Senate Bill No. 694
(By Senators White, Foster, Kessler, Wells and Stollings)
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[Introduced February 22, 2010; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §24-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §24-2-1j, all relating to requiring
greater information to be submitted by the Public Service
Commission annually regarding the quality of service provided
by utilities and persons subject to its jurisdiction; and
requiring incumbent local exchange carriers to achieve certain
levels of advanced services availability within the state by
July 1, 2013.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §24-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §24-2-1j, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§24-1-1. Legislative purpose and policy; plan for internal
reorganization; promulgation of plan as rule;
cooperation with Joint Committee on Government and
Finance.
(a) It is the purpose and policy of the Legislature in
enacting this chapter to confer upon the Public Service Commission
of this state the authority and duty to enforce and regulate the
practices, services and rates of public utilities in order to:
(1) Ensure fair and prompt regulation of public utilities in
the interest of the using and consuming public;
(2) Provide the availability of adequate, economical and
reliable utility services throughout the state;
(3) Encourage the well-planned development of utility
resources in a manner consistent with state needs and in ways
consistent with the productive use of the state's energy resources,
such as coal;
(4) Ensure that rates and charges for utility services are
just, reasonable, applied without unjust discrimination or
preference, applied in a manner consistent with the purposes and
policies set forth in article two-a of this chapter, and based
primarily on the costs of providing these services;
(5) Encourage energy conservation and the effective and
efficient management of regulated utility enterprises; and
(6) Encourage and support open and competitive marketing of
rail carrier services by providing to all rail carriers access to
tracks as provided in section three-b, article three of this
chapter. It is the purpose of the Legislature to remove artificial
barriers to rail carrier service, stimulate competition, stimulate
the free flow of goods and passengers throughout the state and
promote the expansion of the tourist industry, thereby improving
the economic condition of the state.
(b) The Legislature creates the Public Service Commission to
exercise the legislative powers delegated to it. The Public
Service Commission is charged with the responsibility for
appraising and balancing the interests of current and future
utility service customers, the general interests of the state's
economy and the interests of the utilities subject to its
jurisdiction in its deliberations and decisions.
(c) The Legislature directs the Public Service Commission to
identify, explore and consider the potential benefits or risks
associated with emerging and state-of-the-art concepts in utility
management, rate design and conservation. The commission may
conduct inquiries and hold hearings regarding such concepts in
order to provide utilities subject to its jurisdiction and other
interested persons the opportunity to comment, and shall report to
the Governor and the Legislature regarding its findings and policies to each of these areas not later than the first day of the
regular session of the Legislature in the year 1985, and every two
years thereafter.
(d) It is legislative policy to ensure that the Legislature
and the general public become
and remain better informed regarding
the regulation of public utilities in this state,
the quality of
service provided by public utilities to consumers in the state and
the levels of customer satisfaction with their public utility
service as reflected in formal or informal complaints lodged with
the commission, and the conduct of the business of the Public
Service Commission. To aid in the achievement of this policy, the
Public Service Commission annually shall present to the Joint
Committee on Government and Finance, created by article three,
chapter four of this code, or a subcommittee designated by the
joint committee, a management summary report which describes in a
concise manner:
(1) The major activities of the commission for the year
especially as such activities relate to the implementation of the
provisions of this chapter;
(2) Important policy decisions reached and initiatives
undertaken during the year;
(3) The current balance of supply and demand for natural gas
and electric utility services in the state and forecast of the probable balance for the next ten years;
and
(4) Other information considered by the commission to be
important including recommendations for statutory reform and the
reasons for such recommendations,
and
(5) The following information or data reflecting upon both the
quality of service provided by public utilities to consumers in the
state and the level of customer satisfaction with their public
utility service for each major utility type, including without
limitation, public utilities that provide electric, gas, telephone,
cable, water and wastewater service (including municipal
corporations and sanitary districts, and public service districts)
and motor carriers of passengers and property for hire:
(A) The number and nature of formal complaints filed with the
commission against such utilities or other persons subject to the
commission's jurisdiction and the disposition, if any, of such
complaints in the preceding twelve calendar months;
(B) The number and nature of informal complaints lodged with
the commission against such utilities or other persons subject to
the commission's jurisdiction in the preceding twelve calendar
months, which shall identify at least the following categories of
informal complaint type: initiation or installation of service,
billing disputes, poor quality of service or product, service
outages, poor customer service, termination of service, right of way disputes, property damage and cable rates and programming; and
(C) The change, expressed both in absolute number and as a
percentage, in the number of formal and informal complaints for
each major utility type reported in the commission's preceding
annual report to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.
(e) In addition to any other studies and reports required to
be conducted and made by the Public Service Commission pursuant to
any other provision of this section, the commission shall study and
initially report to the Legislature no later than the first day of
the regular session of the Legislature in the year 1980, upon:
(1) The extent to which natural gas wells or wells heretofore
supplying gas utilities in this state have been capped off or shut
in; the number of such wells, their probable extent of future
production and the reasons given and any justification for, capping
off or shutting in such wells, the reasons, if any, why persons
engaged or heretofore engaged in the development of gas wells in
this state or the Appalachian areas have been discouraged from
drilling, developing or selling the production of such wells and
whether there are fixed policies by any utility or group of
utilities to avoid the purchase of natural gas produced in the
Appalachian region of the United States generally and in West
Virginia specifically.
(2) The extent of the export and import of natural gas utility supplies in West Virginia.
(3) The cumulative effect of the practices mentioned in
subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection upon rates theretofore
and hereafter charged gas utility customers in West Virginia.
In carrying out the provisions of this section the commission
shall have jurisdiction over such persons, whether public utilities
or not, as may be in the opinion of the commission necessary to the
exercise of its mandate and may compel attendance before it, take
testimony under oath and compel the production of papers or other
documents. Upon reasonable request by the commission, all other
state agencies shall cooperate with the commission in carrying out
the provisions and requirements of this subsection.
(f) No later than the first day of the regular session of the
Legislature in the year 1980, the Public Service Commission shall
submit to the Legislature a plan for internal reorganization which
plan shall specifically address the following:
(1) A division within the Public Service Commission which
shall include the office of the commissioners, the hearing
examiners and such support staff as may be necessary to carry out
the functions of decision making and general supervision of the
commission, which functions shall not include advocacy in cases
before the commission;
(2) The creation of a division which shall act as an advocate for the position of and in the interest of all customers;
(3) The means and procedures by which the division to be
created pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (2) of this
subsection shall protect the interests of each class of customers
and the means by which the commission will assure that such
division will be financially and departmentally independent of the
division created by subdivision (1) of this subsection;
(4) The creation of a division within the Public Service
Commission which shall assume the duties and responsibilities now
charged to the commissioners with regard to motor carriers which
division shall exist separately from those divisions set out in
subdivisions (1) and (2) of this subsection and which shall relieve
the commissioners of all except minimal administrative
responsibilities as to motor carriers and which plan shall provide
for a hearing procedure to relieve the commissioners from hearing
motor carrier cases;
(5) Which members of the staff of the Public Service
Commission shall be exempted from the salary schedules or pay plan
adopted by the Civil Service Commission and identify such staff
members by job classification or designation, together with the
salary or salary ranges for each such job classification or
designation;
(6) The manner in which the commission will strengthen its knowledge and independent capacity to analyze key conditions and
trends in the industries it regulates extending from general
industry analysis and supply-demand forecasting to continuing and
more thorough scrutiny of the capacity planning, construction
management, operating performance and financial condition of the
major companies within these industries.
Such plan shall be based on the concept that each of the
divisions mentioned in subdivisions (1), (2) and (4) of this
subsection shall exist independently of the others and the plan
shall discourage ex parte communications between them by such means
as the commission shall direct, including, but not limited to,
separate clerical and professional staffing for each division.
Further, the Public Service Commission is directed to incorporate
within the said plan to the fullest extent possible the
recommendations presented to the subcommittee on the Public Service
Commission of the Joint Committee on Government and Finance in a
final report dated February, 1979, and entitled "A Plan for
Regulatory Reform and Management Improvement."
The commission shall before January 5, 1980, adopt said plan
by order, which order shall promulgate the same as a rule of the
commission to be effective upon the date specified in said order,
which date shall be no later than December 31, 1980. Certified
copies of such order and rule shall be filed on the first day of the regular session of the Legislature, 1980, by the chairman of
the commission with the clerk of each house of the Legislature, the
Governor and the Secretary of State. The chairman of the
commission shall also file with the office of the Secretary of
State the receipt of the clerk of each house and of the Governor,
which receipt shall evidence compliance with this section.
Upon the filing of a certified copy of such order and rule,
the clerk of each house of the Legislature shall report the same to
their respective houses and the presiding officer thereof shall
refer the same to appropriate standing committee or committees.
Within the limits of funds appropriated therefor, the rule of
the Public Service Commission shall be effective upon the date
specified in the order of the commission promulgating it unless an
alternative plan be adopted by general law or unless the rule is
disapproved by a concurrent resolution of the Legislature adopted
prior to adjournment sine die of the regular session of the
Legislature to be held in the year 1980:
Provided, That if such
rule is approved in part and disapproved in part by a concurrent
resolution of the Legislature adopted prior to such adjournment,
such rule shall be effective to the extent and only to the extent
that the same is approved by such concurrent resolution.
The rules promulgated and made effective pursuant to this
section shall be effective notwithstanding any other provisions of this code for the promulgation of rules or regulations.
(g) The Public Service Commission is hereby directed to
cooperate with the Joint Committee on Government and Finance of the
Legislature in its review, examination and study of the
administrative operations and enforcement record of the railroad
safety division of the Public Service Commission and any similar
studies.
(h) (1) The Legislature hereby finds that rates for natural
gas charged to customers of all classes have risen dramatically in
recent years to the extent that such increases have adversely
affected all customer classes. The Legislature further finds that
it must take action necessary to mitigate the adverse consequences
of these dramatic rate increases.
(2) The Legislature further finds that the practices of
natural gas utilities in purchasing high-priced gas supplies, in
purchasing gas supplies from out-of-state sources when West
Virginia possesses abundant natural gas, and in securing supplies,
directly or indirectly by contractual agreements including take-or-
pay provisions, indefinite price escalators, or most-favored nation
clauses have contributed to the dramatic increase in natural gas
prices. It is therefore the policy of the Legislature to
discourage such purchasing practices in order to protect all
customer classes.
(3) The Legislature further finds that it is in the best
interests of the citizens of West Virginia to encourage the
transportation of natural gas in intrastate commerce by interstate
or intrastate pipelines or by local distribution companies in order
to provide competition in the natural gas industry and in order to
provide natural gas to consumers at the lowest possible price.
(i) The Legislature further finds that transactions between
utilities and affiliates are a contributing factor to the increase
in natural gas and electricity prices and tend to confuse
consideration of a proper rate of return calculation. The
Legislature therefore finds that it is imperative that the Public
Service Commission have the opportunity to properly study the issue
of proper rate of return for lengthy periods of time and to limit
the return of a utility to a proper level when compared to return
or profit that affiliates earn on transactions with sister
utilities.
ARTICLE 2. POWERS AND DUTIES OF PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION.
§24-2-1j. Required levels of advanced services deployment by
incumbent local exchange carriers.
(a) Every incumbent local exchange carrier (telecommunications
carrier that offers or provides a regulated telecommunications
service) subject to the Public Service Commission's jurisdiction
shall offer or provide advanced telecommunications services to not less than 100% one hundred per cent of its customers by July 1,
2013: Provided, That for purposes of this section, "advanced
services" means broadband services with information transfer rates
equal to or greater than 768 kbps but less than 1.5 mbps in the
faster direction, or as may be defined by the Federal
Communications Commission as "basic broadband tier 1" services.
(b) On or before December 31, 2010, each incumbent local
exchange carrier subject to the requirements of this section shall
file with the commission a proposed plan for achieving the advanced
services deployment levels set forth herein by July 1, 2013 or,
alternatively, certify to the commission that it is currently
achieving the advanced services deployment levels set forth herein
and provide information supporting such certification: Provided,
That the information provided to the commission under this
subsection shall be deemed public and not subject to protection
from disclosure to the public under the provisions of article one,
chapter twenty-nine-b of the code or any other provision of state
law.
(c) The commission is authorized to issue such orders as
necessary to require incumbent local exchange carriers subject to
its jurisdiction to achieve the advanced services deployment levels
set forth herein by July 1, 2013: Provided, That the commission
may grant an extension of time for up to twelve months to any incumbent local exchange carrier able to demonstrate to the
commission that it is technically infeasible to achieve the
advanced services deployment levels set forth herein by July 1,
2013.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require greater
information to be submitted by the Public Service Commission
annually regarding the quality of service provided by utilities and
persons subject to its jurisdiction, and to require incumbent local
exchange carriers to achieve certain levels of advanced services
availability within the state by July 1, 2013.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
§24-2-1j is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.