Bill: Passed Public Utility Empowerment Act

[multiman155]

Sponsor: Multi Man, MP
Type: Act of Parliament

A
BILL
TO
AMEND THE LOCAL REPRESENTATION ACT, THE GOVERNING STRUCTURE ACT, THE PROPERTY SERVICES ACT, THE INTEGRATED PROPERTY REGULATION ACT, THE ELECTION MAP REQUIREMENTS ACT, AND THE NEW CRIMINAL CODE ACT, AND TO EMPOWER AN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC UTILITY COMPANY THROUGHOUT THE AZALEA ISLES​

Preamble: Public power and pipeline networks can help Minetorio industry grow while reducing pollution. Each district should be able to run a clean local utility, while the Salmonberry Power Company serves the country and the Free District of Salmonberry manages the public sewer.

1. Short Title and Enactment

(a) This Act is called the "Public Utility Empowerment Act".

(b) This Act takes effect immediately upon Royal Assent.

2. Definitions and general principles

(a) The "Free District" means the Free District of Salmonberry, which is District 2.

(b) The "Company" means the Salmonberry Power Company established by the Salmonberry Public Utility Ordinance, using the in-game business name SalmonberryElectric.

(c) A "public utility company" is formed to provide utility services and is wholly or partly owned or controlled by a territorial district, directly or through another entity.

(d) "Utility services" means Minetorio power, pipeline, and pollution control services. These cover electricity and steam for Minetorio machinery; industrial wastewater from that machinery; oil, fresh water, and other fluids used or produced in Minetorio; and transmission or pipeline infrastructure for any of the aforementioned.

(e) A "territorial district" is a district on the electoral map that contains a defined geographic boundary. At-large districts are excluded.

(f) An "industrial plot" is an "I" plot or another plot designated for industrial use by the Ministry of Urban Development.

(g) A "power generation facility" is a plant, generator, or other equipment whose function is to generate electricity or steam. Equipment used only for storage, transmission, or distribution is network infrastructure.

(h) The "public sewer" is the existing public industrial wastewater pipeline in the Azalea Isles, including its public connecting pipes, discharge points, and attached Minetorio equipment used to carry or discharge the wastewater. It includes later public extensions and replacements. Pipes and equipment on private land at the time of enactment remain the property of their respective owners.

(i) A "district utility" is a public utility company owned or controlled by a territorial district other than the Free District.

(j) Any power or privilege granted to the Company or Free District in this Act shall supersede contrary grants in other Acts of Parliament, except where such an act expressly supersedes either this Act, a set of acts that includes this Act, or all other acts of parliament or laws generally.

3. Public Utility Companies

(a) The Free District may establish, own, or control public utility companies, directly or through another entity.

(b) The Company is a public utility with its own legal identity. The Free District must retain full ownership of it. The Company may own property, enter contracts, and start or defend legal proceedings in its own name. Notwithstanding any provisions of other law, liability of the Company is limited to the Company and shall not extend to the Free District, nor to the Azalea Isles as a whole.

(c) Each territorial district may set the structure, management, and policies of its public utility companies by local ordinance or mayoral order. Its Mayor may appoint or remove managers and must use a mayoral order to delegate management or change or end a delegation. All changes to management delegations must be recorded in mayoral orders.

(d) Each other territorial district may establish, own, or control only one public utility company, directly or through another entity.

(e) A district utility may provide utility services only within the district that owns or controls it.

(f) A district utility must offset all Minetorio pollution from equipment it operates or has operated on its behalf with air scrubbers.

(i) The Ministry of Urban Development must order the utility to stop using any equipment whose pollution is not fully offset as required by subsection (f).​

4. Utility Services and Works

(a) The Company may provide utility services and undertake new projects throughout the Azalea Isles, including outside the territorial districts and beyond the projects in its establishing ordinance.

(b) To provide utility services, the Company or a district utility may:

(i) Plan, design, build, obtain, own, and operate utility facilities, pipeline and electrical networks, and equipment, including buying, renting, installing, inspecting, maintaining, repairing, replacing, moving, expanding, and removing them;​

(ii) Generate, buy, store, supply, distribute, and sell electricity and steam, and obtain fuel and materials for the provision of those services;​

(iii) Use foliage and Minetorio equipment to reduce pollution;​

(iv) Provide public pipelines for oil, fresh water, and other fluids used or produced in Minetorio, and buy, store, carry, supply, and sell those fluids, including through the pipeline networks;​

(v) Obtain and use land, equipment, materials, access rights, and other property;​

(vi) Hire staff and contractors, buy goods and services, and make agreements with districts, other public bodies, businesses, and customers; and​

(vii) Carry out other work needed or useful to develop, fund, provide, or improve utility services.​

(c) The Company or a district utility may set and collect fees for supply, use, connections, capacity, installation, maintenance, and other utility services. It may publish service terms and technical standards, approve or deny applications for connections, and suspend or end service under those terms.

(d) The Company or a district utility may receive grants and other funding, keep and invest revenue, set aside reserves, and return surplus funds to the district that owns or controls it. It may borrow or issue bonds with prior written approval from that district's Mayor.

(e) This Act authorizes Company projects without requiring district approval, except as otherwise provided in this Act. This authorization persists notwithstanding any provision under the Local Representation Act, or other law, except for provisions in such acts of parliament that Section 2(j) would require to supersede the provisions in this Act.

(f) The Company has the right to use public land owned by the national government or a territorial district, including public roads and the space below them, for Minetorio power poles or other electrical connections. A district utility has the same right within the district that owns or controls it. These rights are easements on public land.

(g) An entity must obtain the Company's approval before using public land for Minetorio power poles or other electrical connections, unless it is the Company or a district utility working within the district that owns or controls it. The Company may charge a recurring fee for use requiring its approval.

5. Location of Industry and Power Generation

(a) Whenever five or fewer territorial districts are drawn under the electoral map in force, all of the following shall be required:

(i) Every industrial plot in the Azalea Isles, regardless of its owner or operator, must lie wholly within the Free District. The Ministry of Urban Development must keep industrial plots wholly within the Free District when creating, designating, expanding, or maintaining them.​

(ii) Every non-renewable power generation facility owned, leased, or operated by the Company, including a facility operated on its behalf, must be located wholly within the Free District.​

(b) Power poles, steam pipes, sewer pipes, other public pipelines, customer connections, and other distribution or transmission infrastructure owned by the Company may extend and be placed throughout the whole Azalea Isles.

(c) The Free District may grant or license any public land within its borders to the Company for the Company's use as utility facilities, pipeline and electrical networks, and equipment.

(i) Such grants or licenses may order that certain public land within the Free District's borders be regioned as industrial plots, where such plots shall be owned upon their creation by the Company. The Ministry of Urban Development shall, upon the Mayor's request, permit the regioning of such plots.​

(ii) Notwithstanding provisions of any other law, the Company may neither be evicted from, ordered to sell, nor ordered to transfer land owned by the Company when such land falls within the borders of the Free District, except by the free and willful consent of the Mayor.​

6. Transfer of the Public Sewer

(a) When this Act takes effect, the Free District takes ownership and control of the entire public sewer across the Azalea Isles and becomes responsible for operating, maintaining, repairing, replacing, and improving it. Later public extensions and replacements become the Free District's property as they are built or acquired.

(b) The Free District is granted the right to use underground land underneath public roads and public land for purposes reasonably related to the public sewer. The Free District may use those rights through its staff or appointed utility company.

(c) Existing lawful customer connections and agreements continue.

(d) The Company may carry and dispose of industrial wastewater through public pipelines and public drains.

7. Sewer Management

(a) The Mayor may, for the Free District, delegate all or part of public sewer management to a public utility company the Free District owns or controls, including the Company. This may cover operation, maintenance, repairs, expansion, connection applications, service standards, fees, payment collection, and contracts.

(b) The Mayor must use a mayoral order to make, change, or end a delegation and may do so at any time. The order must name the company, set out its work and powers, and state when it takes effect. The Free District remains responsible for the sewer.

(c) The Free District or its appointed utility company may set and publish sewer connection and usage fees, material requirements, connection limits, and technical and service conditions. These conditions may cover accepting or refusing connections and suspending or ending service.

(d) The existing $50 installation fee, requirements that applicants supply materials, and limits of two connections per plot for the public sewer shall apply until new conditions are published by the Mayor or the designated public utility company. At that point, those conditions shall govern.

(e) Sewer fees and receipts belong to the Free District. When all or part of public sewer management is delegated to a public utility company pursuant to paragraph (a), the Free District may allow its appointed utility company to collect, keep, and use them for sewer and other utility services and wages.

8. Amendments

(a) The Local Representation Act is amended as follows:

(i) After section 3(j)(i), insert:​

(ii) The Public Utility Empowerment Act authorizes projects carried out by or on behalf of the Salmonberry Power Company in place of district approval under paragraph (j).​

(ii) After section 3(r)(i), insert:​

(ii) Districts may establish, own, or control public utility companies under section 3 of the Public Utility Empowerment Act.​

(iii) At the end of section 9(a), add:​

The Public Utility Empowerment Act takes priority wherever its rules conflict with this Act.​

(b) In section 6(a)(i) of the Governing Structure Act, replace:

(i) Managing and creating government land, buildings, transport and infrastructure.​

with:

(i) Managing and creating government land, buildings, transport, and infrastructure. Ownership and management of the assets assigned under the Public Utility Empowerment Act belong to the Free District of Salmonberry or the Salmonberry Power Company, as that Act or subsequent action provides.​

(c) Replace section 4 of the Property Services Act:

4. Industrial Waste Pipeline Connection

(a) An industrial property’s owner may apply for the installation of a waste pipeline connection.

(i) A flat fee of $50 per connection installation will apply.​

(ii) The applicant must provide all required materials.​

(iii) A plot may have no more than 2 connections.​

(iv) An application can be denied for any reason.​

with:

4. Public Sewer Connections

(a) A property owner may apply to the Free District of Salmonberry, or its appointed utility company, for a public sewer connection to carry industrial wastewater from Minetorio machinery.

(b) The Free District or its appointed utility company administers this section under section 7 of the Public Utility Empowerment Act.​

(d) The Integrated Property Regulation Act is amended as follows:

(i) After section 6(c), insert:​

(d) The Ministry must follow the location rules in section 5 of the Public Utility Empowerment Act when creating, designating, or recording industrial plots.

(ii) After section 16(f), insert:​

(g) The Salmonberry Power Company may hold any number of plots for utility services, exempt from the ownership limits in sections 4(a) to 4(c). These plots are counted separately from the personal plots of District officials and Company managers and employees.

(e) The Election Map Requirements Act is amended as follows:

(i) After Section 2(c), insert:​

(d) For a proposed map with five or fewer territorial districts, the Ministry of State must include District 2 and draw its boundaries so that every industrial plot lies wholly within it. Parliament may approve the map only if it meets this requirement. “Territorial district” and “industrial plot” have the meanings given in the Public Utility Empowerment Act.​

(f) Section 11(f)(iv) of the New Criminal Code Act is amended as follows:

(iv) A person commits an offense if the person:

(1) as a Ministry of State employee, intentionally draws district boundaries in favor of a political party or group.; and​

(2) such boundaries are neither required nor reasonably tailored to ensure compliance with the spirit or text of the Election Map Requirements Act nor any other Act of Parliament that would purport to govern the drawing of district boundaries.​

Enactment: This Act takes effect immediately upon Royal Assent.