TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• Title I: Federal Standards for Electricity Service
• Title II: State Standards for Electricity Service

Electricity Consumer, Worker, and Environmental Protection Act of 1999 - Title I: Federal Standards for Electricity Service - Subjects electric utility industry workers to the jurisdiction of the 1994 National Skills Standards Act and title V of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Subjects all generating plants to State and Federal general industry requirements as established by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and mandates periodic government inspection.

(Sec. 101) Prescribes continuing employment guidelines for a specified transition period in the event of any transfer of ownership of any divisions or units within an electric utility.

(Sec. 102) Establishes a right of privacy with respect to consumer billing, payment, specific usage and appliance information obtained by the seller in the normal course of business. Prescribes guidelines governing: (1) consumer privacy; (2) disclosures for retail electricity bills; (3) dispute resolution of billing complaints; and (4) quality standards for sellers and distributors of retail electric service.

(Sec. 107) Mandates that each State create a not-for-profit membership corporation to be known as the "Citizens' Utility Board, Inc." (State CUB) to represent and promote the interests of a State's residential consumers of electricity.

(Sec. 108) Amends the Federal Power Act to establish within the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) an Office of the Consumer Counsel (the Office) to represent energy consumers during FERC proceedings that may affect wholesale or retail electric or gas service, prices, and practices. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 109) Prohibits any Federal or State authority from requiring consumers to subsidize the costs of owning or operating any power plant owned by an investor-owned company, except any facility or power plant that qualifies for support from the National Electric Public Benefit Fund (established by this Act) or that produces renewable energy credits (established under this Act).

Mandates that every investor-owned company licensed to operate a nuclear reactor place specified funds in escrow to cover costs for nuclear reactor decommissioning, and for low- and high-level radioactive waste disposal.

(Sec. 110) Prohibits any State-regulated investor-owned electric utility company (or associated holding company) from: (1) owning a voting security of a company which provides either a nonregulated service, or service outside the United States; or (2) providing any nonregulated service.

(Sec. 111) Prescribes antitrust guidelines governing electric utility mergers that fall within the purview of the Federal Power Act.

(Sec. 112) Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to: (1) promulgate regulations establishing nationwide pollution standards and generation pollution standards; and (2) establish a system for monitoring the amount of each pollutant annually emitted by a covered generation facility.

(Sec. 113) Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a National Electric Public Benefit Board which shall create the National Electric Public Benefit Fund to provide: (1) funding for State support of affordable electric service (universal electric service (UES)) for low- and moderate-income residential customers; and (2) matching funds for State-supported renewable energy sources and energy conservation programs, as well as programs to mitigate the impact of utility workforce reductions caused by electricity deregulation. Prescribes funding distribution guidelines.

Requires the Secretary to provide a mechanism to ensure UES to qualifying low-income consumers in States without a State program or with a State program that does not qualify for funds under this Act.

Prescribes criteria for State UES programs.

Requires FERC to impose a nonbypassable wires charge for direct payment to the Fund by the operator of a wire on electricity carried through it.

(Sec. 115) Mandates that each retail electricity supplier annually submit renewable energy credits to the Secretary according to prescribed formulae. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish a program to issue such credits to renewable energy electric generators; and (2) impose a fee on electric generators awarded such credits in an amount equal to the reasonable costs of administering the Renewables Portfolio Standard program.

Establishes a civil penalty for non-compliance with such mandate.

(Sec. 116) Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) to require that: (1) each retail electricity supplier make net metering service available upon the request of any retail consumer whom the supplier currently serves or solicits for service; and (2) each retail electricity distributor permit interconnection to its distribution system of an on-site generating facility that meets FERC safety and power quality standards.

(Sec. 117) Imposes civil liability for non-compliance with this Act, including attorney's fees.

Title II: State Standards for Electricity Service - Sets deadlines for State compliance with the requirements of this Act, contingent upon individual State enactment of deregulation of retail electricity sales.

(Sec. 202) Proscribes consumer charges for transmission or distribution service in excess of a consumer class's proportional responsibility for the costs of providing such service. Requires each State regulatory authority to compute and, if necessary, adjust the rate differential for retail electric service between residential and industrial customers so that the respective access charges per kilowatt-hour are within three percentage points of each other.

(Sec. 203) Requires a State's investor-owned utilities to transfer transmission and distribution assets to their regulated counterparts within one year of State deregulation of retail electricity sales.

Prohibits any direct or indirect owner of a voting security of any company that owns, operates, or leases generation facilities, or of any company that sells electricity, from owning directly or indirectly any portion of a transmission company or a distribution company.

(Sec. 204) Declares it shall be unlawful within one year after deregulation of retail electricity sales for an investor-owned generation company or associated holding company to control more than 20 percent of the following power plant categories: (1) baseload power plants; (2) peaking power plants; and (3) power plants providing primarily ancillary services.

(Sec. 205) Sets forth post-deregulation requirements governing: (1) basic service for residential and small commercial customers; (2) nonprofit public aggregation of consumers, including nonprofit municipal electric systems, and buying cooperatives in unincorporated areas; (3) certain worker protections, including recovery by utilities of employee-related transition costs, and extended State unemployment benefits; (4) licensing and disclosure requirements for retail electricity suppliers; (5) unbundled rates and nondiscriminatory access to electric grids by distribution companies; (6) customer choice to change an electric supplier; and (7) distribution service disconnections and supply terminations.

(Sec. 212) Prescribes billing and collections procedures for electricity sales by retail suppliers and distributors.

(Sec. 213) Prohibits certain unfair trade practices including: (1) "cramming" (unauthorized changes to the number of products or services offered) and "slamming" (unauthorized change of supplier for a residential or small commercial customer) until such change has been confirmed by an independent third-party verification company following prescribed procedures; and (2) misleading advertisements regarding electricity prices.

(Sec. 214) Prescribes requirements for installation of a standard meter (or a qualified different meter) without separate charge at a previously unserved location for residential and small commercial customers.

(Sec. 215) Declares that sales of electricity services in a deregulated market are subject to certain proscriptions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act against discrimination in credit.

(Sec. 216) Prescribes consumer remedies for violations of this Act.