Senate Bill No. 311
(By Senator Withers, By Request)
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[Introduced March 8, 1993; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section four-b, article two, chapter
twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the public
service commission, and ensuring that the public service
commission is responsible for approving rates for all
municipal sewerage and trash collection services.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four-b, article two, chapter twenty-four of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-4b. Procedures for changing rates of electric and natural
gas cooperatives, local exchange services of telephone
cooperatives and municipally operated public utilities.
(a) The rates and charges of electric cooperatives, natural
gas cooperatives and municipally operated public utilities,
except for municipally operated commercial solid waste facilities
as defined in section two-h, article five-f, chapter twenty ofthis code, any municipal sewerage and sewage disposal service,
any municipal service incident to the collection and disposal of
garbage, refuse, waste, ashes, trash and any other similar matter
and the rates and charges for local exchange services provided by
telephone cooperatives are not subject to the rate approval
provisions of section four or four-a of this article, but are
subject to the limited rate provisions of this section.
(b) All rates and charges set by electric cooperatives,
natural gas cooperatives and municipally operated public
utilities and all rates and charges for local exchange services
set by telephone cooperatives shall be just, reasonable, applied
without unjust discrimination or preference and based primarily
on the costs of providing these services. Such rates and charges
shall be adopted by the electric, natural gas or telephone
cooperative's governing board and in the case of the municipally
operated public utility by municipal ordinance to be effective
not sooner than forty-five days after adoption: Provided, That
notice of intent to effect a rate change shall be specified on
the monthly billing statement of the customers of such utility
for the month next preceding the month in which the rate change
is to become effective or the utility shall give its customers,
and in the case of a cooperative, its customers, members and
stockholders, such other reasonable notices as will allow filing
of timely objections to such rate change. Such rates and charges
shall be filed with the commission together with such information
showing the basis of such rates and charges and such otherinformation as the commission considers necessary. Any change in
such rates and charges with updated information shall be filed
with the commission. If a petition, as set out in subdivision
(1), (2) or (3), subsection (c) of this section, is received and
the electric cooperative, natural gas cooperative, telephone
cooperative or municipality has failed to file with the
commission such rates and charges with such information showing
the basis of rates and charges and such other information as the
commission considers necessary, the suspension period limitation
of one hundred twenty days and the one hundred day period
limitation for issuance of an order by a hearing examiner, as
contained in subsections (d) and (e) of this section, is tolled
until the necessary information is filed. The electric
cooperative, natural gas cooperative, telephone cooperative or
municipality shall set the date when any new rate or charge is to
go into effect.
(c) The commission shall review and approve or modify such
rates upon the filing of a petition within thirty days of the
adoption of the ordinance or resolution changing said rates or
charges by:
(1) Any customer aggrieved by the changed rates or charges
who presents to the commission a petition signed by not less than
twenty-five percent of the customers served by such municipally
operated public utility, or twenty-five percent of the membership
of the electric, natural gas or telephone cooperative residing
within the state; or
(2) Any customer who is served by a municipally operated
public utility and who resides outside the corporate limits and
who is affected by the change in said rates or charges and who
presents to the commission a petition alleging discrimination
between customers within and without the municipal boundaries.
Said petition shall be accompanied by evidence of discrimination;
or
(3) Any customer or group of customers who are affected by
said change in rates who reside within the municipal boundaries
and who present a petition to the commission alleging
discrimination between said customer or group of customers and
other customers of the municipal utility. Said petition shall be
accompanied by evidence of discrimination.
(d) (1) The filing of a petition with the commission signed
by not less than twenty-five percent of the customers served by
the municipally operated public utility, or twenty-five percent
of the membership of the electric, natural gas or telephone
cooperative residing within the state, under subdivision (1),
subsection (c) of this section, shall suspend the adoption of the
rate change contained in the ordinance or resolution for a period
of one hundred twenty days from the date said rates or charges
would otherwise go into effect, or until an order is issued as
provided herein.
(2) Upon sufficient showing of discrimination by customers
outside the municipal boundaries, or a customer or a group of
customers within the municipal boundaries, under a petition filedunder subdivision (2) or (3), subsection (c) of this section, the
commission shall suspend the adoption of the rate change
contained in the ordinance for a period of one hundred twenty
days from the date said rates or charges would otherwise go into
effect or until an order is issued as provided herein.
(e) The commission shall forthwith appoint a hearing
examiner from its staff to review the grievances raised by the
petitioners. Said hearing examiner shall conduct a public
hearing, and shall within one hundred days from the date the said
rates or charges would otherwise go into effect, unless otherwise
tolled as provided in subsection (b) of this section, issue an
order approving, disapproving or modifying, in whole or in part,
the rates or charges imposed by the electric, natural gas or
telephone cooperative or by the municipally operated public
utility pursuant to this section.
(f) Upon receipt of a petition for review of the rates under
the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, the commission
may exercise the power granted to it under the provisions of
section three of this article. The commission may determine the
method by which such rates are reviewed and may grant and conduct
a de novo hearing on the matter if the customer, electric,
natural gas or telephone cooperative or municipality requests
such a hearing.
(g) The commission may, upon petition by a municipality or
electric, natural gas or telephone cooperative, allow an interim
or emergency rate to take effect, subject to future modification,if it is determined that such interim or emergency rate is
necessary to protect the municipality from financial hardship and
if that financial hardship is attributable solely to the purchase
of the utility commodity sold. In such cases, the commission may
waive the forty-five-day waiting period provided for in
subsection (b) of this section and the one hundred twenty-day
suspension period provided for in subsection (d) of this section.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision, the commission
shall have no authority or responsibility with regard to the
regulation of rates, income, services or contracts by municipally
operated public utilities for services which are transmitted and
sold outside of the state of West Virginia.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to ensure that the Public
Service Commission is responsible for approving all rates for
municipal sewerage and trash collection services.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.