Maine LD 251: An Act To Protect The Confidentiality Of Information Of Individual Customers Of A Public Utility

Bill Text

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STATE OF MAINE
_____
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD
TWO THOUSAND TWENTY-FIVE
_____
S.P. 118 - L.D. 251
An Act to Protect the Confidentiality of Information of Individual Customers
of a Public Utility
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶U, as amended by PL 2023, c. 618, §1, is further
amended to read:
U. Records provided by a railroad company pursuant to Title 23, section 7311,
subsection 5 and records describing hazardous materials transported by the railroad
company in this State, the routes of hazardous materials shipments and the frequency
of hazardous materials operations on those routes that are in the possession of a state
or local emergency management entity or law enforcement agency, fire department or
other first responder, except that records related to a train carrying hazardous materials
that has derailed at any point from a main line train track or related to a discharge of
hazardous materials transported by a railroad company that poses a threat to public
health, safety and welfare are subject to public disclosure after that discharge. For the
purposes of this paragraph, "hazardous material" has the same meaning as set forth in
49 Code of Federal Regulations, Section 105.5; and
Sec. 2. 1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶V, as enacted by PL 2017, c. 118, §3, is amended
to read:
V. Participant application materials and other personal information obtained or
maintained by a municipality or other public entity in administering a community well-
being check program, except that a participant's personal information, including health
information, may be made available to first responders only as necessary to implement
the program. For the purposes of this paragraph, "community well-being check
program" means a voluntary program that involves daily, or regular, contact with a
participant and, when contact cannot be established, sends first responders to the
participant's residence to check on the participant's well-being.;
Sec. 3. 1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶W is enacted to read:
W. Information in the possession of a public utility, the Office of the Public Advocate
or the Public Utilities Commission pertaining to an individual customer of a public
APPROVED
MAY 23, 2025
BY GOVERNOR
CHAPTER
99
PUBLIC LAW

Page 2 - 132LR0550(03)
utility as defined in Title 35-A, section 102, subsection 13 that is designated by rule as
confidential by the Public Utilities Commission pursuant to Title 35-A, section 111;
and
Sec. 4. 1 MRSA §402, sub-§3, ¶X is enacted to read:
X. Information in the possession of a public sewer system pertaining to an individual
customer of a public utility as described in this paragraph. For purposes of this
paragraph, "public sewer system" means a municipality, division of a municipality or
quasi-municipal entity that is a municipal sewer department, a sewer district as defined
in Title 38, section 1032, subsection 3 or 4, a system that collects stormwater or a
sanitary district formed under Title 38, chapter 11.
(1) If the municipality, division of a municipality or quasi-municipal entity,
referred to in this subparagraph as "the entity," is both a public sewer system and
a water utility as defined in Title 35-A, section 102, subsection 22, information in
the possession of the entity, the Office of the Public Advocate or the Public Utilities
Commission pertaining to an individual customer of the public sewer system is
confidential if that information would be confidential under paragraph W if the
information pertained to an individual customer of a water utility.
(2) For all public sewer systems not described in subparagraph (1), information in
the possession of the public sewer system pertaining to an individual customer of
the public sewer system, including the customer's name, physical or mailing
address, e-mail address, telephone number, utility usage, payment and credit
history, financial condition or medical condition, or financial or medical condition
of a member of the customer's family, is confidential and may not be disclosed by
the public sewer system unless:
(a) The customer consents to the disclosure. For purposes of this division, the
public sewer system may accept an oral certification from a social service
agency that the customer has consented to the public sewer system's disclosure
of the customer's information to the social service agency;
(b) The disclosure is made for the purpose of debt collection, credit reporting
or usage reporting pursuant to state or federal law, except that the information
may not be disclosed for purposes of debt collection or credit reporting
purposes if the customer is currently protected by a protection from abuse order
and the customer has disclosed the protection from abuse order to the public
sewer system;
(c) The disclosure is made to a law enforcement officer or law enforcement
agency pursuant to lawful process;
(d) The disclosure is made to state, county, tribal or local emergency
ma