CONTENTS | < PREVIOUS | NEXT > | BILL INDEX

Public Service Companies

P Passed

P HB1611

Local emergency telecommunications requirements. Exempts from the duty of all localities to have specific wireline and wireless 911 and E-911 service available by certain dates, any locality in which (i) 50 percent or more of the geographic area is unable to receive wireless telecommunications service; (ii) no taxes are imposed for E-911 services; and (iii) the Wireless E-911 Services Board has designated a specific public safety answering point or the Virginia State Police to answer wireless 911 or wireless E-911 calls originating in the locality.
Patron - Deeds

P HB1766

Public service corporation easements. Requires any instrument conveying an easement of right-of-way in land to a public service corporation to include a notice stating that the grantee may have the right to obtain some or all of the rights being conveyed through exercise of eminent domain, and that the owner has the right to choose not to convey rights that are not subject to eminent domain.
Patron - Woodrum

P HB1767

Location of utility easements. Authorizes the governing body of each locality in which a gas pipeline or electrical transmission line would be located to ask the State Corporation Commission to consider directing the joint use of right-of-way, in any case involving an application for a certificate of convenience and necessity for new facilities. This bill is identical to SB 1124.
Patron - Woodrum

P HB1902

Local telephone companies. Eliminates the requirement that the State Corporation Commission conduct a hearing on every application for a certificate to furnish local exchange telephone service. Applicants will have an opportunity for a hearing. Obsolete language is deleted.
Patron - Plum

P HB1914

Pole attachments. Requires both public utilities and cable television systems or telecommunications service providers to negotiate in good faith to arrive at mutually agreeable contracts for attachments to the public utility's poles. After entering into a contract, the public utility shall permit, upon reasonable terms and conditions and payment of reasonable charges and costs, the attachments or placements, provided they do not interfere, obstruct or delay the service and operation of the public utility or create a safety hazard. Access may be denied if the attachment interferes, obstructs or delays the service and operation of the public utility or creates a safety hazard, of if the public utility provides electric service and the denial is made on a nondiscriminatory basis on grounds of insufficient capacity or reasons of safety, reliability, or generally applicable engineering principles. This measure will not apply to pole attachments regulated under federal law.
Patron - Rollison

P HB1935

Municipal electric utilities; restructuring. Clarifies that a municipal electric utility will not lose its exclusive territorial rights or exemption from the provisions of the Electric Utility Restructuring Act by selling or offering to sell electric energy to retail customers outside the area that it served on July 1, 1999, if the municipal utility's expansion of service into new areas is made pursuant to a franchise agreement between the municipality utility and the incumbent public utility that previously served the new areas. This bill is identical to SB 896.
Patron - Armstrong

P HB2268

Notice of proposed location of utility lines. Requires that owners of property within the route of a proposed gas pipeline or electrical transmission line of 150 kV or more be sent a notice of the proposed construction by first class mail. The notice requirements for a public utility proposing to build a gas pipeline are conformed in several respects to those for the proposed construction of electric transmission lines. These include (i) requiring that notices include a written description of the proposed route the line is to follow and a map or sketch of the route; (ii) requiring the notice to include the deadline for an interested party to request a hearing from the State Corporation Commission; and (iii) requiring the Commission to hold at least one hearing in the area that would be affected by construction of the pipeline if requested in writing by 20 or more interested parties. This bill is a recommendation of the joint subcommittee studying eminent domain issues.
Patron - Shuler

P HB2472

Electric utility restructuring; renewable energy. Defines renewable energy as energy derived from sunlight, wind, falling water, sustainable biomass, energy from waste, wave motion, tides, and geothermal power, and excludes energy derived from coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power.
Patron - Plum

P HB2640

Telephone cooperatives. Exempts telephone cooperatives from filing local service tariffs with the State Corporation Commission; eliminates the requirement that quorums consist of at least five percent of the all cooperative members; and authorizes cooperatives to use funds derived from rates and charges for telephone service to acquire, own and dispose of interests in other communications businesses. The measure also eliminates a requirement that acquisitions of ownership interests in other communications entities be approved by cooperative members at a special or general meeting.
Patron - Kilgore

P HB2717

Public-Private Transportation Act of 1995; definitions. Repeals the prohibition on considering "rail mass transit facilities owned by an interstate compact agency" to be transportation facilities for purposes of the Act.
Patron - Callahan

P SB896

P SB899

Public service companies; issuance of securities. Exempts telephone companies that are subject to an alternative form of regulation from laws that provide for State Corporation Commission approval of the issuance of securities and other obligations by public service companies. In lieu of the existing requirements, exempt companies shall give the SCC 90 days' notice of the issuance of certain obligations. The SCC may rescind the exemption for a company if it finds that the exemption is not in the public interest.
Patron - Stosch

P SB1124

P SB1257

Electric utility restructuring; eminent domain. Clarifies that on and after January 1, 2002, a petition may not be filed to exercise the right of eminent domain in conjunction with construction or enlargement of a facility for the generation of electric energy.
Patron - Norment

P SB1328

Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act. Prohibits the State Corporation Commission from promulgating regulations under the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act that require mandatory reporting, other than by jurisdictional natural gas or hazardous liquid operators, of probable violations of the Act or incidents involving damage, dislocation or disturbance of a utility line. The bill also clarifies the standards to be applied by the SCC in actions involving the certification of notification centers established under the "Miss Utility" program. Commission actions shall be made in furtherance of the purpose of preventing or mitigating loss of, or damage to, life, health, property or essential public services resulting from damage to underground utility lines. Decisions to approve or revoke notification center certifications shall ensure protection for the public from the hazards that this chapter is intended to prevent or mitigate; ensure that persons receive an acceptable level of performance; and require the notification center and its agents to demonstrate financial responsibility, which may be by obtaining liability insurance.
Patron - Mims

P SB1349

Wireless Enhanced Public Safety Telephone Service Act; E-911 surcharge; local tax for E-911 service. Exempts consumers of commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) from the special tax of up to three dollars that localities with enhanced 911 service are authorized to assess on consumers of telephone service. Customers of CMRS providers and CMRS resellers must pay a monthly wireless E-911 surcharge of 75 cents. Localities may recover their public safety answering point costs from the proceeds of the wireless E-911 surcharge.
Patron - Barry

P SB1420

Virginia Electric Utility Restructuring Act. Establishes a mechanism for establishing the rates for default service after the capped rate period. The State Corporation Commission shall attempt to identify default service providers through competitive bidding. If that process does not produce willing and suitable providers, it may require a distributor to provide default service. The SCC is prohibited from regulating, on a cost plus or other basis, the price at which generation assets or their equivalent are made available for default service; however, a distributor may bid to provide default service on such basis. A distributor's default service plan must provide that the procurement of generation capacity and energy will be based on the prices in competitive regional electricity markets. If a plan is not approved, the SCC will establish rates for default services based on prices in competitive regional electricity markets. A "competitive regional electricity market" is a market where competition, not statutory or regulatory price constraints, effectively regulates the price of electricity. In determining whether a market is competitive and the prices for default services, the SCC will consider its liquidity and price transparency, whether competition is an effective regulator of prices in such market, the wholesale or retail nature of such markets, the reasonable accessibility of such markets to the distributor's regional transmission entity, and such other factors it finds relevant. The SCC shall also consider default service customers' need for rate stability and protection from unreasonable rate fluctuations. If the SCC cannot identify competitive regional electricity markets, it shall set rates that would approximate rates likely to be produced in such a market. A cooperative's default service rates in its service territory after the capped rates period will be based on its prudently incurred cost. An incumbent utility's decision to make the equivalent of its generation assets available for default service shall be subject to approval based on adequately meeting the public interest. In considering functional separation plans, the SCC shall consider the potential effects of transfers of generation assets on rates and reliability of capped rate service and default service and the development of a competitive market for retail generation services in Virginia. The measure restricts the ability of an incumbent utility to make further transfers of generation assets without SCC approval. The measure also provides for competitive retail billing and metering. Distributors will be allowed to recover costs directly associated with the implementation of billing or metering competition through a tariff for all licensed suppliers, in a manner approved by the SCC. The rates for any non-competitive services provided by a distributor will be adjusted to ensure that they do not reflect costs properly allocable to competitive metering or billing service. Municipal electric utilities and electric cooperatives are exempt from the competitive metering and billing requirements unless they offer competitive electric energy supply to retail customers in the service territory of an incumbent electric utility. Other changes (i) require the SCC to establish minimum periods, if any, that customers must receive service from their incumbent electric utilities or from default service providers after having obtained service from other suppliers; (ii) amend tax provisions to the address that billing services may be provided by competitive providers other than the person delivering electricity to consumers; (iii) authorize the SCC to establish competition phase-in plans on a utility-by-utility basis; (iv) establish that the provisions of the Act will be applied to any municipal electric utility that is made subject to the Act to the same extent that such provisions apply to incumbent utilities; (v) provide that rates for new services applied for after January 1, 2001, will be treated as capped rates; (vi) clarify that default service is to be made available after consumer choice is available to all customers in Virginia; (vii) require the SCC to consider the goals of advancement of competition and economic development in all relevant proceedings; and (viii) require the SCC to report annually on the status of competition in the Commonwealth, the status of the development of regional competitive markets, and its recommendations to facilitate effective competition in the Commonwealth as soon as practical. This bill incorporates SB 1258.
Patron - Norment

F Failed

F HB1940

Utility Consumer Services Cooperatives; self-regulation. Authorizes Virginia's consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric distribution cooperatives to elect self-regulation with respect to various aspects of financing transactions, terms and conditions, service and rates relating to the provision of electric service. Currently, the State Corporation Commission regulates these activities. Such self-regulation may occur only following notice to the members and a subsequent affirmative vote of a supermajority of the members. Any cooperative whose members affirmatively choose to self-regulate may revert back to Commission regulation through a similar referendum process. Any cooperative whose membership chooses to impose self-regulation will still have an obligation to serve the public within its certificated service territory. Additionally, the capped rates for electric service and the default service provisions of the Virginia Electric Utility Restructuring Act will continue to apply to all electric cooperatives regardless of self-regulation status.
Patron - Kilgore

F HB2470

Electric utility restructuring; green power. Directs the State Corporation Commission to establish guidelines for competitive service providers of electricity that desire to market their energy in Virginia as "Green Power." In defining what constitutes Green Power, the Commission shall consider the information on fuel mixes of electricity generators that the Commission is required to collect pursuant to the Electric Utility Restructuring Act. The designation of certain electricity as Green Power shall provide consumers thereof with assurance that the Commission has confirmed that the provider's marketing information has been substantiated as valid. Non-qualifying electricity providers will be barred from using the "Green Power" label. This is a recommendation of the Consumer Advisory Board established pursuant to the Restructuring Act.
Patron - Plum

F HB2660

Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act; exemption. Exempts excavations performed in installing signage upon property from the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act, if the excavations are not more than 12 inches deep. This measure is a recommendation of the joint subcommittee studying the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act.
Patron - Ingram

F HB2744

Electric utilities; restructuring schedule. Postpones the scheduled period for introducing competition for electric generation services from 2002-2004 to 2003-2005. Other deadlines for actions required to effectuate the restructuring of electric utilities are delayed by one year, except the date by which incumbent utilities are required to submit functional separation plans is pushed back from January 1, 2001, to July 1, 2002, in order to allow such plans to reflect actions that may be taken by the 2002 Session of the General Assembly.
Patron - Woodrum

F HB2759

Environmental impact analysis for electric utility facilities. Requires the State Corporation Commission to consider the impact of nitrogen oxide emissions, if any, from any proposed electric facility when approving construction of electric facilities. The Commission shall also evaluate the cumulative impact of nitrogen oxide emissions of the proposed facility and existing facilites in the geographic area of the proposed facility. Any report of the environmental impact of the proposed facility shall be available to the public prior to any public hearing held in the approval process, and the Commission shall not approve the construction of any facility where emissions from the operation of such facility result in a violation of national ambient air quality standards.
Patron - Harris

F HB2853

Electric utility restructuring; rate caps and wires charges for municipalities. Provides that rates for municipalities and other governmental customers purchasing bundled electric transmission, distribution and generation services for governmental uses from an incumbent utility shall be the rates in effect for each incumbent utility as of January 1, 2001, and shall continue through the capped rate period applicable to all other types of customers. Methods used to calculate wires charges and the market price of generation for municipal customers shall be consistent with the methodologies approved by the State Corporation Commission.
Patron - Griffith

F SB1089

Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act. Prohibits the State Corporation Commission from promulgating regulations under the Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act that require any person to report any probable violation of the Act or any incident involving damage, dislocation, or disturbance of any utility line.
Patron - Bolling

F SB1174

Eminent domain; construction of electrical transmission lines. Requires public service constructing a 765-kV overhead electric line to offer to purchase any dwelling house that resides within 200 feet of the right-of-way for such 765-kV line.
Patron - Marye

F SB1258

Electric restructuring: capped rates; change in supplier. Requires that any customer who has received electric energy from a supplier other than its incumbent electric utility, and then asks to return to incumbent electric utility, shall be subject to a 12-month customer retention period. During the retention period, the customer shall receive electric service from the incumbent electric utility at the capped rates. This bill has been incorporated into SB 1420.
Patron - Norment

F SB1405

Underground Utility Damage Prevention Act; measure of damages. Eliminates a provision providing that the amount an operator may recover for damage to underground facilities is the cost to repair the facilities as that cost is normally computed by the operator. In its place, an operator whose facilities are damaged as a proximate result of a person's failure to comply with the act will be the actual costs incurred in repairing the damaged facilities. The measure of damages that an excavator may recover from an operator who fails to comply with the Act the will be the actual cost incurred in repairing any damage to the excavator's equipment or facilities.
Patron - Forbes

CONTENTS | < PREVIOUS | NEXT > | BILL INDEX

2001 SUMMARY HOME | DLS | GENERAL ASSEMBLY