SENATE BILL NO. 446
INTRODUCED BY B. DEPRATU, SLITER, BRUEGGEMAN, CURTISS, DAVIES, EKEGREN, ELLIS, FISHER, GRIMES, HEDGES, JACKSON, KASTEN, KEENAN, KITZENBERG, LAIBLE, LAWSON, MOHL, SHOCKLEY, STORY, SOMERVILLE, TASH, F. THOMAS, WAITSCHIES, WALTERS
A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION TO REVIEW AN AGREEMENT BY A RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE TO PURCHASE OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE A PUBLIC UTILITY'S ELECTRIC SERVICE FACILITIES AND SERVICE TERRITORY; EXEMPTING RURAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES THAT PURCHASE OR OTHERWISE ACQUIRE A PUBLIC UTILITY'S ELECTRIC SERVICE FACILITIES AND SERVICE TERRITORY FROM CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF THE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE ENABLING LAWS; AMENDING SECTIONS 35-18-102, 35-18-105, AND 35-18-106, MCA; AND PROVIDING AN IMMEDIATE EFFECTIVE DATE."
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:
NEW SECTION. Section 1. Rural electric cooperative purchase of investor-owned utility property -- exemption. (1) The commission shall review an agreement by a rural electric cooperative organized under Title 35, chapter 18, to purchase or otherwise acquire a public utility's electric service facilities and service territory.
(2) If the commission determines after its review in subsection (1) that the rural electric cooperative's purchase or acquisition of a public utility's electric service facilities and service territory is in the public interest, the rural electric cooperative is exempt from 35-18-102(6), 35-18-105, or 35-18-106 to the extent necessary for the rural cooperative to provide service to customers in the acquired service territory.
(3) THE COMMISSION MAY ENFORCE ALL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE PARTIES UPON WHICH THE COMMISSION RELIED IN APPROVING THE PURCHASE AND MAY ENFORCE ALL CONDITIONS PLACED UPON THE PURCHASE BY THE COMMISSION IN ITS ORDER DETERMINING THAT THE PURCHASE IS IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.
(3)(4) This section does not give the commission the authority to regulate a rural electric
cooperative in any manner other than review of the agreement AS PROVIDED in subsection
SUBSECTIONS (1) AND (3).
Section 2. Section 35-18-102, MCA, is amended to read:
"35-18-102. Definitions. (1) Corporations organized under this chapter and corporations
which become subject to this chapter in the manner hereinafter provided are hereinafter referred
to as "cooperatives".
(2) In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Broadband" means transmission facilities capable of handling frequencies greater than those required for high grade voice communication (higher than 4 kilohertz).
(a)(2) "Cable television system" means a system that receives and amplifies the signals
broadcast by one or more television stations and redistributes the signals to subscribing members
of the public for a fixed or periodic fee by wire, cable, microwave, or other means, whether such
the means are owned or leased.
(b) "Broadband" means transmission facilities capable of handling frequencies greater than
those required for high grade voice communication (higher than 4 kilohertz).
(3) "Cooperative" means a corporation organized under this chapter or a corporation that becomes subject to the provisions of this chapter.
(c)(4) "Member" means each incorporator of a cooperative and each person admitted to and
retaining membership therein and shall include a husband and wife in a cooperative as provided
by the articles of incorporation or bylaws of the cooperative including persons admitted to joint
membership.
(d)(5) "Person" includes any natural person, firm, association, corporation, business trust,
partnership, federal agency, state or political subdivision or an agency thereof of a state or
political subdivision, or any body politic other organization or group of persons.
(e)(6) "Rural area", except as provided in [section 1], as applied to all corporations organized
under the provisions of 35-18-105(1), means:
(a) any an area not included within the boundaries of any an incorporated or unincorporated
city, town, village, or borough having a population in excess of 3,500 persons on March 17,
1939, or subsequent thereto, to March 17, 1939; and
(b) every an incorporated municipality in which 95% or more of the premises are served by an
electric cooperative on February 1, 1971."
Section 3. Section 35-18-105, MCA, is amended to read:
"35-18-105. Permissible purposes for incorporation. Cooperative nonprofit membership corporations may be organized under this chapter:
(1) except as provided in [section 1], for the purpose of supplying electric energy and promoting and extending the use of electric energy in rural areas, as provided in this chapter;
(2) for the purposes of making generally available adequate telephone service, cable
television service, or broadband facilities through the improvement and expansion of existing
telephone, cable television, or broadband facilities and the construction and operation of
additional facilities as are required to assure ensure the availability of service to the widest
practicable number of users of telephone service, cable television service, or broadband facilities;
and
(3) for purposes allowable under federal authorization, including rural economic development activities."
Section 4. Section 35-18-106, MCA, is amended to read:
"35-18-106. Powers of cooperatives. A cooperative has power to may:
(1) sue and be sued in its corporate name;
(2) have perpetual existence;
(3) adopt a corporate seal and alter the same at pleasure corporate seal;
(4) become a member in one or more other cooperatives or corporations or to own stock in
other cooperatives or corporations;
(5) construct, purchase, take, receive, lease as lessee, or otherwise acquire and to own, hold,
use, equip, maintain, and operate and sell, assign, transfer, convey, exchange, lease as lessor,
mortgage, pledge, or otherwise dispose of or encumber electric transmission and distribution
lines or systems, electric generating plants, electric refrigeration plants, telephone lines, facilities
or systems (but not telegraph or radio broadcasting services or facilities) as defined by law, lands
land, buildings, structures, dams, plants and equipment, and all kinds or classes of real or
personal property, which that may be considered necessary, convenient, or appropriate to
accomplish the purpose for which the cooperative is organized;
(6) purchase or otherwise acquire and own, hold, use, and exercise and sell, assign, transfer, convey, mortgage, pledge, hypothecate, or otherwise dispose of or encumber franchises, rights, privileges, licenses, rights-of-way, and easements;
(7) borrow money and otherwise contract indebtedness and issue notes, bonds, and other
evidences of indebtedness debt and secure the payment of indebtedness by mortgage, pledge,
deed of trust, or any other encumbrance upon all of its then owned then-owned or after-acquired
real or personal property, assets, franchises, revenues, or income;
(8) construct, maintain, and operate electric transmission and distribution lines or telephone,
cable television, or broadband lines, facilities, or systems along, upon, under, and across all
public thoroughfares, including without limitation all roads, highways, streets, alleys, bridges,
and causeways and upon, under, and across all publicly owned lands, subject, however, to the
same requirements in respect of the use of the thoroughfares and lands as that are imposed by the
respective authorities having jurisdiction of them upon corporations constructing or operating
electric transmission and distribution lines or systems or telephone lines, facilities, or systems;
(9) exercise the power of eminent domain in the manner provided by the laws of this state for the exercise of that power by corporations constructing or operating electric transmission and distribution lines or systems or telephone lines, facilities, or systems;
(10) conduct its business and exercise all of its powers within or without outside this state;
(11) adopt, amend, and repeal bylaws;
(12) in the case of corporations organized under the provisions of 35-18-105(1) and except as provided in [section 1]:
(a) generate, manufacture, purchase, acquire, accumulate, and transmit electric energy and distribute, sell, supply, and dispose of electric energy in rural areas to its members, to governmental agencies and political subdivisions, and to other persons not in excess of 10% of the number of its members;
(b) make loans to persons a loan to a person to whom electric energy is or will be supplied by
the cooperative for the purpose of and otherwise to assist those persons that person in wiring their
the person's premises and installing in their the person's premises electrical and plumbing
fixtures, appliances, apparatus, and equipment of all kinds and character and, in connection with
electrical and plumbing fixtures, purchase, acquire, lease, sell, distribute, install, and repair the
electrical and plumbing fixtures, appliances, apparatus, and equipment and accept or otherwise
acquire and sell, assign, transfer, endorse, pledge, hypothecate, and otherwise dispose of notes,
bonds, and other evidences of indebtedness debt and all types of security for electrical and
plumbing fixtures;
(c) make loans to persons a loan to a person to whom electric energy is or will be supplied by
the cooperatives for the purpose of and otherwise to assist those persons that person in
constructing, maintaining, and operating electric refrigeration plants;
(13) in the case of corporations organized under the provisions of 35-18-105(2):
(a) improve and expand existing telephone lines, facilities, and systems and construct,
acquire, operate, and furnish additional telephone lines, facilities, and systems as are required to
assure ensure the availability of adequate telephone service to the widest practicable number of
users of telephone service;
(b) make loans to persons a loan to a person to whom telephone service is or will be supplied
by the cooperative for the purpose of and otherwise to assist those persons that person in wiring
their the person's premises for telephone service and installing in their the person's premises
telephone fixtures, appliances, apparatus, and equipment of all kinds and character and, in
connection with telephone fixtures, purchase, acquire, lease, sell, distribute, install, and repair the
telephone fixtures, appliances, apparatus, and equipment and accept or otherwise acquire and sell,
assign, transfer, endorse, pledge, hypothecate, and otherwise dispose of notes, bonds, and other
evidences of indebtedness debt and all types of security for telephone fixtures;
(14) do and perform all other acts and things and have and exercise all other powers that may
be necessary, convenient, or appropriate to accomplish the purpose for which the cooperative is
organized or authorized under federal law."
NEW SECTION. Section 5. Codification instruction. [Section 1] is intended to be codified as an integral part of Title 69, chapter 3, part 1, and the provisions of Title 69, chapter 3, part 1, apply to [section 1].
NEW SECTION. Section 6. Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.
- END -
Latest Version of SB 446 (SB0446.02)
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