Title 30, Title 30: Public Service

§ 406. Penalty A person, firm, or corporation who violates a provision of sections 404 and 405 of this title shall be subject to penalties in the same manner as a violation of 10 V.S.A. chapter 43. (Amended 2017, No. 74, § 126.)

§ 501. Definitions As used in this chapter: (1) “Commission” shall mean the Public Utility Commission. (2) “Cable television system” means facilities by which television signals are received at a central location and for consideration are transmitted to customers or subscribers b…

§ 502. Jurisdiction (a) A company subject to supervision under this chapter shall have the privileges provided in and be subject to the provisions of chapters 1 through 7 of this title. (b) The Commission shall be the franchising authority in the State empowered to grant, renew, …

§ 503. Certification (a) No company may own or operate a cable television system unless it holds a certificate of public good issued by the Commission authorizing it to do so. (b) The Commission shall hear and determine applications in accordance with the criteria of section 504 …

§ 504. Certificates of public good (a) Certificates of public good granted under this chapter shall be for a period of 11 years. (b) Issuance of a certificate shall be after opportunity for hearing and findings by the Commission that the applicant has complied or will comply with…

§ 505. Service No company holding a certificate of public good under this chapter may abandon or curtail any service subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission or abandon all or any part of its facilities if it would thereby effect the abandonment, curtailment, or impairment o…

§ 506. Renewal Certificates with a limited duration may be renewed during or at the end of the period, after opportunity for hearing held according to the criteria for the granting of an original certificate in section 504 of this title and after the Commission has made the findi…

§ 508. Unauthorized operation; penalty A person or company rendering service that is subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utility Commission under this chapter, without holding a certificate of public good issued by the Public Utility Commission for that purpose under this c…

§ 509. Amendment and revocation; fines; assurance of discontinuance (a) For good cause, after opportunity for hearing, the Commission may amend or revoke any certificate of public good awarded pursuant to section 503 or 504 of this title. (b) If the Commission finds that a compan…

§ 510. Notice to subscribers regarding quality of service (a) Annually, every company shall cause to be mailed to each of its subscribers a notice that: (1) states that the Commission and the Department of Public Service desire to hear the views of subscribers regarding the quali…

§ 511. Extensions for transfer or sale At the end of a certificate period that was not renewed, or if a certificate is revoked, the Commission may grant the company a period of time, not to exceed one year, to transfer ownership or sell company assets. (Added 1987, No. 271 (Adj. …

§ 512. Assistance to unserved areas (a) The legislative body of a municipality unserved by a cable television system, and that desires such service, may request the assistance of the Department of Public Service. Upon receipt of any request from a municipality in an unserved area…

§ 513. Municipal cable television systems (a) A municipality may establish de novo a cable television system in an area otherwise unserved after proceeding under section 512 of this title. A municipality may do so under this section without obtaining amendments to and General Ass…

§ 514. Annual report At the time of filing its annual report under section 22 of this title, each company shall also file with the Commission and the Department the following: (1) a map sufficiently outlining the company’s service territory and describing its existing plant and a…

§ 515. Acquisition of control of a company subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utility Commission (a) No person, corporation, partnership, or unincorporated association shall acquire ownership of greater than 40 percent of the voting securities in a company as defined in su…

§ 516. Modification by the Commission of cable television tariff requirements (a) The Commission may modify, reduce, or suspend requirements under sections 225 and 226, subsection 227(a), and section 229 of this title if it finds that provisions of federal law have the effect of …

§ 517. Line extensions (a) A company may enter into agreements under this section with government, nonprofit, or private entities, including projects authorized or affiliated with the Vermont Telecommunications Authority, a municipality or fire district pursuant to 20 V.S.A. § 26…

§ 518. Retransmission fees; reporting (a) Purpose. The purpose of this section is to provide the Attorney General with information necessary to investigate certain conduct within the cable and broadcast network industries to determine whether unfair methods of competition are occ…

§ 601. Definitions (a) The following words as used in this chapter shall, unless the context otherwise requires, have the meanings provided in subsection (b) of this section. (b)(1) “New England power pool agreement,” a contractual agreement between electric utilities that is ope…

§ 602. Authorization The City of Burlington and the Village of Lyndonville acting through its board of trustees are, and each municipality singly is, hereby authorized to enter into a New England power pool agreement and to participate within and outside the State of Vermont in t…

§ 603. NEPOOL agreement The New England power pool agreement may provide for, among other things: (1) the pooling of power; (2) coordination of planning, construction, and operation and the manner of establishing and enforcing standards and other requirements; (3) delegation of a…

§ 604. Additional authority (a) Notwithstanding any contrary provision of any general or special law relating to the powers and authorities of electric utilities or any limitation imposed by their charters, the City of Burlington, the Village of Lyndonville acting through its boa…

§ 605. Contracts Contracts under section 604 of this chapter may be for a term or for an indefinite period; may provide for the sale or other disposition of byproducts of electric power facilities; and may contain provisions for arbitration, delegation, and other matters deemed n…

§ 606. Tenancy in common If the City of Burlington, the Village of Lyndonville, or the Town of Rockingham acquires or owns an interest as a tenant in common with one or more other electric utilities in any electric power facilities, the surrender or waiver by any party of its rig…

§ 607. Consent to application of laws of other states (a) Legislative consent is hereby given to the application of the laws of other states with respect to taxation, payments in lieu of taxes, and the assessment thereof to the City of Burlington, the Village of Lyndonville, or t…

§ 608. Bonding authority — City of Burlington (a) The City of Burlington, when authorized by a two-thirds vote of all voters present and voting at a meeting called for that purpose, may pledge its credit by issuing the negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds for project cost…

§ 609. Village of Lyndonville (a) The Village of Lyndonville, when authorized as provided in 24 V.S.A. chapter 53, may pledge its credit by issuing its negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds for project costs, or its share of project costs, of electric power facilities auth…

§ 610. Bonding authority — Town of Rockingham (a) The Town of Rockingham, when authorized as provided in 24 V.S.A. chapter 53, may pledge its credit by issuing its negotiable orders, warrants, notes, or bonds for project costs, or its share of project costs, of electric power fac…

§ 610a. Authorization of indebtedness (a) A municipality owning and operating a municipal plant and conducting itself as a utility pursuant to chapter 79 of this title, when authorized as provided in 24 V.S.A. chapter 53, subchapters 1 and 2 or municipal charter, may pledge its c…

§ 611. Liability of the State; immunity No provision of this chapter shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity of the State. The State of Vermont shall not be liable for injury to persons or property or loss of life caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of the…

§ 2501. Town; duties of certain officers As used in this chapter, the word “town” includes an incorporated village or city, and the words “telegraph, telephone, and electric lines or wires” include wires or cables used in conjunction with a cable television system as defined in s…

§ 2502. Lines of wires along highways; wireless telecommunications facilities; broadband facilities construction; restriction Lines of telegraph, telephone, and electric wires, as well as two-way wireless telecommunications facilities and broadband facilities, may, subject to the…

§ 2503. Location by Transportation Board or selectboard; notice When it is inconvenient or inexpedient to erect such wires, agreeably to section 2502 of this title, the Transportation Board, after soliciting the advice of the Agency of Transportation, or the selectboard of the to…

§ 2504. Transportation Board or selectboard may direct and change manner of crossing highway The Transportation Board or the selectboard of a town may direct a line of wires to be placed at a greater height or underground where it crosses a street or highway. If a line of wires i…

§ 2505. Location near residence When a person objects to the erection of a line of wires along a street or highway in front of his or her residence, he or she may apply to the Transportation Board or the selectboard of the town, who, upon notice and hearing, as provided in sectio…

§ 2506. Trees not to be injured; exception; penalty A tree within a street or highway shall not be cut or injured in constructing, maintaining, or repairing a line of wires, without the written consent of the adjoining owner or occupant, unless the Transportation Board or the sel…

§ 2507. Poles A person or corporation owning or operating a line of wires in a city or village shall cause the poles upon which the wires are strung to be kept suitably painted, to the satisfaction of the aldermen of such city or the trustees of such village, if incorporated, and…

§ 2508. Penalty A person or corporation that neglects or refuses, after 20 days’ notice in writing given by the Transportation Board, a selectboard member, alderman, or trustee, to paint such poles or substitute straight poles for crooked ones, as provided in section 2507 of this…

§ 2509. Selectboard’s powers; expense The Agency of Transportation, selectboard, aldermen, or trustees may cause such poles to be painted, and may substitute straight poles in place of crooked ones, and may recover the expense thereof in an action on this statute, in the name of …

§ 2510. Cemeteries The owner or operator of a line of wires shall maintain straight and painted poles upon which such wires are strung, whenever the same pass in front of or along a cemetery, to the satisfaction of the cemetery trustees, or the Transportation Board, or the select…

§ 2511. Damages; appraisal; payment When, in the erection of a line of wires, the owner or occupant of lands or tenements sustains or is likely to sustain damages thereby, the Transportation Board or the selectboard of the town, upon notice to parties interested, shall appraise s…

§ 2512. Appeal; proceedings When either party is dissatisfied with such appraisal of damages, the party may apply to the Superior Court by petition in the same manner as is provided for a person dissatisfied with the compensation for damages for the laying out or altering of high…

§ 2513. Lines along railroad tracks; wireless and other telecommunications facilities (a) A company subject to the jurisdiction of the Public Utility Commission may erect and maintain its telecommunications or electric transmission and distribution lines and facilities along the …

§ 2514. Line to remain property of company A line erected as authorized in section 2513 of this title shall remain the property of such telegraph, telephone, or electric light company, and shall not pass by sale, transfer, or mortgage made by the railroad corporation, of the land…

§ 2515. Erecting new lines When a person or corporation is about to erect a line of telegraph or telephone wires, in and along a highway within a town, in and along which a line of poles has already been erected by another person or corporation for a similar purpose, the Transpor…

§ 2516. Expenses; repairs The Transportation Board or selectboard shall ascertain, as near as may be, the original cost of erecting such line of poles, and shall direct such person or corporation as they may require to use such poles, to pay the owners of the line already erected…