SECTIONS 201-248 - California Statutes

PUBLIC UTILITIES CODE

SECTION 201-248

201. This part may be cited as the "Public Utilities Act."

202. Neither this part nor any provision thereof, except when
specifically so stated, shall apply to commerce with foreign nations
or to interstate commerce, except insofar as such application is
permitted under the Constitution and laws of the United States; but
with reference to passenger stage corporations operating in
interstate commerce between any point within this State and any point
in any other state or in any foreign nation, the commission may
prescribe such reasonable, uniform and nondiscriminatory rules in the
interest and aid of public health, security, convenience, and
general welfare as, in its opinion, are required by public
convenience and necessity.

203. Unless the context otherwise requires, the definitions and
general provisions set forth in this chapter govern the construction
of this part.

204. "Corporation" includes a corporation, a company, an
association, and a joint stock association.

205. "Person" includes an individual, a firm, and a copartnership.

206. As used in this chapter "person" and "corporation" include the
lessees, trustees, receivers or trustees appointed by any court
whatsoever, of the person or corporation.

207. "Public or any portion thereof" means the public generally, or
any limited portion of the public, including a person, private
corporation, municipality, or other political subdivision of the
State, for which the service is performed or to which the commodity
is delivered.

208. "Transportation of persons" includes every service in
connection with or incidental to the safety, comfort, or convenience
of the person transported and the receipt, carriage, and delivery of
such person and his baggage.

209. "Transportation of property" includes every service in
connection with or incidental to the transportation of property,
including in particular its receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer,
switching, carriage, ventilation, refrigeration, icing, dunnage,
storage, and handling, and the transmission of credit by express
corporations.

210. "Rates" includes rates, fares, tolls, rentals, and charges,
unless the context indicates otherwise.

211. "Common carrier" means every person and corporation providing
transportation for compensation to or for the public or any portion
thereof, except as otherwise provided in this part.
"Common carrier" includes:
(a) Every railroad corporation; street railroad corporation;
dispatch, sleeping car, dining car, drawing-room car, freight,
freightline, refrigerator, oil, stock, fruit, car-loaning,
car-renting, car-loading, and every other car corporation or person
operating for compensation within this state.
(b) Every corporation or person, owning, controlling, operating,
or managing any vessel used in the transportation of persons or
property for compensation between points upon the inland waters of
this state or upon the high seas between points within this state,
except as provided in Section 212. "Inland waters" as used in this
section includes all navigable waters within this state other than
the high seas.
(c) Every "passenger stage corporation" operating within this
state.

212. "Common carrier" shall not include:
(a) Any corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or
managing any vessel, by reason of the furnishing of water
transportation service between points upon the inland waters of this
state or upon the high seas between points within this state for
affiliated or parent or subsidiary companies or for the products of
other corporations or persons engaged in the same industry, if the
water transportation service is furnished in tank vessels or barges
specially constructed to hold liquids or fluids in bulk and if the
service is not furnished to others not engaged in the same industry.
(b) Any corporation or person who operates any vessel for the
transportation of persons for compensation, between points in this
state if one terminus of every trip operated by the corporation or
person is within the boundaries of a United States military
reservation and is performed under a contract with an agency of the
federal government which specifies the terms of service to be
provided; and provided that the corporation or person does not
perform any service between termini within this state which are
outside of a United States military reservation. For the purposes of
this subdivision, the conditions of this exemption shall be reviewed
by the Public Utilities Commission annually as of the first day of
January of each year.
(c) Any corporation or person owning, controlling, operating, or
managing any recreational conveyance such as a ski lift, ski tow,
J-bar, T-bar, chair lift, aerial tramway, or other device or
equipment used primarily while participating in winter sports
activities.
(d) Any corporation or person furnishing or otherwise providing
transportation by horse, mule, or other equine animal for
entertainment or recreational purposes.
(e) Any motor carrier of property, as defined in Section 34601 of
the Vehicle Code.

214.5. With respect to a motor vehicle used in the transportation
of passengers for compensation by a passenger stage corporation,
"owner" means the corporation or person who is registered with the
Department of Motor Vehicles as the owner of the vehicle, or who has
a legal right to possession of the vehicle pursuant to a lease or
rental agreement.

215. "Between fixed termini or over a regular route" means the
termini or route between which, or over which any passenger stage
corporation usually or ordinarily operates any passenger stage, even
though there may be departures from the termini or route, whether
these departures are periodic or irregular.

215.6. "Food products for human consumption" means articles used
for human food or drink and articles used as components of any of
those articles.

215.7. "Nonfood product" means any article, material, substance, or
product which is not food.

216. (a) "Public utility" includes every common carrier, toll
bridge corporation, pipeline corporation, gas corporation, electrical
corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water
corporation, sewer system corporation, and heat corporation, where
the service is performed for, or the commodity is delivered to, the
public or any portion thereof.
(b) Whenever any common carrier, toll bridge corporation, pipeline
corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone
corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, sewer system
corporation, or heat corporation performs a service for, or delivers
a commodity to, the public or any portion thereof for which any
compensation or payment whatsoever is received, that common carrier,
toll bridge corporation, pipeline corporation, gas corporation,
electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation,
water corporation, sewer system corporation, or heat corporation, is
a public utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and
regulation of the commission and the provisions of this part.
(c) When any person or corporation performs any service for, or
delivers any commodity to, any person, private corporation,
municipality, or other political subdivision of the state, that in
turn either directly or indirectly, mediately or immediately,
performs that service for, or delivers that commodity to, the public
or any portion thereof, that person or corporation is a public
utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and regulation of the
commission and the provisions of this part.
(d) Ownership or operation of a facility that employs cogeneration
technology or produces power from other than a conventional power
source or the ownership or operation of a facility which employs
landfill gas technology does not make a corporation or person a
public utility within the meaning of this section solely because of
the ownership or operation of that facility.
(e) Any corporation or person engaged directly or indirectly in
developing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or
selling any form of heat derived from geothermal or solar resources
or from cogeneration technology to any privately owned or publicly
owned public utility, or to the public or any portion thereof, is not
a public utility within the meaning of this section solely by reason
of engaging in any of those activities.
(f) The ownership or operation of a facility that sells compressed
natural gas at retail to the public for use only as a motor vehicle
fuel, and the selling of compressed natural gas at retail from that
facility to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, does not
make the corporation or person a public utility within the meaning
of this section solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale.
(g) Ownership or operation of a facility that is an exempt
wholesale generator, as defined in the Public Utility Holding Company
Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 16451(6)), does not make a corporation
or person a public utility within the meaning of this section, solely
due to the ownership or operation of that facility.
(h) The ownership, control, operation, or management of an
electric plant used for direct transactions or participation directly
or indirectly in direct transactions, as permitted by subdivision
(b) of Section 365, sales into a market established and operated by
the Independent System Operator or any other wholesale electricity
market, or the use or sale as permitted under subdivisions (b) to
(d), inclusive, of Section 218, shall not make a corporation or
person a public utility within the meaning of this section solely
because of that ownership, participation, or sale.

216.2. Notwithstanding Section 216, "public utility" does not
include a motor carrier of property.

216.4. "Cable television corporation" shall mean any corporation or
firm which transmits television programs by cable to subscribers for
a fee.

216.6. "Cogeneration" means the sequential use of energy for the
production of electrical and useful thermal energy. The sequence can
be thermal use followed by power production or the reverse, subject
to the following standards:
(a) At least 5 percent of the facility's total annual energy
output shall be in the form of useful thermal energy.
(b) Where useful thermal energy follows power production, the
useful annual power output plus one-half the useful annual thermal
energy output equals not less than 42.5 percent of any natural gas
and oil energy input.

216.8. "Commercial mobile radio service" means "commercial mobile
service," as defined in subsection (d) of Section 332 of Title 47 of
the United States Code and as further specified by the Federal
Communications Commission in Parts 20, 22, 24, and 25 of Title 47 of
the Code of Federal Regulations, and includes "mobile data service,"
"mobile paging service," "mobile satellite telephone service," and
"mobile telephony service," as those terms are defined in Section
224.4.

217. "Electric plant" includes all real estate, fixtures and
personal property owned, controlled, operated, or managed in
connection with or to facilitate the production, generation,
transmission, delivery, or furnishing of electricity for light, heat,
or power, and all conduits, ducts, or other devices, materials,
apparatus, or property for containing, holding, or carrying
conductors used or to be used for the transmission of electricity for
light, heat, or power.

218. (a) "Electrical corporation" includes every corporation or
person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any electric plant
for compensation within this state, except where electricity is
generated on or distributed by the producer through private property
solely for its own use or the use of its tenants and not for sale or
transmission to others.
(b) "Electrical corporation" does not include a corporation or
person employing cogeneration technology or producing power from
other than a conventional power source for the generation of
electricity solely for any one or more of the following purposes:
(1) Its own use or the use of its tenants.
(2) The use of or sale to not more than two other corporations or
persons solely for use on the real property on which the electricity
is generated or on real property immediately adjacent thereto, unless
there is an intervening public street constituting the boundary
between the real property on which the electricity is generated and
the immediately adjacent property and one or more of the following
applies:
(A) The real property on which the electricity is generated and
the immediately adjacent real property is not under common ownership
or control, or that common ownership or control was gained solely for
purposes of sale of the electricity so generated and not for other
business purposes.
(B) The useful thermal output of the facility generating the
electricity is not used on the immediately adjacent property for
petroleum production or refining.
(C) The electricity furnished to the immediately adjacent property
is not utilized by a subsidiary or affiliate of the corporation or
person generating the electricity.
(3) Sale or transmission to an electrical corporation or state or
local public agency, but not for sale or transmission to others,
unless the corporation or person is otherwise an electrical
corporation.
(c) "Electrical corporation" does not include a corporation or
person employing landfill gas technology for the generation of
electricity for any one or more of the following purposes:
(1) Its own use or the use of not more than two of its tenants
located on the real property on which the electricity is generated.
(2) The use of or sale to not more than two other corporations or
persons solely for use on the real property on which the electricity
is generated.
(3) Sale or transmission to an electrical corporation or state or
local public agency.
(d) "Electrical corporation" does not include a corporation or
person employing digester gas technology for the generation of
electricity for any one or more of the following purposes:
(1) Its own use or the use of not more than two of its tenants
located on the real property on which the electricity is generated.
(2) The use of or sale to not more than two other corporations or
persons solely for use on the real property on which the electricity
is generated.
(3) Sale or transmission to an electrical corporation or state or
local public agency, if the sale or transmission of the electricity
service to a retail customer is provided through the transmission
system of the existing local publicly owned electric utility or
electrical corporation of that retail customer.
(e) "Electrical corporation" does not include an independent solar
energy producer, as defined in Article 3 (commencing with Section
2868) of Chapter 9 of Part 2.
(f) The amendments made to this section at the 1987 portion of the
1987-88 Regular Session of the Legislature do not apply to any
corporation or person employing cogeneration technology or producing
power from other than a conventional power source for the generation
of electricity that physically produced electricity prior to January
1, 1989, and furnished that electricity to immediately adjacent real
property for use thereon prior to January 1, 1989.

218.3. (a) "Electric service provider" means an entity that offers
electrical service to customers within the service territory of an
electrical corporation and includes the unregulated affiliates and
subsidiaries of an electrical corporation.
(b) "Electric service provider" does not include an entity that
offers electrical service solely to service customer load consistent
with subdivision (b) of Section 218, and does not include an
electrical corporation or a public agency that offers electrical
service to residential and small commercial customers within its
jurisdiction, or within the service territory of a local publicly
owned electric utility.
(c) "Electric service provider" does not include an independent
solar energy producer, as defined in Article 3 (commencing with
Section 2868) of Chapter 9 of Part 2.

218.5. (a) The following terms have the following meanings:
(1) "Exempt wholesale generator" has the same meaning as defined
in the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. Sec.
16451(6)).
(2) "Qualifying small power producer," "small power production
facility," and "qualifying small power production facility" have the
same meanings as found in Section 796 of Title 16 of the United
States Code and the regulations enacted pursuant thereto.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a qualifying small
power producer owning or operating a small power production facility
is not a public utility subject to the general jurisdiction of the
commission solely because of the ownership or operation of the
facility.
(c) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an exempt
wholesale generator is not a public utility subject to the general
jurisdiction of the commission solely due to the ownership or
operation of the facility.

219. "Express corporation" includes every corporation or person
engaged in or transacting the business of transporting any freight,
merchandise, or other property for compensation on the line of any
common carrier or stage or auto stage line within this State.

220. "Freight forwarder" means any corporation or person who for
compensation undertakes the collection and shipment of property of
others, and as consignor or otherwise ships or arranges to ship the
property via the line of any common carrier at the tariff rates of
such carrier, or who receives such property as consignee thereof.
This section shall not apply to any agricultural or horticultural
cooperative organization operating under and by virtue of the laws of
this or any other state or the District of Columbia or under federal
statute in the performance of its duties for its members, or the
agents, individual or corporate, of such organization in the
performance of their duties as agents.
This section shall not apply to the operation of a shipper, or a
group or association of shippers, in consolidating or distributing
freight for themselves or for the members thereof, on a nonprofit
basis, for the purpose of securing the benefits of carload,
truckload, or other volume rates, or to the operations of a shippers'
agent, in consolidating or distributing pool cars, whose services
and responsibilities to shippers in connection with such operations
are confined to the terminal area in which such operations are
performed.

221. "Gas plant" includes all real estate, fixtures, and personal
property, owned, controlled, operated, or managed in connection with
or to facilitate the production, generation, transmission, delivery,
underground storage, or furnishing of gas, natural or manufactured,
except propane, for light, heat, or power.

222. "Gas corporation" includes every corporation or person owning,
controlling, operating, or managing any gas plant for compensation
within this state, except where gas is made or produced on and
distributed by the maker or producer through private property alone
solely for his own use or the use of his tenants and not for sale to
others.
"Gas corporation" shall not include a corporation or person
employing landfill gas technology for the production of gas for its
own use or the use of its tenants or for sale to a gas corporation or
state or local public agency, except that if the gas produced is of
such insufficient quality or heating value that it is unacceptable
for introduction into the line, plant, or system of a gas corporation
or state or local public agency, the person or corporation employing
landfill gas technology may without becoming a gas corporation for
purposes of this part sell the gas so produced to not more than four
other corporations or persons.

223. "Heating plant" includes all real estate, fixtures, and
personal property owned, controlled, operated, or managed in
connection with or to facilitate the production, generation,
transmission, delivery or furnishing of heat for domestic, business,
industrial, or public use.

224. "Heat corporation" includes every corporation or person
owning, controlling, operating, or managing any heating plant for
compensation within this state, except where heat is generated on or
distributed by the producer through private property alone solely for
his own use or the use of his tenants and not for sale to others.
"Heat corporation" shall not include a corporation or person
employing landfill gas technology for the production or generation of
heat for its own use or the use of its tenants or for sale to a heat
corporation or state or local public agency.

224.2. "Landfill gas technology" means the process of extraction of
gas or gaseous compounds from sanitary landfill areas which gas or
compound was generated as a byproduct of the materials composing the
landfill. For purposes of this division, real estate, fixtures, and
personal property including gas extraction wells, engines and
compressors for gas removal or storage, gas cleaning or rectifying
equipment, equipment for the generation or production of steam,
electricity, heat, or other form of energy through the use of
landfill gas, and facilities for the transmission or distribution of
landfill gas or other form of energy generated or produced therefrom
shall not be considered an electrical, gas, or heat plant or
pipeline.

224.3. "Local publicly owned electric utility" means a municipality
or municipal corporation operating as a "public utility" furnishing
electric service as provided in Section 10001, a municipal utility
district furnishing electric service formed pursuant to Division 6
(commencing with Section 11501), a public utility district furnishing
electric services formed pursuant to the Public Utility District Act
set forth in Division 7 (commencing with Section 15501), an
irrigation district furnishing electric services formed pursuant to
the Irrigation District Law set forth in Division 11 (commencing with
Section 20500) of the Water Code, or a joint powers authority that
includes one or more of these agencies and that owns generation or
transmission facilities, or furnishes electric services over its own
or its member's electric distribution system.

224.4. (a) "Mobile data service" means the delivery of nonvoice
information to a mobile device and includes nonvoice information
communicated to a mobile telephony services handset, nonvoice
information communicated to handheld personal digital assistant (PDA)
devices and laptop computers, and mobile paging service carriers
offering services on pagers and two-way messaging devices. Unless
specified, "mobile data service" does not include nonvoice
information communicated through a wireless local area network
operating in the unlicensed radio bands, commonly known as a "Wi-Fi"
network.
(b) "Mobile paging service" means the transmission of coded radio
signals for the purpose of activating specific small radio receivers
designed to be carried by a person and to give an aural, visual, or
tactile indication when activated.
(c) "Mobile satellite telephone service" means voice communication
to end users over a mobile satellite service involving the provision
of commercial mobile radio service, pursuant to Parts 20 and 25 of
Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
(d) "Mobile telephony service" means commercially available
interconnected mobile phone services that provide access to the
public switched telephone network (PSTN) via mobile communication
devices employing radiowave technology to transmit calls, including
cellular radiotelephone, broadband Personal Communications Services
(PCS), and digital Specialized Mobile Radio (SMR). "Mobile telephony
services" does not include mobile satellite telephone services or
mobile data services used exclusively for the delivery of nonvoice
information to a mobile device.

224.6. "Motor carrier of property" means a motor carrier of
property as defined in Section 34601 of the Vehicle Code.

224.8. "Network railroad transportation" means railroad
transportation that is subject to the jurisdiction of the federal
Surface Transportation Board pursuant to subsection (a) or (b) of
Section 10501 of Title 49 of the United States Code.

225. "Passenger stage" includes every stage, auto stage, or other
motor vehicle used in the transportation of persons, or persons and
their baggage or express, or persons or baggage or express, when such
baggage or express is transported incidental to the transportation
of passengers.

226. (a) "Passenger stage corporation" includes every corporation
or person engaged as a common carrier, for compensation, in the
ownership, control, operation, or management of any passenger stage
over any public highway in this state between fixed termini or over a
regular route except those, 98 percent or more of whose operations
as measured by total route mileage operated, which are exclusively
within the limits of a single city or city and county, or whose
operations consist solely in the transportation of bona fide pupils
attending an institution of learning between their homes and that
institution.
For purposes of this section, the percentage of the route mileage
within the limits of any city shall be determined by the Public
Utilities Commission on the first day of January of each year, and
the percentage so determined shall be presumed to continue for the
year.
(b) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include that part of
the operations of any corporation or person engaged in the ownership,
control, operation, or management of any passenger stage over any
public highway in this state, whether between fixed termini or over a
regular route or otherwise, engaged in the transportation of any
pupils or students to and from a public or private school, college,
or university, or to and from activities of a public or private
school, college, or university, where the rate, charge, or fare for
that transportation is not computed, collected, or demanded on an
individual fare basis.
(c) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include the
transportation of persons between home and work locations or of
persons having a common work-related trip purpose in a vehicle having
a seating capacity of 15 passengers or less, including the driver,
which is used for the purpose of ridesharing, as defined in Section
522 of the Vehicle Code, when the ridesharing is incidental to
another purpose of the driver. This exemption also applies to a
vehicle having a seating capacity of more than 15 passengers if the
driver files with the commission evidence of liability insurance
protection in the same amount and in the same manner as required for
a passenger stage corporation, and the vehicle undergoes and passes
an annual safety inspection by the Department of the California
Highway Patrol. The insurance filing shall be accompanied by a
one-time filing fee of seventy-five dollars ($75). This exemption
does not apply if the primary purpose for the transportation of those
persons is to make a profit. "Profit," as used in this subdivision,
does not include the recovery of the actual costs incurred in owning
and operating a vanpool vehicle, as defined in Section 668 of the
Vehicle Code.
(d) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include that part of
the operations of any corporation or person engaged in the ownership,
control, operation, or management of any medical transportation
vehicles, including vehicles employed to transport developmentally
disabled persons for regional centers established pursuant to Chapter
5 (commencing with Section 4620) of Division 4.5 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code.
(e) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include the
transportation of persons which is ancillary to commercial river
rafting and is for the sole purpose of returning passengers to the
point of origin of their rafting trip.
(f) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include social service
transportation delivered by a nonprofit social service transportation
provider or a locally licensed or franchised for-profit
transportation provider which operates, in dedicated vehicles, social
service transportation pursuant to contract with a nonprofit social
service transportation provider organization as long as the provider
does not use a vehicle designed for carrying more than 16 persons,
including the driver, or does not operate vehicles which offer
transportation services over regularly scheduled or fixed routes.
(g) "Passenger stage corporation" does not include intrastate
passenger transportation service conducted pursuant to federal
operating authority to the extent that regulation of these intrastate
operations by the commission is preempted by the federal Bus
Regulatory Reform Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-261), as amended.

227. "Pipe line" includes all real estate, fixtures, and personal
property, owned, controlled, operated, or managed in connection with
or to facilitate the transmission, storage, distribution, or delivery
of crude oil or other fluid substances except water through pipe
lines.

228. "Pipeline corporation" includes every corporation or person
owning, controlling, operating, or managing any pipeline for
compensation within this state.
"Pipeline corporation" shall not include a corporation or person
employing landfill gas technology and owning, controlling, operating,
or managing any pipeline solely for the transmission or distribution
of landfill gas or other form of energy generated or produced
therefrom.

229. "Railroad" includes every commercial, interurban, and other
railway, other than a street railroad, and each branch or extension
thereof, by whatsoever power operated, together with all tracks,
bridges, trestles, rights of way, subways, tunnels, stations, depots,
union depots, ferries, yards, grounds, terminals, terminal
facilities, structures, and equipment, and all other real estate,
fixtures, and personal property of every kind used in connection
therewith, owned, controlled, operated, or managed for public use in
the transportation of persons or property.

230. "Railroad corporation" includes every corporation or person
owning, controlling, operating, or managing any railroad for
compensation within this State.

230.3. "Service area," for purposes of the operations of a
telephone corporation, means a local access and transport area as
defined and approved by the United States District Court for the
District of Columbia circuit in the case of the United States v.
Western Electric Co., Inc., and American Telephone and Telegraph Co.,
CA 82-0192, April 20 and July 8, 1983, and in a Memorandum and Order
of August 5, 1983.

230.5. "Sewer system" includes all real estate, fixtures, and
personal property owned, controlled, operated, or managed in
connection with or to facilitate sewage collection, treatment, or
disposition for sanitary or drainage purposes, including any and all
lateral and connecting sewers, interceptors, trunk and outfall lines
and sanitary sewage treatment or disposal plants or works, and any
and all drains, conduits, and outlets for surface or storm waters,
and any and all other works, property or structures necessary or
convenient for the collection or disposal of sewage, industrial
waste, or surface or storm waters. "Sewer system" shall not include a
sewer system which merely collects sewage on the property of a
single owner.

230.6. "Sewer system corporation" includes every corporation or
person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any sewer system
for compensation within this state.

231. "Street railroad" includes every railway, and each branch or
extension thereof, by whatsoever power operated, being mainly upon,
along, above or below any street, avenue, road, highway, bridge, or
public place within any city or city and county, together with all
real estate, fixtures, and personal property of every kind used in
connection therewith, owned, controlled, operated, or managed for
public use in the transportation of persons or property, but does not
include a railway constituting or used as a part of a commercial or
interurban railway.

232. "Street railroad corporation" includes every corporation or
person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any street
railroad for compensation within this State, or owning, controlling,
operating, or managing as a part of or in conjunction with such
street railroad any automobile, jitney bus, stage, or auto stage used
in the business of transportation of persons or property for
compensation over any public highway in this State between fixed
termini or over a regular route.

233. "Telephone line" includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires,
cables, instruments, and appliances, and all other real estate,
fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled, operated, or
managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by
telephone, whether such communication is had with or without the use
of transmission wires.

234. (a) "Telephone corporation" includes every corporation or
person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any telephone line
for compensation within this state.
(b) "Telephone corporation" does not include any of the following:
(1) Any hospital, hotel, motel, or similar place of temporary
accommodation owning or operating message switching or billing
equipment solely for the purpose of reselling services provided by a
telephone corporation to its patients or guests.
(2) Any one-way paging service utilizing facilities that are
licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, including, but not
limited to, narrowband personal communications services described in
Subpart D (commencing with Section 24.100) of Part 24 of Title 47 of
the Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on June 13, 1995.

235. "Telegraph line" includes all conduits, ducts, poles, wires,
cables, instruments, and appliances, and all other real estate,
fixtures, and personal property owned, controlled, operated, or
managed in connection with or to facilitate communication by
telegraph, whether such communication is had with or without the use
of transmission wires.

236. "Telegraph corporation" includes every corporation or person
owning, controlling, operating, or managing any telegraph line for
compensation within this State.

237. "Toll-bridge corporation" includes every private corporation
or person owning, controlling, operating, or managing any bridge or
appurtenance thereto, used for the transportation of persons or
property for compensation in this State.

238. (a) "Vessel" includes every species of watercraft, by
whatsoever power operated, which is owned, controlled, operated or
managed for public use in the transportation of persons or property,
except rowboats, sailing boats, barges under 20 tons dead weight
carrying capacity, and vessels which are both under the burden of
five tons net register and under 30 feet in length. However, a vessel
which is under the burden of five tons net register but is 30 or
more feet in length is not a "vessel" for the purpose of this section
if it is used to provide ship-to-shore services by which stores,
supplies, spares, passengers, or crew of oceangoing ships are
transported to or from ship and shore and payment for such services
is made by, or arranged through, the oceangoing shipping company
(commonly referred to as water taxi services).
(b) Nothing in this code except those provisions relating to the
regulation of rates shall apply to the transportation by a water
carrier of commodities in bulk when the cargo space of the vessel in
which such commodities are transported is being used for the carrying
of not more than three such commodities. This subsection shall apply
only in the case of commodities, in bulk which are loaded and
carried without wrappers or containers and received and delivered by
the carrier without transportation mark or count. For the purposes of
this subsection two or more vessels while navigated as a unit shall
be considered to be a single vessel.
(c) Nothing in this code shall apply to the transportation by
water of liquid cargoes in bulk in tank vessels designed for use
exclusively in such service.
(d) Any person or corporation lawfully engaged in business in the
transportation of persons or property during the entire one-year
period preceding March 1, 1993, and continuously thereafter, and
which, solely by virtue of the amendment to subdivision (a) made by
the act that adds this subdivision, will become subject to commission
regulation as a common carrier by vessel, shall file with the
commission, prior to March 1, 1994, an application for a certificate
of public convenience and necessity to operate as a common carrier by
vessel. However, in lieu of all other fees required by law, the
applicant shall pay a fee of fifty dollars ($50). The commission
shall issue the certificate without further proceedings authorizing
operation over the specific routes or within the specific area which
conforms to proof of actual service in the transportation of persons
or property as produced by the applicant with respect to its
operations during the entire one-year period preceding March 1, 1993,
and continuously thereafter.

240. "Water system" includes all reservoirs, tunnels, shafts, dams,
dikes, headgates, pipes, flumes, canals, structures, and appliances,
and all other real estate, fixtures, and personal property, owned,
controlled, operated, or managed in connection with or to facilitate
the diversion, development, storage, supply, distribution, sale,
furnishing, carriage, apportionment, or measurement of water for
power, irrigation, reclamation, or manufacturing, or for municipal,
domestic, or other beneficial use.

241. "Water corporation" includes every corporation or person
owning, controlling, operating, or managing any water system for
compensation within this State.

243. This part shall not release or waive any right of action by
the State, the commission, or any person or corporation for any
right, penalty, or forfeiture which may have arisen or accrued or may
hereafter arise or accrue under any law of this State.

244. No transit district, common carrier, or publicly owned transit
system shall require any person to waive, limit, or qualify any
right to recover damages for injury in exchange for such person being
granted a reduction in price or fare for any service offered by the
transit district, common carrier, or publicly owned transit system.
"Person," as used in this section, shall not include an employee
of the transit district, common carrier, or publicly owned transit
system.

246. A person or corporation shall not be a public utility subject
to the jurisdiction, control and regulation of the commission and the
provisions of this part solely because such person or corporation
owns or controls any electric plant (a) which is leased or held for
lease or sale to any public utility, or (b) the operation and use of
which is vested by lease or other contract in a public utility, or
(c) for a period of not more than 90 days after termination of any
lease or contract with a public utility or after repossession of such
property following a breach of such lease or contract. The
commission may upon application issue its order approving the terms
of any such lease or contract for the purpose of qualifying such
person or corporation for an exemption by the Securities and Exchange
Commission of the United States from the federal Public Utility
Holding Company Act of 1935, as amended (Chapter 2C (commencing with
Section 79) of Title 15, United States Code). This section shall
apply only to persons or corporations for which such lease or
contract was approved by the commission prior to January 1, 1979.
Nothing in this section shall alter or modify the authority of the
commission to regulate the rates and service of a person or
corporation which is a public utility subject to the provisions of
this part.

247. Any provision of this part that is in conflict with the
Communications Act of 1934, as amended, (47 U.S.C. Sec. 332(c)(3))
shall not apply to commercial mobile radio service to the extent of
that conflict. If any provision contained in this part applicable to
commercial mobile radio service, or the application thereof to any
person or circumstance, is invalid as a result of federal preemption,
the remainder of this part, or the application of the provision to
other persons or circumstances, shall not be affected thereby.

247.1. (a) The Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act (P.L.
106-252) was enacted for the purpose of establishing nationwide
uniform sourcing rules for the imposition of state and local taxes,
fees, and surcharges on mobile telecommunications services. In order
to establish a single, uniform sourcing rule, the federal act
partially preempted state and local law imposing taxes, fees, and
surcharges on a mobile telecommunications services customer whose
place of primary use is outside of the state in which the state and
local taxes, fees, or surcharges are imposed.
(b) In accordance with the Mobile Telecommunications Sourcing Act,
which is incorporated herein by reference, and notwithstanding
Sections 280, 431, 739.3, 879, and 2881, the surcharges or fees under
these sections do not apply to any charges for mobile
telecommunications services billed to a customer where those services
are provided, or deemed provided, to a customer whose place of
primary use is outside this state. Mobile telecommunications services
shall be deemed provided by a customer's home service provider to
the customer if those services are provided in a taxing jurisdiction
to the customer, and the charges for those services are billed by or
for the customer's home service provider.
(c) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Charges for mobile telecommunications services" means any
charge for, or associated with, the provision of commercial mobile
radio service, as defined in Section 216.8, or any charge for, or
associated with, a service provided as an adjunct to a commercial
mobile radio service, that is billed to the customer by or for the
customer's home service provider, regardless of whether individual
transmissions originate or terminate within the licensed service area
of a home service provider.
(2) "Customer" means either (A) the person or entity that
contracts with the home service provider for mobile
telecommunications services, or (B) if the end user of mobile
telecommunications services is not the contracting party, the end
user of the mobile telecommunications service. This paragraph applies
only for the purpose of determining the place of primary use. The
term "customer" does not include either (A) a reseller of mobile
telecommunications service, or (B) a serving carrier under an
arrangement to serve the customer outside the home service provider's
licensed service area.
(3) "Home service provider" means the facilities-based carrier or
reseller with which the customer contracts for the provision of
mobile telecommunications services.
(4) "Licensed service area" means the geographic area in which the
home service provider is authorized by law or contract to provide
commercial mobile radio service to the customer.
(5) "Mobile telecommunications service" means commercial mobile
radio service, as defined in Section 216.8.
(6) "Place of primary use" means the street address representative
of where the customer's use of the mobile telecommunications service
primarily occurs, that must be:
(A) The residential street address or the primary business street
address of the customer.
(B) Within the licensed area of the home service provider.
(7) (A) "Reseller" means a provider who purchases
telecommunications services from another telecommunications service
provider and then resells the services, or uses the services as a
component part of, or integrates the purchased services into a mobile
telecommunications service.
(B) "Reseller" does not include a serving carrier with which a
home service provider arranges for the services to its customers
outside the home service provider's licensed service area.
(8) "Serving carrier" means a facilities-based carrier providing
mobile telecommunications service to a customer outside a home
service provider's or reseller's licensed area.
(9) "Taxing jurisdiction" means any of the several states, the
District of Columbia, or any territory or possession of the United
States, any municipality, city, county, township, parish,
transportation district, or assessment jurisdiction, or any other
political subdivision within the territorial limits of the United
States with the authority to impose a tax, charge, or fee.

248. Any provision of the Public Utilities Act that is in conflict
with the railroad provisions of Part A of Subtitle 4 of Title 49 of
the United States Code shall be inapplicable to railroad
transportation to the extent of that conflict. If any provision in
the Public Utilities Act applicable to railroad transportation, or
the application thereof to any person or circumstance, is in conflict
with Part A of Subtitle 4 of Title 49 of the United States Code, the
remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other
persons or circumstances shall be unaffected to the extent no
conflict exists.