§24-2-11a Requirement for certificate of public convenience and necessity before beginning construction of high voltage transmission line; contents of application; notice; hearing; criteria for granti
§24-2-11a. Requirement for certificate of public convenience and necessity before beginning construction of high voltage transmission line; contents of application; notice; hearing; criteria for granting or denying certificate; regulations.
(a) No public utility, person or corporation shall begin construction of a high voltage transmission line of two hundred thousand volts or over, which line is not an ordinary extension of an existing system in the usual course of business as defined by the public service commission, unless and until it or he shall have obtained from the public service commission a certificate of public convenience and necessity approving the construction and proposed location of such transmission line.
(b) The application for such certificate shall be in such form as the commission may prescribe and shall contain:
(1) A description, in such detail as the commission may prescribe, of the location and type of line facilities which the applicant proposes to construct;
(2) A statement justifying the need for such facilities;
(3) A statement of the environmental impact of such line facilities; and
(4) Such other information as the applicant may deem relevant or the commission may require.
(c) Upon the filing of such application, the applicant shall publish, in such form as the commission shall direct, as a Class II legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code, the publication area for such publication to be each county in which any portion of the proposed transmission line is to be constructed, a notice of the filing of such application and that the commission may approve the same unless within fifteen days after completion of publication a written request for a hearing thereon has been received by the commission from a person or persons alleging that the proposed transmission line or its location is against the public interest. If such request be timely received, the commission shall set the matter for hearing on a date within sixty days from completion of said publication, and shall require the applicant to publish notice of the time and place of hearing in the same manner as is herein required for the publication of notice of the filing of the application.
(d) Within sixty days after the filing of said application, or if hearing shall be held thereon, within ninety days after final submission on oral argument or brief, the commission may approve the application if it shall find and determine that the proposed transmission line:
(1) Will economically, adequately and reliably contribute to meeting the present and anticipated requirements for electric power of the customers served by the applicant or is necessary and desirable for present and anticipated reliability of service for electric power for its service area or region; and
(2) Will result in an acceptable balance between reasonable power needs and reasonable environmental factors.
(e) The commission may impose conditions upon its approval of the application, or modify the applicant's proposal, to achieve an acceptable balance between reasonable power needs and reasonable environmental factors.
(f) The provisions of this section shall not apply to the construction of line facilities which will be part of a transmission line for which any right-of-way has been acquired prior to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred seventy-three.
(g) The commission shall prescribe such rules and regulations as it may deem proper for the administration and enforcement of the provisions of this section, which rules and regulations shall be promulgated in accordance with the applicable provisions of chapter twenty-nine-a of this code as if the same were set forth herein in extenso.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of the law to the contrary, the commission shall determine, in its discretion, whichtransmission line or lines crossing above the Ohio River must be marked to be made visible to airborne traffic flying in any area where such lines exist, and shall, within one hundred twenty days of the effective date of this section, promulgate rules requiring that all public utilities or persons who install or maintain such lines make the necessary markings.