HCS/HB 527 - Under this act, the Public Service Commission shall not issue a certificate of convenience and necessity for a merchant line, as such term is defined in the act, until the entity requesting the certificate has provided the Commission with a resolution of support passed by the county commission of each county through which the merchant line will be built. Any electrical corporation the begins construction on a merchant line after August 28, 2021, shall provide the required resolutions to the Commission prior to construction, regardless of whether the Commission has previously issued its approval. Additionally, no entity, which is defined as a utility company that does not provide service to end-use customers or provide retail service in Missouri, or does not collect its costs to provide service under a regional transmission organization tariff, regardless of whether it has received a certificate of convenience and necessity from the Public Service Commission, shall have the power of eminent domain for the purpose of constructing above-ground merchant lines. This provision applies to any property or easement acquisition started on or after August 28, 2021. Further, this provision does not apply to rural electric cooperatives, or certain other corporations operating under a cooperative business plan. This act is identical to provisions contained in HCS/HB 601 (2021), the perfected HCS/HB 835 (2021), CCS/HCS/SS/SB 141 (2021), substantially similar to SB 508 (2021), and similar to SCS/SBs 597 & 604 (2020), HCS/HB 2033 (2020), HCS/HB 2094 (2020), HB 1877 (2020), and SCS/HB 1062 (2019). JAMIE ANDREWS
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