N.Y. Transportation Corporations Law § 11: Powers

§ 11. Powers. Every such corporation shall have the following powers:

1. A gas corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall have power

to manufacture gas, and to acquire thermal energy or natural or

artificial gas and to mix the gases and to sell and furnish thermal

energy for heating or cooling or gas for light, heat or power; and to

lay conductors, pipes, conduits, ducts and other fixtures for gas or

thermal energy networks in the streets, highways and public places, in

each city, village and town in the county or counties named in its

certificate of incorporation, with the consent of the municipal

authorities of such city, village or town, and under such reasonable

regulations as they may prescribe.

2. Every corporation having authority under any general or special law

or under any charter or franchise, to lay down, erect or maintain pipes,

conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or under the streets,

highways and public places of any municipality for the purpose of

furnishing or distributing natural gas or thermal energy, may acquire

and supply for public use artificial gas or thermal energy.

Where any gas corporation is serving natural gas under permits or

franchises permitting the laying or maintaining of mains or pipes and

conveying natural gas, and the supply of natural gas has become

inadequate or insufficient to give reasonable service to consumers in

the municipalities served by it, such gas corporation may supply

artificial gas or a mixture of natural and artificial gases or thermal

energy under such permits or franchises.

3. An electric corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall

have power to generate, acquire and supply electricity or thermal energy

for heat, cooling or power in cities, towns and villages within this

state, and to light the streets, highways and public places thereof, and

the public and private buildings therein; and to make, sell or lease all

machines, instruments, apparatus and other equipments therefor, and for

transmitting and distributing electricity or thermal energy, to lay,

erect and construct suitable wires or other conductors, with the

necessary poles, pipes, thermal energy networks or other fixtures in,

on, over and under the streets, avenues, public parks and places in such

cities, towns or villages, with the consent of the municipal authorities

thereof, and in such manner and under such reasonable regulations, as

they may prescribe.

3-a. An electric corporation and a gas corporation shall have power

and authority to acquire such real estate as may be necessary for its

corporate purposes and the right of way through any property in the

manner prescribed by the eminent domain procedure law.

3-b. The construction, use and maintenance by an electric corporation

of transmission, distribution and service lines and wires or thermal

energy networks in, over or under any street, highway or public place

and the construction, use and maintenance by a gas corporation of

transmission, distribution and service pipes, conduits, ducts or other

fixtures in, over or under any trees, highway or public place, as may be

necessary for its corporate purposes, are hereby declared to be public

uses and purposes.

Where any person or corporation other than the state, a political

subdivision thereof, or a municipality is the owner of any right, title

or interest in or to any street, highway or public place, or in or to

the land on which the street, highway or public place is located, an

electric corporation or a gas corporation is hereby authorized and

empowered to acquire the right to construct, use and maintain such lines

or wires and such pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures, in, over or

under such street, highway or public place, from such owner or owners,

by petition in the manner prescribed by section four hundred two of the

eminent domain procedure law to the supreme court in the county in which

such street, highway or public place is situated. The corporation shall

file with the court a certificate of the public service commission

certifying that the right sought to be acquired is necessary and in the

public interest and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence as to

the matters lawfully certified therein.

After a hearing on such petition and any answer thereto, if the court

shall find that such right to construct, use and maintain is necessary

for the corporate purposes of the corporation, it shall enter its

judgment adjudging that such right is necessary for the public use and

that the corporation is entitled to construct, use and maintain its

lines or wires or pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or

under such street, highway or public place and adjudging pursuant to the

eminent domain procedure law the compensation to be made by the

corporation to the owner or owners.

4. Any two or more domestic gas corporations, electric corporations,

gas and electric corporations, and any other domestic corporation formed

for the purpose of engaging in any business in which domestic gas

corporations, electric corporations or gas and electric corporations may

engage, may merge or consolidate in accordance with the procedure and

with the effect set forth in article nine of the business corporation

law.

5. A corporation mentioned in this article or incorporated under or by

any general or special law of this state for the purpose of supplying

for public use electricity for light, heat or power in cities, towns or

villages in this state, upon filing a certificate of amendment therefor,

to which is annexed the consent required by section one hundred and

eleven of this chapter, shall have all the rights, privileges and powers

and be subject to all the restrictions of district steam corporations.

6. The term "municipal authorities" as used in subdivisions one and

three of this section, shall be deemed to be the local legislative body

of a city, the board of trustees of a village and the town board of a

town. All consents in writing for the doing of acts mentioned in such

subdivisions given before April fourteenth, nineteen hundred and

twenty-two, in writing by the highway commissioners or town

superintendent of highways or the town board of any town to any

corporation organized under the provisions of this article shall be

deemed to be the consents of the municipal authorities required by this

section.

7. Subdivisions three and three-a of this section shall not apply to

any merchant transmission company which:

(a) commences and ends in the state of New York;

(b) through its employees, agents, representatives, or assigns, has

represented in testimony that the construction of such power

transmission lines will increase electric rates in any part of the

state; and

(c) which applied for and did not receive an early designation as a

national interest electric transmission corridor under an act of

congress commonly known as the Energy Policy Act of 2005.