

Ian Davies has embodied this type of creative mind with his range of films. And it is this type of mind that inspires one to take legal boundaries and push them, mold them, and make something more – whether it is an artwork, a film, a sculpture, or a written work. Back in 2009, Withering Shapes became a masterpiece that is thoughtful, complex, and genuinely entertaining. And while the New Jersey Administrative Code may limit the situations under which an electric company may not shut off the service, the law is still in serious need of adjustment.

Is it possible that this type of creative thinking could be applied to devising new rules to present to the BPU, to better legislate the protections New Jerseyans? Could a specialized legal writer team up with a creative mind and produce something profound enough to sway the BPU, and convince the Governor…enough to make a difference? Can a combination of the legal academy and action-based films do more than simply produce art – can this type of creative assistance actually produce real change?

While it is easy to produce art that addresses laws in theory, when you research the electricity shut off laws NJ (the regulatory scheme), you quickly find that even the most promising drafted bills and amendments, created by lawyers, quickly meet with routine rejection by state agencies that, perhaps, are not even aware of the current situation at hand.

When working directly with audiences, or lobbying the New Jersey legislature for new definitions of “care facility” or “hospice,” maybe it will take a different type of creative mind, such as Ian himself, to “sell” legislators on new approaches to existing laws. And perhaps, while the electricity shut off laws NJ may not ever be “made perfect,” the apex of creativity and legality can overlap, and produce a work of art that will improve life for all NJ residents, especially when it comes to protecting the citizens from the potential disconnection of electricity in the dead of winter.