SECOND REGULAR SESSION
SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
SENATE BILL NO. 878
92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Reported from the Committee on Commerce and the Environment, February 9, 2004, with recommendation that the Senate Committee Substitute do pass and be placed on the Consent Calendar.
TERRY L. SPIELER, Secretary.
2796S.04C
AN ACT
To repeal section 393.310, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to gas corporations and experimental tariffs, with a termination date.
Section A. Section 393.310, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 393.310, to read as follows:
393.310. 1. This section shall only apply to gas corporations as defined in section 386.020, RSMo. This section shall not affect any existing laws and shall only apply to the program established pursuant to this section.
2. As used in this section, the following terms mean:
(1) "Aggregate", the combination of natural gas supply and transportation services, including storage, requirements of eligible school entities served through a Missouri gas corporation's delivery system;
(2) "Commission", the Missouri public service commission; and
(3) "Eligible school entity" shall include any seven-director, urban or metropolitan school district as defined pursuant to section 160.011, RSMo, and shall also include, one year after July 11, 2002, and thereafter, any school for elementary or secondary education situated in this state, whether a charter, private, or parochial school or school district.
3. Each Missouri gas corporation shall file with the commission, by August 1, 2002, a set of experimental tariffs applicable the first year to public school districts and applicable to all school districts, whether charter, private, public, or parochial, thereafter.
4. The tariffs required pursuant to subsection 3 of this section shall, at a minimum:
(1) Provide for the aggregate purchasing of natural gas supplies and pipeline transportation services on behalf of eligible school entities in accordance with aggregate purchasing contracts negotiated by and through a not-for-profit school association;
(2) Provide for the resale of such natural gas supplies, including related transportation service costs, to the eligible school entities at the gas corporation's cost of purchasing of such gas supplies and transportation, plus all applicable distribution costs, plus an aggregation and balancing fee to be determined by the commission, not to exceed four-tenths of one cent per therm delivered during the first year; and
(3) Not require telemetry or special metering, except for individual school meters over one hundred thousand therms annually.
5. The commission may suspend the tariff as required pursuant to subsection 3 of this section for a period ending no later than November 1, 2002, and shall approve such tariffs upon finding that implementation of the aggregation program set forth in such tariffs will not have any negative financial impact on the gas corporation, its other customers or local taxing authorities, and that the aggregation charge is sufficient to generate revenue at least equal to all incremental costs caused by the experimental aggregation program. Except as may be mutually agreed by the gas corporation and eligible school entities and approved by the commission, such tariffs shall not require eligible school entities to be responsible for pipeline capacity charges for longer than is required by the gas corporation's tariff for large industrial or commercial basic transportation customers.
6. The commission shall treat the gas corporation's pipeline capacity costs for associated eligible school entities in the same manner as for large industrial or commercial basic transportation customers, which shall not be considered a negative financial impact on the gas corporation, its other customers, or local taxing authorities, and the commission may adopt by order such other procedures not inconsistent with this section which the commission determines are reasonable or necessary to administer the experimental program.
7. This section shall terminate June 30, [2005] 2007.
8. Tariffs in effect as of August 28, 2004 shall be extended until the termination date set in subsection 7 of this section.