§ 37-16-8 — Construction of Chapter

Alabama § 37-16-8

• Jurisdiction: Alabama
• Title 37: Public Utilities and Public Transportation
• Ch. 16: Broadband Using Electric Easements Accessibility Act

Text

(a) Nothing in this chapter shall interfere with the commission’s authority to regulate public utilities under this title. Nothing in this chapter shall provide a basis for creating or granting jurisdiction to the commission over any electric providers or any broadband affiliate that are otherwise exempt or are otherwise not subject to the jurisdiction of the commission.
(b) Nothing in this chapter shall affect, abrogate, or eliminate in any way any obligation of an electric provider or any broadband affiliate or broadband operator to comply with any applicable safety and permitting requirements of any railroad company or any state governmental body or agency with respect to property that is held or controlled by such railroad company or state governmental body or agency, as the case may be, and in, on, over, or across which an easement is located.
(c) Any broadband system that encumbers the right-of-way of the Department of Transportation shall require a permit from the department regardless of whether the broadband system is within a currently permitted electric easement or an electric delivery system. Nothing in this chapter shall provide an exemption from an existing applicable regulation regarding access to county rights-of-way or be construed to abrogate, limit, expand, or otherwise affect the authority of a municipality to regulate the use of municipal streets and rights-of-way.
(d) Except as provided in this section, nothing in this chapter is intended to expand or contract an electric provider’s rights and obligations with regard to applicable laws in connection with pole attachments to its electric delivery system, or the terms of any pole attachment agreement in effect with its electric delivery system.

Legislative History

(Act 2019-326, §1.)