Summary of HB10-1187

Sponsors: Balmer/Bacon

This bill establishes when a gas and electric public utility (public utility) may recover from a customer certain costs to remediate environmental contamination incurred when providing service to that customer. "Gas and electric public utility" is defined as an investor-owned public utility that is the sole available provider of either gas or electric services to a Colorado customer in the area where the customer's property is located.
For commercial customers requesting new gas or electric service or relocation of existing utility facilities:

• The customer may perform the necessary work in which case the public utility may neither charge the customer nor retain any moneys paid to the public utility by the customer for such work;
• The customer can identify a mutually acceptable alternative alignment on which to install or relocate the facilities, if the customer can demonstrate, through a phase I or phase II site assessment, that environmental contamination is not reasonably likely to be present on the alternative alignment; or
• The customer can reimburse the public utility for managing and disposing of the environmental contamination; except that, if the nature or extent of environmental contamination warrants, the public utility may require the customer to perform that work.

If a dispute about the presence, nature, or extent of environmental contamination arises, the public utility must provide reasonable evidence of the contamination. The public utilities commission must adopt rules regarding procedures to hear such disputes on an expedited basis.
The public utilities commission may establish a uniform fee paid by all of the public utility's customers to recover the actual costs of addressing environmental contamination of public rights-of-way and other locations for which recovery of such costs is not otherwise authorized.

Status:

01/22/2010 Introduced In House - Assigned to Transportation & Energy
04/20/2010 House Committee on Transportation & Energy Committee Vote - Tie Vote

Fiscal Notes

To View Entire Bill >