§ 23-4-201 - Electric, gas, telephone, or sewer utilities -- Rate-making authority. - Arkansas Statutes

23-4-201. Electric, gas, telephone, or sewer utilities -- Rate-making authority.

(a) (1) The Arkansas Public Service Commission is vested with the sole and exclusive jurisdiction and authority to determine the rates to be charged for each kind of product or service to be furnished or rendered by electric, gas, telephone, or sewer public utilities in Arkansas.

(2) Cities and towns in this state shall have no authority acting either through their governing bodies or by the initiative of their citizens to assume or exercise any jurisdiction or authority to fix and determine rates charged in Arkansas by electric, gas, or telephone public utilities.

(b) As used in this section, "electric, gas, telephone, or sewer public utilities" includes persons and corporations or their lessees, trustees, and receivers who own or operate, in this state, equipment or facilities for producing, generating, transmitting, delivering, furnishing, or collecting electricity, sewage, or gas for the production of light, heat, or power, or for the collection of sewage or other waste; who convey or transmit messages or communications by telephone or telegraph to, or for, the public for compensation who produce, generate, transmit, deliver, or furnish electricity or gas to any other person or corporation for resale or distribution to, or for, the public for compensation or for operating or maintaining sewer facilities. This term shall not include those utilities owned or operated by municipalities or leased by them to a nonprofit corporation.

(c) The General Assembly determines that the existing procedures whereby rates described in this section may be determined and fixed by the cities and towns of the State of Arkansas acting through their governing bodies or by the initiative of their citizens have resulted in a multiplicity of rate determination proceedings and forums which are costly and inefficient, have created conflicts between the rates charged in different cities and towns for the same services thus establishing unreasonable preferences to certain citizens, and have discriminated unfairly against the citizens of certain cities and towns to the detriment and at the expense of those citizens and the citizens of the entire State of Arkansas.

(d) Nothing in this section shall be construed to change or alter the rates being charged for electric, gas, telephone, or sewer public utility services until changed by order of the commission in the manner provided by law.