Having electricity can be the difference between life and death and severe weather scenarios.

One Louisville Democrat is trying to revive a bill that would prevent utility companies from shutting off some one service during severe weather due to unpaid bills.

That story is in tonight's legislative update.

As our Mackenzie Spink has more on the discussion from Frankfort in this year's regular session, Senate Bill 137 didn't make it out of committee to prepare the legislation for the 2026 session.

The measure was brought before the interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy for discussion.

Supporters of the bill say no one deserves to lose power during severe weather just because they're behind on their bills.

Disconnection notices they arrive like a death sentence.

Electricity in eastern Kentucky.

It's not a luxury.

It's a lifeline.

Louisville Democrat Senator Kasey Chambers Armstrong was the sponsor for Senate Bill 137, which would have prevented utility companies from disconnecting someone's electricity during severe weather.

She says many companies already have similar policies, but that this law would make it a uniform mandate.

I'm so grateful that all of the companies I've spoken to have told me that this is a priority and a practice that they engage in.

But it's important that if there were to ever be utility sales or mergers or new ownership, there were setting clear guidelines about what we expect to protect citizens of Kentucky.

The bill would have prevented disconnection only when the National Weather Service announces extreme cold, heat or natural disaster like floods and tornadoes.

In the past 25 years, there have been 15 cases of extreme cold in the state, 41 cases of extreme heat and 67 natural disasters.

Proponents say the bill will only come into effect during these extreme scenarios, and that it doesn't let customers off the hook for paying their overdue balances.

It does not forgive any kind of past due balance.

It doesn't, forgive any kind of debt.

This is really just about a moment in time that we need to make sure that everyone is safe, that they're not having to make extreme decisions, like starting a fire in their unit and catching on fire, or having pipes freeze and upsetting the landlord that leads them to get evicted.

One lawmaker felt that the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or lie heap, already meets the needs of this bill.

Supporters say that it doesn't do enough.

We have a, program which seems to cover, kind of the purpose of this proposal.

So I guess my question would be, why was this necessary, given that we already have a lot of heat program?

Once a county expends those funds, it's done.

Like it?

It closes.

I mean, in Louisville, it closes within a matter of days, and they're limited funds.

That is that is the real crux of it.

Their representative.

So you have a follow up, are they.

Yes, sir.

Or the entirety of the Leahy funds exhausted every year?

Yes.

Since several Republican lawmakers on the committee felt that the bill wasn't addressing the root problem, that people can't afford their electric bills.

Co-Chair of the committee, Representative Jim Gooch, said Kentucky used to have some of the lowest rates in the country because of coal.

That changed because the federal government decided that they didn't like the sources that we were using to generate our electricity.

You know, nobody's out there fighting the utility rates because of policies from Washington, but then they want to come in and talk about, well, we can't cut people off or whatever.

I just really get upset when when I see that the real reason that we're having a problem here is because utility bills have become unaffordable.

It's things like this that we have to keep in mind when we push coal, we push fossil fuel because of the the abundance and because of the, cost effectiveness of it.

It's not to pollute.

It's not to kill people off is to find ways for people to be able to do what the gentleman is talking about.

People have to afford it.

There were also concerns about making sure the disconnection delay would be limited only to immediate times of danger, and not dragged out for long periods of time without payment.

Senator Chambers Armstrong says she's already working to add those new provisions to the new version of the bill.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm McKenzie Spink.

Thank you so much, Mackenzie.

Senator Chambers Armstrong said there will also be language in the bill coming up that will separate disconnection because of unpaid bills versus disconnection due to safety and repair needs that may arise during severe weather.