§ 2801. General duties; rates; powers of Public Utility Commission
(a) A person, association, company, or corporation engaged in the business of generating
in this State electric energy or transmitting in this State electric energy generated
from outside the State and distributing it for heating, lighting, or power purposes
or for any other public use, if and when requested so to do, at all reasonable times
shall sell and distribute the same to any and all persons, companies, associations,
cooperatives, and corporations, municipal, public, or private, that desire to use
the same within this State for either or any of such purposes. Such sale and distribution
shall be subject, however, to such reasonable limitations as to the amount of energy
to be furnished a purchaser, and shall in no case be beyond what is reasonably necessary
and also as to the distance from the generating plant or from its lines of transmission
that such energy shall be delivered, as the Public Utility Commission may determine
after hearing had upon due notice thereof given to the parties interested. The charges
made by a person, company, or corporation for electric energy so sold and distributed,
shall be reasonable. In case the parties do not agree as to the amount of such charges,
the Public Utility Commission, upon hearing had after proper notice to both, shall
fix and determine the same, and may, upon like notice and hearing, from time to time,
change them; and, fixing and determining such charges, the amount sold and the distance
from the generating plant or lines of transmission to the place of delivery, and such
other conditions as affect the cost of production, transmission, and value shall be
considered.
(b) Such charges made by such person, association, company, or corporation for such electric
energy shall not include the cost of political activity or political advertising incurred
or paid by such person, association, company, or corporation.
(c) For the purposes of this section:
(1) “Activity” means speaking engagements, consultations, and appearances, and all things
done or matters performed in preparation for or in connection with such things.
(2) “Political activity” means activity within the definition of “legislative counsel”
or “legislative agent” as those terms are defined by 2 V.S.A. § 251, similar activity before or in connection with other political forums and similar
or like activities engaged in for the purpose of influencing public opinion with respect
to the election or appointment of public officials, referenda, legislation, or ordinances,
or for the purpose of influencing the decisions of public officials, but shall not
include such expenditures that are directly related to appearances before regulatory
or other governmental bodies in connection with the reporting and defending the existing
or proposed rates and operations of such person, association, company, or corporation.
(3) “Advertising” means the commercial use of any media including newspaper and all other
forms of print, radio, and television, in order to transmit a message to a substantial
number of members of the public or customers of a utility.
(4) “Political advertising” means advertising for the purpose of influencing public opinion
with respect to any legislative, executive, administrative, or electoral decision. (Amended 1959, No. 329 (Adj. Sess.), § 39(b), eff. March 1, 1961; 1961, No. 180, § 4; 1967, No. 66, § 1; 1977, No. 121 (Adj. Sess.).)