Senate Bill No. 415
(By Senators Tomblin, Mr. President, and Sprouse,
By Request of the Executive)
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[Introduced March 1, 2005; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-2-11 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to requirements for certificate of
public convenience and necessity; and removing the prohibition
on applying for and obtaining franchises, licenses or permits
prior to obtaining a certificate of public convenience and
necessity from the Public Service Commission.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-2-11 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-11. Requirements for certificate of public convenience and
necessity.
(a) No public utility, person or corporation shall begin the
construction of any plant, equipment, property or facility for
furnishing to the public any of the services enumerated in section
one, article two of this chapter,
nor apply for, nor obtain any franchise, license or permit from any municipality or other
governmental agency, except ordinary extensions of existing systems
in the usual course of business, unless and until it shall obtain
from the Public Service Commission a certificate of public
convenience and necessity
requiring authorizing such construction.
franchise, license or permit Upon the filing of any application
for such certificate, and after hearing, the Commission may, in its
discretion, issue or refuse to issue, or issue in part and refuse
in part, such certificate of convenience and necessity:
Provided,
That the Commission, after it gives proper notice and if no protest
is received within thirty days after the notice is given, may waive
formal hearing on the application. Notice shall be given by
publication which shall state that a formal hearing may be waived
in the absence of protest, made within thirty days, to the
application. The notice shall be published as a Class I legal
advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three,
chapter fifty-nine of this code. The publication area shall be the
proposed area of operation. Any public utility, person or
corporation subject to the provisions of this section shall give
the Commission at least thirty days' notice of the filing of any
such application for a certificate of public convenience and
necessity under this section:
Provided, That the Commission may
modify or waive the thirty-day notice requirement. The Commission
shall render its final decision on any application
filed after the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred eighty-one, under
the provisions of this section or section eleven-a of this article
within two hundred seventy days of the filing of the application
and within ninety days after final submission of any such
application for decision following a hearing:
Provided, however,
That if the projected total cost of the project is greater than
fifty million dollars, the Commission shall render its final
decision on any such application filed under the provisions of this
section or section eleven-a of this article within four hundred
days of the filing of the application and within ninety days after
final submission of any such application for decision after a
hearing. If such decision is not rendered within the
aforementioned two hundred seventy days, four hundred days or
ninety days, the Commission shall issue a certificate of
convenience and necessity as applied for in the application. The
Commission shall prescribe such rules
and regulations as it may
deem proper for the enforcement of the provisions of this section;
and, in establishing that public convenience and necessity do
exist, the burden of proof shall be upon the applicant.
(b) Pursuant to the requirements of subsection (a) of this
section the Commission may issue a certificate of public
convenience and necessity to any intrastate pipeline, interstate
pipeline, or local distribution company for the transportation in
intrastate commerce of natural gas used by any person for one or more uses, as defined, by rule, by the Commission in the case of:
(1) Natural gas sold by a producer, pipeline or other seller
to such person; or
(2) Natural gas produced by such person.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove the requirement
that a public utility must first obtain a certificate of public
convenience and necessity from the Public Service Commission before
it can apply for all other necessary franchises, licenses and
permits.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law; and underscoring indicates language that would be
added.