Know Your Rates Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Know Your Rates Act amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act for electric and gas consumers. Covered electric utilities must include in each bill the dollar difference from the previous billing period and the customer's average monthly electric consumption in dollars and kilowatt hours, and must notify customers about average daily consumption when early billing-period use exceeds prior averages. Covered gas utilities must provide parallel information using dollars and therms. The bill is about making utility bills more actionable: customers can see cost changes and consumption patterns before high bills arrive.
Who Benefits and How
Electric consumers benefit because bills would show cost changes and average monthly electricity consumption in dollars and kilowatt hours. Gas consumers benefit because bills would show cost changes and average monthly gas consumption in dollars and therms. Energy-efficiency advocates benefit because customers receive earlier signals when daily usage rises above normal levels. Low-income households benefit if clearer usage information helps avoid unexpectedly high utility bills.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Electric utilities must establish billing programs that calculate and transmit the required cost and consumption information. Gas utilities must create similar billing and notification programs for therm usage. Utility billing vendors must update software, bill formats, and customer notification systems. State utility regulators may need to oversee compliance with the new PURPA consumer-information standards.
Key Provisions
- Requires electric bills to show dollar changes from the prior billing period.
- Requires electric bills to show average monthly consumption in dollars and kilowatt hours.
- Requires gas bills to show comparable dollar and therm consumption information.
- Requires early billing-period notices when average daily consumption exceeds prior usage patterns.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires covered electric and gas utilities to give customers bill-to-bill cost differences, average monthly consumption, and high daily consumption notices in dollars and energy units.
Key Policy Areas
Energy, Utilities, Consumer Protection
Primary Purpose
Requires covered electric and gas utilities to give customers bill-to-bill cost differences, average monthly consumption, and high daily consumption notices in dollars and energy units.
Policy Domains
Resolution provisions
Identified Gains
- Electric consumers
- Gas consumers
- Energy-efficiency advocates
- Low-income households
Identified Costs
- Electric utilities
- Gas utilities
- Utility billing vendors
- State utility regulators
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Gottheimer introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology