§ 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.).)