The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission voted 4-0 to begin a rulemaking process that will require regular reporting on diversity programs and efforts by major utilities under the commission’s jurisdiction.
The rulemaking builds on the recommendations included in the PUC’s recently revised policy statement on diversity, as part of the diversity discussion initiated earlier this year by PUC chairman Gladys Brown Dutrieuille.
“Our public utilities should draw on the strengths provided by the diverse citizens of the commonwealth, many of whom are also customers,” she said. “The commission finds that utilities should continue to develop and implement utility-wide diversity programs for employment and contracting of goods and services.”
The commission is proposing that diversity reporting become mandatory for major jurisdictional utilities providing electric, natural gas, water, wastewater and telecommunications services. Dutrieuille said that, if properly structured, diversity programs can successfully leverage untapped talent pools to help fill these critical jobs. Furthermore, as regulated monopolies, the commonwealth’s jurisdictional utilities have unique beneficial community relationships which diversity programs have the power to strengthen.
The commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and interested parties can submit comments within 45 days of that publication. Comments should be eFiled through the PUC’s eFiling System. Instructions for creating a free eFiling account are available at efiling.puc.pa.gov. Comments containing confidential information should be emailed to Commission Secretary Rosemary Chiavetta at rchiavetta@pa.gov rather than eFiled.
In addition to the public comment period, the proposed rulemaking is being submitted to the Office of the Attorney General for review as to form and legality, and the Governor’s Budget Office for review of fiscal impact, and submitted for review and comment by the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission and the Legislative Standing Committees.
Copies of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking are also being served on all major jurisdictional utilities in the commonwealth, as well as the parties involved in earlier discussions about updates to the PUC’s policy statement on diversity.
The recent action by the commission follows recent action to update the PUC’s “Statement of Policy on Diversity at Major Jurisdictional Utility Companies” – which was initially adopted in 1995. The enhanced policy statement expanded diversity reporting guidelines to include minorities, women, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ and veterans. The final version of that policy statement was unanimously approved by the commission on Dec. 3.
Revisions to the PUC Diversity policy statement include:
– Updating the definition of diversity to include minorities, women, veterans, LGBTQ and the disabled
– A standardized reporting form with the goal of collecting the following information:
- A copy of any corporate policy committed to improving diversity in the workplace and in the procurement process
- A description of any training implemented on diversity initiatives in employment and in the contract of goods and services
- A standardized format to account for diverse employee numbers
- A description of any diversity recruiting strategies
- A description of any diversity promotion efforts
- A description of any diversity retention efforts
- A brief description of any involvement with organizations promoting diversity
- A summary of diverse owned businesses the company contracts with for goods and services, including the percentage of dollars spent with diverse-owned businesses versus non-diverse businesses
