The Florida Senate

¹350.80  Coal slurry pipeline companies regulated.--

(1)  Any person, corporation, or other legal entity which exercises or intends to exercise powers of eminent domain pursuant to s. 361.08, or which owns or operates a coal slurry pipeline which was constructed on property acquired by eminent domain, shall be subject to regulation as a common carrier by the Florida Public Service Commission, unless such regulation is preempted by regulation of the ²Interstate Commerce Commission, and then only to the extent that such regulation is actually preempted by the ²Interstate Commerce Commission, to assure fairness in rates, rate structure or tariffs, and conditions of service.

(2)  All coal slurry pipeline companies, as common carriers, shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the Florida Public Service Commission relating thereto and all applicable laws, including, but not limited to, those governing common carriers as defined in ³s. 350.11 No coal slurry pipeline company shall discriminate between or against any person, corporation, public utility, municipality, or other legal entity in regard to facilities furnished, services rendered, or rates charged for the transportation of coal or its derivatives. All contracts or agreements between any coal slurry pipeline company and any person, corporation, public utility, municipality, or other legal entity for the transportation of coal or its derivatives shall be submitted to the Florida Public Service Commission for review and approval prior to their execution. The commission shall adopt rules and regulations to ensure that all contracts, rates, and charges involving the transportation of coal or its derivatives by pipeline shall be just and reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and offer no preference to any person, corporation, public utility, municipality, or other legal entity. The commission shall prohibit any contract charging a rate for the transportation by pipeline of coal or its derivatives which is higher than the lowest rate available by any other common carrier operating in Florida.

(3)  The Florida Public Service Commission shall file for proposed adoption, within 180 days from the effective date of this act, the necessary rules for the implementation of this act. The rules shall provide, among other things, an administrative procedure pursuant to chapter 120, under and by which the commission shall determine the public need for and the economic and environmental feasibility of any proposed coal slurry pipeline. Prior to the commission's determination of the environmental feasibility of any proposed coal slurry pipeline, it shall ask for comment from the Department of Environmental Protection. A final order of the Florida Public Service Commission determining the economic and environmental feasibility of a coal slurry pipeline system shall be conclusive and binding on the court in any condemnation proceeding brought pursuant to s. 361.08 and chapter 73 or chapter 74.

(4)  It is the intent of the Legislature that electric utility companies under the regulation of the Florida Public Service Commission shall not unduly profit from markups on the purchase price of the coal for the pipeline in the event that such companies are participants in the coal pipeline company. To this end, the commission shall have the right of access to the appropriate financial records of any coal pipeline company in which electric utility companies participate with regard to any rate hearing for the affected electric utility company. Should the commission be unable to enforce this provision, it shall consider the average price of coal in Florida at that time as being the cost to the electric utility company for ratemaking purposes.

History.--ss. 3, 4, 5, ch. 79-236; s. 2, ch. 81-318; s. 6, ch. 87-50; s. 3, ch. 95-150.

¹Note.--Section 5, ch. 79-236, provides that "[t]his act shall take effect when every state in which the coal slurry pipeline will pass en route to Florida has enacted laws granting eminent domain authority to coal slurry pipeline companies or other entities operating or proposing to operate a coal slurry pipeline, and when the appropriate governmental authority has guaranteed in writing to the Public Service Commission that a continuous source of water shall be available for use in said coal slurry pipeline."

²Note.--Abolished by Pub. L. No. 104-88, s. 101.

³Note.--Repealed by s. 6, ch. 81-170.