Title 40 — Public Utilities and Carriers

In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. "Appliance application" means central space heating, clothes drying, water heating and indoor cooking. 2. "Commission" means the corporation commission. 3. "Common carrier" means a railroad or street railroad. 4. "Electri…

A. The commission may supervise and regulate every public service corporation in this state and do all things, whether specifically designated in this title or in addition thereto, necessary and convenient in the exercise of that power and jurisdiction. In supervising and regulat…

When the commission finds that the rates, fares, tolls, rentals, charges or classifications, or any of them, demanded or collected by any public service corporation for any service, product or commodity, or in connection therewith, or that the rules, regulations, practices or con…

A. Every public service corporation shall furnish to the commission, in the form and detail the commission prescribes, tabulations, computations, annual reports, monthly or periodical reports of earnings and expenses, and all other information required by it to carry into effect …

A. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the corporation commission may not regulate commercial flight operations or commercial flight operators. B. For purposes of this section: 1. "Commercial flight operation" means the carrying of persons or goods for hire, including the…

This chapter does not apply to motor carriers as defined in section 28-5851.

Regulation of electricity suppliers providing electric generation service is a matter of statewide concern. Cities, including charter cities, towns and counties shall not require franchises for electricity suppliers to provide electric generation service within its jurisdiction a…

A. A contractor who is licensed by the registrar of contractors pursuant to title 32 is eligible to participate in a commission approved rebate or other pricing program offered by a public service corporation if the contractor obtains the same or equivalent training or certificat…

Notwithstanding any other law, the commission may accept electronically any document that a public service corporation is required to submit pursuant to this chapter, any rules adopted pursuant to this chapter or a commission order.

A. A person that offers, furnishes or provides for profit or otherwise internet protocol-enabled service or voice over internet protocol service is not providing message transmission service to the public and is not a public service corporation. The commission may not regulate, d…

B. In addition to the fee assessed for the quantity of electrical energy sold, fees may be assessed for other services and may be based on time measurement or a fixed fee or both. C. For the purposes of this section, "electric charging providers" means entities that both: 1. Offe…

A. The commission may establish a system of accounts to be kept by public service corporations, or classify the corporations and establish a system of accounts for each class, and prescribe the manner in which accounts shall be kept. It may prescribe the forms of accounts, record…

The commission may, after hearing, require public service corporations to carry a proper and adequate depreciation account in accordance with regulations and forms of account it prescribes. It may ascertain and fix the proper and adequate rates of depreciation of the several clas…

A. The commission, each commissioner and person employed by the commission may, at any time, inspect the accounts, books, papers and documents of any public service corporation, and any of such persons who are authorized to administer oaths may examine under oath any officer, age…

The commission may require by order served on any public service corporation in the manner provided in this chapter for the service of orders, the production within this state, at a time and place it designates, of any books, accounts, papers or records kept in any office or plac…

A. All hearings and investigations before the commission or a commissioner shall be governed by this article, and by rules of practice and procedure adopted by the commission. Neither the commission nor a commissioner shall be bound by technical rules of evidence, and no informal…

A. Each commissioner may administer oaths and certify to all official acts. The commission, or a commissioner, or any party, may take depositions as in a court of record. B. Each witness who appears by order of the commission or a commissioner shall receive for his attendance the…

A. Copies of all official documents and orders filed or deposited according to law in the office of the commission, certified by a commissioner or by the secretary under the official seal of the commission to be true copies of the originals, shall be received in evidence in a lik…

A. Complaint may be made by the commission of its own motion, or by any person or association of persons by petition or complaint in writing, setting forth any act or thing done or omitted to be done by any public service corporation in violation, or claimed to be in violation, o…

A. The complainant and the party complained of, and such persons as the commission allows to intervene, shall be heard in person or by attorney, and may introduce evidence at the hearing. The commission shall issue process to enforce attendance of all necessary witnesses. Proceed…

A. When complaint is made to the commission concerning any rate, fare, toll, rental or charge made by any public service corporation, and the commission finds, after investigation, that the corporation has made an excessive or discriminatory charge, the commission may order that …

Any public service corporation shall have the same privilege to complain as is afforded other parties under this article, and the same procedure shall be followed as in other cases, except that the complaint may be heard ex parte by the commission, or may be served upon any parti…

A. No public service corporation shall raise any rate, fare, toll, rental or charge, or alter any classification, contract, practice, rule or regulation to result in any increase thereof, except on a showing before the commission and a finding by the commission that an increase i…

A. For the purpose of ascertaining matters concerning the valuation or revaluation of the property of public service corporations, the commission may conduct hearings at times or places it designates. Before any hearing or supplemental or further hearing is had the commission sha…

The commission may at any time, upon notice to the corporation affected, and after opportunity to be heard as upon a complaint, rescind, alter or amend any order or decision made by it. When the order making such rescission, alteration or amendment is served upon the corporation …

A. After any final order or decision is made by the commission, any party to the action or proceeding or the attorney general on behalf of the state may apply for a rehearing of any matter determined in the action or proceeding and specified in the application for rehearing withi…

A. Except as provided in section 40-254.01, any party in interest, or the attorney general on behalf of the state, being dissatisfied with an order or decision of the commission, may within thirty days after a rehearing is denied or granted, and not afterwards, commence an action…

A. The attorney general on behalf of the state or any party to a proceeding before the commission who is dissatisfied with any order of the commission involving public service corporations and relating to rate making or rate design pursuant to sections 40-243, 40-246, 40-250 and …

All actions and proceedings to which the commission or the state is a party, or in which the attorney general has been allowed to intervene, and in which any question arises under this title, or under or concerning any order or decision of the commission, shall be preferred and s…

A. From the date on which a utility's rate filing is determined to be sufficient in accordance with this section, the commission shall issue a decision establishing rates and charges for service within the following time periods: 1. For class 1 utilities, within two hundred seven…

A. A public service corporation, other than a railroad, shall not begin construction of a street railroad, a line, plant, service or system, or any extension thereof, without first having obtained from the commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity. B. This sect…

A. If the applicant for a certificate of convenience and necessity is a corporation, a certified copy of its articles of incorporation shall be filed in the office of the commission before any certificate of convenience and necessity may issue. B. Every applicant for a certificat…

A. Any person engaged in transportation or transmission business within the state may construct and operate lines connecting any points within the state and connect at the state boundary with like lines, except that within the confines of municipal corporations the use and occupa…

A. A foreign corporation, unless authorized to transact a public service business within this state, shall not transact within the state any public service business, nor transact within the state any public service business of a character different from that which it is authorize…

A. A public service corporation shall not sell, lease, assign, mortgage or otherwise dispose of or encumber the whole or any part of its railroad, line, plant or system necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public, or any franchise or permit or any right the…

Title 44, chapter 10, article 1, does not apply to any conduct or activity of a public service corporation holding a certificate of public convenience and necessity granted pursuant to this article, which conduct or activity is approved by a statute of this state or of the United…

Any portion of the certificated area of a private water company which does not contain an operating distribution system owned by the private water company primarily for the distribution of domestic water is presumed to have de minimis value for the purposes of condemnation.

A. The power of public service corporations to issue stocks and stock certificates, bonds, notes and other evidences of indebtedness, and to create liens on their property located within this state is a special privilege, the right of supervision, restriction and control of which…

A. Before a public service corporation issues stocks and stock certificates, bonds, notes and other evidences of indebtedness, it shall first secure from the commission an order authorizing such issue and stating the amount thereof, the purposes to which the issue or proceeds the…

A. All stock and every stock certificate, and every bond, note or other evidence of indebtedness of a public service corporation, issued without a valid order of the commission authorizing the issue, or if issued with the authorization of the commission but not conforming to the …

A. When the commission finds that the equipment, appliances, facilities or service of any public service corporation, or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage or supply employed by it, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate or insufficien…

A. The commission may: 1. Ascertain and set just and reasonable standards, classifications, regulations, practices, measurements or service to be furnished and followed by public service corporations other than a railroad. 2. Ascertain and fix adequate and serviceable standards f…

A. The commission may provide by rules and regulations: 1. The time within which all railroad corporations shall furnish, after demand therefor, cars, equipment and facilities necessary for handling freight in carload and less than carload lots. 2. The time within which consignor…

When the commission finds that any railroad or street railroad does not run a sufficient number of trains or cars, or possess or operate sufficient motive power reasonably necessary to accommodate the traffic transported by or offered for transportation to it, or does not run its…

When the commission finds that the public convenience and necessity will be served by having connections made between the tracks of any two or more railroad corporations so that cars may readily be transferred from one to the other, the commission may order two or more such corpo…

A. Every railroad corporation, upon application of a shipper or receiver or contemplated shipper or receiver of freight for a connection between the railroad of such corporation and an existing or contemplated private track or railroad of such person, shall make such connection a…

A. When the commission finds that application has been made by any person to a railroad corporation for a connection or spur which the corporation has refused, and that the applicant is entitled thereto, the commission shall make an order therefor and for the maintenance and use …

Every telephone corporation and telegraph corporation operating in this state shall receive, transmit and deliver, without delay or discrimination, the conversations and messages of every other telephone or telegraph corporation with which a physical connection is made.

A. Whenever the commission finds that a physical connection can reasonably be made between the lines of two or more telephone or telegraph corporations to form a continuous line of communication, and that public convenience and necessity will be served thereby, or that two or mor…

A. When the commission finds that additions or improvements to or changes in the existing plant or physical properties of a public service corporation ought reasonably to be made, or that a new structure or structures should be erected, to promote the security or convenience of i…