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1999 SESSION

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HB 2438 Public service companies; restructuring utility cooperatives.

Introduced by: W. W. Bennett, Jr. | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS PASSED: (all summaries)

Public service companies; restructuring utility cooperatives. Establishes new enabling statutes for distribution electric cooperatives and power supply cooperatives. The legislation makes the following changes concerning distribution cooperatives: (i) introduces several structural revisions including amended membership qualifications and a mechanism for changing the number of classes of directors, (ii) ensures that the regulated activities of cooperatives will remain regulated to the same extent as the same activities of other entities, and that unregulated activities will not be regulated, (iii) clarifies the authority of cooperatives to offer multiple types of utility services, directly or through subsidiaries, and (iv) increases the limit on early pay-outs of capital credits to the next of kin of deceased members from $5,000 to $10,000. The measure makes the following changes concerning power supply cooperatives: (i) authorizes them to engage in sales at retail, (ii) revises their membership qualifications and classes of membership, (iii) clarifies the legality of cooperative independent system operators and regional power exchanges, (iv) authorizes generation cooperatives to issue preferred stock, and (v) emphasizes their ability to recover the costs of investments that have become stranded as a consequence of electric utility industry restructuring. The bill also requires the Virginia State Corporation Commission to establish codes of conduct governing relations between cooperatives and their affiliates, when such affiliates are engaged in business activities that are not regulated utility services. The bill also establishes a private right of action that accrues to any person sustaining any loss resulting from a violation of any provisions of such codes of conduct. The bill also stipulates that neither existing cooperatives nor their subsidiaries may, subject to certain exceptions, engage in the sale or service of HVACR equipment or service, or in the sale or distribution of propane or fuel oil, or equipment using the same, until July 1, 2000.


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