The General Assembly finds and declares as follows:

(1) Formal service rules were first adopted by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission in 1978 with the stated goal of enforcing uniform, fair and equitable residential utility service standards governing eligibility criteria, credit and deposit practices, account billing, termination and restoration of service procedures and customer complaint procedures. These rules have not successfully managed the issue of bill payment. Increasing amounts of unpaid bills now threaten paying customers with higher rates due to other customers' delinquencies.

(2) The General Assembly believes that it is now time to revisit these rules and provide protections against rate increases for timely paying customers resulting from other customers' delinquencies. The General Assembly seeks to achieve greater equity by eliminating opportunities for customers capable of paying to avoid the timely payment of public utility bills.

(3) Through this chapter, the General Assembly seeks to provide public utilities with an equitable means to reduce their uncollectible accounts by modifying the procedures for delinquent account collections and by increasing timely collections. At the same time, the General Assembly seeks to ensure that service remains available to all customers on reasonable terms and conditions.

(4) The General Assembly believes that it is appropriate to provide additional collection tools to city natural gas distribution operations to recognize the financial circumstances of the operations and protect their ability to provide natural gas for the benefit of the residents of the city.