Bill Text: MI HB4702 | 2013-2014 | 97th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Communications; telecommunications; public service commission report regarding pole attachment rates; require. Amends sec. 6g of 1939 PA 3 (MCL 460.6g).
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 8-4)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-05-08 - Printed Bill Filed 05/08/2013 [HB4702 Detail]
Download: Michigan-2013-HB4702-Introduced.html
HOUSE BILL No. 4702
May 7, 2013, Introduced by Reps. Franz, Kurtz, Kelly, Ananich, LaVoy, Brown, Zorn, Outman, Cotter, MacMaster, Price and Stallworth and referred to the Committee on Energy and Technology.
A bill to amend 1939 PA 3, entitled
"An act to provide for the regulation and control of public and
certain private utilities and other services affected with a public
interest within this state; to provide for alternative energy
suppliers; to provide for licensing; to include municipally owned
utilities and other providers of energy under certain provisions of
this act; to create a public service commission and to prescribe
and define its powers and duties; to abolish the Michigan public
utilities commission and to confer the powers and duties vested by
law on the public service commission; to provide for the
continuance, transfer, and completion of certain matters and
proceedings; to abolish automatic adjustment clauses; to prohibit
certain rate increases without notice and hearing; to qualify
residential energy conservation programs permitted under state law
for certain federal exemption; to create a fund; to provide for a
restructuring of the manner in which energy is provided in this
state; to encourage the utilization of resource recovery
facilities; to prohibit certain acts and practices of providers of
energy; to allow for the securitization of stranded costs; to
reduce rates; to provide for appeals; to provide appropriations; to
declare the effect and purpose of this act; to prescribe remedies
and penalties; and to repeal acts and parts of acts,"
by amending section 6g (MCL 460.6g), as added by 1980 PA 470.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 6g. (1) As used in this section:
(a) "Attaching party" means any person, firm, corporation,
partnership, or cooperatively organized association, other than a
utility
or a municipality, which that
seeks to construct
attachments upon, along, under, or across public ways or private
rights of way.
(b) "Attachment" means any wire, cable, facility, or apparatus
for the transmission of writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds,
or other forms of intelligence or for the transmission of
electricity for light, heat, or power, installed by an attaching
party upon any pole or in any duct or conduit owned or controlled,
in whole or in part, by 1 or more utilities.
(c) "Commission" means the Michigan public service commission
created in section 1.
(d) "Telecommunication provider" means that term as defined in
section 102 of the Michigan telecommunications act, 1991 PA 179,
MCL 484.2102.
(e) "2011 pole attachment order" means the order of the
federal communications commission, WC docket no. 07-245, GN docket
no. 09-51, report and order and order on reconsideration, 26 FCC
Rcd 5240 (2011).
(f) (d)
"Utility" means any
public utility subject to the
regulation and control of the commission that owns or controls, or
shares ownership or control of poles, ducts, or conduits used or
useful, in whole or in part, for supporting or enclosing wires,
cables, or other facilities or apparatus for the transmission of
writing, signs, signals, pictures, sounds, or other forms of
intelligence, or for the transmission of electricity for light,
heat, or power.
(2) The commission shall regulate the rates, terms, and
conditions of attachments by attaching parties. The commission, in
regulating the rates, terms, and conditions of attachments by
attaching parties, shall not require a hearing when approving the
rates, terms, and conditions unless the attaching party or utility
petitions the commission for a hearing. The commission shall ensure
that the rates, terms, and conditions are just and reasonable and
shall consider the interests of the attaching parties' customers as
well as the utility and its customers.
(3) An attaching party shall obtain any necessary
authorization before occupying public ways or private rights of way
with its attachment.
(4) Procedures under this section shall be those applicable to
any utility whose rates charged its customers are regulated by the
commission, including the right to appeal a final decision of the
commission to the courts.
(5) The commission shall, no later than October 1, 2013, issue
a report to the standing committees of the house of representatives
and senate that deal with public utilities. The report shall
contain all of the following:
(a) Whether the commission has the statutory authority to
regulate the rates, terms, and conditions by which a
telecommunication provider may attach its facilities upon any pole
or in any duct or conduit owned or controlled, in whole or in part,
by 1 or more utilities, without regard to whether that
telecommunication provider is an attaching party.
(b) Whether the methodologies used by and the resulting
attachment rates set by the commission are the same as those
approved by the federal communications commission in the 2011 pole
attachment order.
(c) Whether the rates, terms, and conditions described in
subdivision (a) are applied in a competitively neutral manner for
all attaching parties, regardless of their regulatory status or
classification.
(d) The total cost per attachment, including annual fees, make
ready costs, audits, and other charges, for each type of attaching
party on poles or in ducts or conduits owned by the 4 largest
utilities in this state.
