CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

ALBANY, N.Y. - As the cold weather approaches, New York utility regulators may turn up the heat on aggressive marketing by energy suppliers.

Members of the state Public Service Commission are meeting Wednesday to consider new rules for independent energy service companies, or ESCOs. Those are companies that sell electricity and natural gas to their own customers but deliver it through local utilities' lines.

Consumer agencies say they've fielded hundreds of complaints about ESCO door-to-door sales people misrepresenting themselves and lying about the actual savings customers would get by signing up.

Regulators are considering a series of rules _ including requiring ESCOs to provide "plain English" sales agreements _ aimed at curbing such practices.