Chapter 164

Section 57A. Any city or town having a municipal light plant may appropriate money for the maintenance and operation of such plant, specifying that the same shall be taken from the receipts of the department; and where such appropriations are made, the city or town treasurer may,…

Section 57B. Any city or town having a municipal light plant shall appropriate any income from the investment or deposit of proceeds of bonds or notes of said plant issued under or subject to the provisions of chapter forty-four solely for the purposes of said municipal lighting …

Section 57C. Any city or town having a municipal light plan shall appropriate any income from the investment or deposit of funds in the insurance escrow account established by said plant solely for the purposes of said plant.

Section 58. There shall be fixed schedules of prices for gas and electricity, which shall not be changed oftener than once in three months. Any change shall take effect on the first day of a month, and shall first be advertised in a newspaper, if any, published in the municipalit…

Section 58A. A sufficient deposit to secure the payment for gas or electricity for 3 months may be required in advance from any consumer, and if the advance deposit is retained for a longer period than 6 months, the interest rate shall be paid annually to said consumer or credite…

Section 58B. If the rates and charges due to a municipal lighting plant, which accepts the provisions of this section and sections fifty-eight C to fifty-eight F, inclusive, by vote of its municipal light board, as defined in section sixty-nine B and, by its manager of municipal …

Section 58C. Such lien shall take effect by operation of law on the day immediately following the due date of such rate or charge, and, unless dissolved by payment or abatement, shall continue until such rate or charge has been added to or committed as a tax under section fifty-e…

Section 58D. If a rate or charge for which a lien is in effect under section fifty-eight C has not been added to or committed as a tax and remains unpaid when the assessors are preparing a real estate tax list and warrant to be committed by them under section fifty-three of chapt…

Section 58E. Except as otherwise provided, the provisions of chapters fifty-nine and sixty shall apply, so far as pertinent, to all rates and charges certified to the assessors under section fifty-eight D. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, upon commitment as a tax…

Section 58F. An owner of real estate aggrieved by a charge imposed thereon under sections fifty-eight B to fifty-eight E, inclusive, may apply for an abatement thereon by filing a petition with the municipal light board, as defined in section sixty-nine B, within the time allowed…

Section 59. When a town fixes or changes a price, a notice thereof in form specified by the department shall be filed within sixty days with the department by the manager of municipal lighting, and for the failure to do so he shall forfeit not more than twenty-five dollars.

Section 5A. The name of a corporation subject to this chapter shall contain the words ''gas company'' or ''electric company'', as the case may be. Such corporation shall not assume the name or trade name of another corporation established under the laws of the commonwealth, or of…

Section 6. (a) The articles of organization shall state: (1) that the incorporators (stating their names, including their given names, and post office addresses) associate themselves with the intention of forming a gas or electric company, or a combined gas and electric company, …

Section 60. A town shall not be compelled to furnish gas or electricity to any person or corporation except upon order of the department, to whom any person aggrieved by the refusal of a town to furnish gas or electricity may appeal, stating the facts in such detail as the depart…

Section 61. A town acquiring a plant may provide by ordinance or by-law for the equitable assessment upon the owner or occupant of any premises of the cost, or any part thereof, of laying and maintaining pipes, conduits, conductors or other appliances thereon. Payment of such ass…

Section 62. A town operating a plant may pass ordinances or by-laws, imposing penalties not exceeding fifty dollars, to protect the plant, control its use and prevent accidents from gas or electricity supplied by it, and to govern consumers in their use thereof.

Section 63. A town manufacturing or selling gas or electricity for lighting shall keep records of its work and doings at its manufacturing station, and in respect to its distributing plant, as may be required by the department. It shall install and maintain apparatus, satisfactor…

Section 65. A town authorized by special act to construct, purchase, lease, establish or maintain a gas or electric plant shall be subject to this chapter, so far as the same may be applicable.

Section 66. This chapter, and all ordinances or by-laws of any town acting under its provisions relative to the manufacture, use or distribution of gas or electricity, or to the quality thereof, or to the plant or the appliances therefor, shall apply to such town, so far as appli…

Section 67. No town having within its limits the main gas works or the central electric station, or the major portion of the wires, poles, conduits or pipes used in connection with any such works or plant, shall, except for a violation of the terms or conditions upon which the sa…

Section 68. A town which has acquired a municipal lighting plant shall not sell it for the purpose of abandoning the distribution of gas or electricity to its inhabitants until such sale has been authorized in the manner and by the votes prescribed for the acquisition of such pla…

Section 69. The supreme judicial court for the county where the town is situated shall have jurisdiction on petition of the department or of twenty taxable inhabitants of the town to compel the fixing of prices by the town in compliance with sections fifty-seven and fifty-eight, …

Section 69A. Any city or town which maintains or operates a municipal lighting plant which includes a gas plant may purchase, sell and distribute natural gas, and the provisions of sections thirty-four to sixty-nine, inclusive, so far as apt, shall apply to the purchase, sale and…

Section 69B. The following words and phrases as used in sections sixty-nine C to sixty-nine F, inclusive, shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the following meanings:— ''Municipal light board'', the municipal light board, municipal gas and electric commission or sim…

Section 69C. Any city or town owning or operating a municipal lighting or municipal gas plant pursuant to the provisions of this chapter may contract for the training and employment of cadet engineers in its plant; provided, however, that no such contract shall be entered into if…

Section 69D. Applicants for training and employment as cadet engineers shall be selected by a selection committee as hereinafter provided upon request of the municipal light board. The selection committee shall be appointed by the municipal light board and shall be comprised of n…

Section 69E. The employment of the cadet engineer in ''on the job training'' shall not be subject to civil service laws and rules, but the appointment shall be reported to the division of personnel administration in such form as the personnel administrator may require. A cadet en…

Section 69F. All expenses, obligations or commitments for the payment of money incurred by the contracting city or town, pursuant to the provisions of sections sixty-nine B to sixty-nine E, inclusive, shall be considered as part of the annual expense of the plant for the year in …

Section 69G. As used in section 69H to 69W, inclusive, the following words and terms shall have the following meanings:— ''Anaerobic digestion facility'', a facility that: (i) generates electricity from a biogas produced by the accelerated biodegradation of organic materials unde…

Section 69H. There shall be an energy facilities siting board within the department, but not under the supervision or control of the department. The board shall implement the provisions contained in sections 69H to 69Q, inclusive, and sections 69S to 69W, inclusive, to: (i) provi…

Section 69I. The department shall approve or reject long-range plans; provided, however, that a long-range plan submitted in conjunction with a petition to construct a facility may be referred to the board for review and approval or rejection in accordance with section sixty-nine…

Section 69J. No applicant shall commence construction of a facility at a site unless a petition for approval of construction of that facility has been approved by the board and, in the case of an electric or gas company which is required to file a long-range forecast pursuant to …

Section 69K. Any electric, gas or oil company which proposes to construct or operate facilities in the commonwealth may petition the board for a certificate of environmental impact and public interest with respect to such facility. The board shall consider such petition providing…

Section 69L. A. Except in the case of an application for a certificate with respect to a generating facility, which shall be subject to the provisions of section 69L1/2, an applicant for a certificate shall file with the board a petition, in such form as the board may prescribe, …

Section 69M. Upon receipt of a petition for a certificate in compliance with the provisions of section 69L or section 69L1/2, whichever is applicable, the board shall fix a time and place for a public hearing on a date which shall be not less than sixty days nor more than ninety …

Section 69N. The parties in interest to the proceedings on a petition for a certificate shall include the following: (1) the applicant; (2) each public officer entitled to receive notice of the filing under the provisions of section 69L or section 69L1/2, whichever is applicable,…

Section 69O. As expeditiously as possible but in no event later than six months from the date of filing of the petition for a certificate pursuant to section 69K, the board shall by a majority vote render a decision upon the petition either by denying the petition or by granting …

Section 69P. Any party in interest aggrieved by a decision of the board shall have a right to judicial review in the manner provided by section five of chapter twenty-five. The scope of such judicial review shall be limited to whether the decision of the board is in conformity wi…

Section 69Q. The board, in the discharge of its duties under this chapter, is authorized to make joint investigations, hold joint hearings within or without the commonwealth, and issue joint or concurrent orders in conjunction or concurrence with any official agency of any state …

Section 69R. Any electric or gas company, generation company, or wholesale generation company may petition the department for the right to exercise the power of eminent domain with respect to the facility or facilities specified and contained in a petition submitted in accordance…

Section 69S. Any company may petition the board for the right to exercise the power of eminent domain with respect to oil pipelines specified and contained in the proposed notice of intention submitted in accordance with section 69J if such company is unable to reach agreement wi…

Section 69T. (a) The energy facilities siting board may issue consolidated permits for large clean energy infrastructure facilities. No applicant shall commence construction of a large clean energy infrastructure facility at a site unless an application for a consolidated permit …

Section 69U. (a) Upon request by an applicant and upon a showing of good cause, the board may issue a consolidated permit for a small clean transmission and distribution infrastructure facility that is not automatically subject to the jurisdiction of the board pursuant to section…

Section 69V. (a) The board may issue a consolidated permit for a small clean energy generation facility or a small clean energy storage facility. An owner or proponent of a small clean energy generation facility or a small clean energy storage facility may submit an application t…