Senate Bill No. 62
(By Senators Sharpe, Fanning, Bailey and Ross)
____________
[Introduced February 14, 2001; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section two, article two, chapter
twenty-four of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to the powers of
the public service commission to regulate public utilities;
and requiring electric and gas utilities to maintain
dedicated telephone lines for emergencies.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, 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.
§24-2-2. General power of commission to regulate public utilities.
(a) The commission is hereby given power to investigate all
rates, methods and practices of public utilities subject to the
provisions of this chapter; to require them to conform to the
laws of this state and to all rules regulations and orders of the
commission not contrary to law; and to require copies of all
reports, rates, classifications, schedules and timetables in
effect and used by the public utility or other person, to be
filed with the commission, and all other information desired by
the commission relating to the investigation and requirements,
including inventories of all property in such form and detail as
the commission may prescribe. The commission may compel
obedience to its lawful orders by mandamus or injunction or other
proper proceedings in the name of the state in any circuit court
having jurisdiction of the parties or of the subject matter, or
the supreme court of appeals direct, and the proceedings shall
have priority over all pending cases. The commission may change
any intrastate rate, charge or toll which is unjust or
unreasonable or any interstate charge with respect to matters of
a purely local nature which have not been regulated by or
pursuant to an act of Congress and may prescribe a rate, charge or toll that is just and reasonable, and change or prohibit any
practice, device or method of service in order to prevent undue
discrimination or favoritism between persons, and between
localities and between commodities for a like and contemporaneous
service. But in no case shall the rate, toll or charge be more
than the service is reasonably worth, considering the cost of the
service. The commission shall require all public utilities
providing electric and gas service to maintain telephone lines
dedicated solely for emergencies and to adequately publicize the
telephone numbers for such lines. Every order entered by the
commission shall continue in force until the expiration of the
time, if any, named by the commission in the order, or until
revoked or modified by the commission, unless the order is
suspended, modified or revoked by order or decree of a court of
competent jurisdiction: Provided, That in the case of utilities
used by emergency shelter providers, the commission shall
prescribe such rates, charges or tolls that are the lowest
available. "Emergency shelter provider" means any nonprofit
entity which provides temporary emergency housing and services to
the homeless or to victims of domestic violence or other abuse.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, rates are not discriminatory if, when considering the
debt costs associated with a future water or sewer project which
would not benefit existing customers, the commission establishes
rates which ensure that the future customers to be served by the
new project are solely responsible for the debt costs associated
with the project.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Public
Service Commission to require electric and gas utilities to
maintain telephone lines dedicated solely to emergencies and to
publicize the emergency telephone numbers.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.