SECTION 7.6001. General Provisions

(a) The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

(1) City--The city or the municipality that assessed an annual charge pursuant to Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102(b)(1), or Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025(b)(1).

(2) Director--The director of the Oversight and Safety Division or the director's delegate.

(3) Pipeline--An owner or an operator of a hazardous liquid, carbon dioxide, or natural gas pipeline facility that is located in a public right-of-way in the city.

(4) Public right-of-way in the city--Public roads, highways, streets, alleys, streams, canals, or other public ways located within a city and maintained by the city.

(5) Regulating a pipeline facility--Administering, supervising, inspecting, and otherwise regulating the location of a pipeline facility, including maintaining records and maps of the location of the pipeline facility.

(b) This subchapter implements the authority of the Commission to hear an appeal from a pipeline that has been assessed an annual charge pursuant to Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102(b)(1), or Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025(b)(1).

(c) Under Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102(d), and Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025(d), the Commission has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether a city's annual charge is authorized under Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102(b)(1), or Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025(b)(1). Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102, and Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025, do not affect the validity or enforceability of a contract entered into before September 1, 2005, by a municipality and the owner or operator of a hazardous liquid, carbon dioxide, or gas pipeline, or the enforceability of a charge assessed by a municipality before September 1, 2006, under an ordinance adopted on or before September 1, 2004. Texas Natural Resources Code, §117.102, and Texas Utilities Code, §121.2025, apply to a charge assessed by a municipality on or after September 1, 2005, under an ordinance adopted after September 1, 2004; and on or after September 1, 2006, under an ordinance regardless of the date of adoption of the ordinance.

(d) The Commission will hear an appeal filed under this subchapter de novo. The appeal will be handled by the Hearings Division pursuant to this subchapter; the Commission's rules of Practice and Procedure, 16 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 1; and the Commission's general standards for establishing just and reasonable rates. The examiners assigned to the appeal may require that the city send notice of an appeal filed under this subchapter to all pipelines that the city identifies as having been assessed an annual charge within one year preceding the filing of the appeal. The examiners may exercise their discretion in deciding whether to permit intervention by another pipeline or to join another pipeline as a necessary party to an appeal.

(e) A pipeline that files or intervenes in an appeal under this subchapter and the city that assessed the charge being appealed shall share the costs incurred by the Commission in connection with the appeal, pursuant to §7.6007 of this title (relating to Procedure for Determining and Sharing of the Commission's Costs).

Source Note: The provisions of this §7.6001 adopted to be effective March 15, 2007, 32 TexReg 1275; amended to be effective May 14, 2018, 43 TexReg 2997