[PART I. PUBLIC UTILITIES, GENERALLY]

 

Revision Note

 

  Part heading added by revisor.

 

§269-1  Definitions.  As used in thischapter:

"Agricultural activities" means acommercial agricultural, silvicultural, or aquacultural facility or pursuitconducted, in whole or in part, including the care and production of livestockand livestock products, poultry and poultry products, apiary products, andplant and animal production for nonfood uses; the planting, cultivating,harvesting, and processing of crops; and the farming or ranching of any plantor animal species in a controlled salt, brackish, or freshwater environment.

"Carrier of last resort" means atelecommunications carrier designated by the commission to provide universalservice in a given local exchange service area determined to be lacking ineffective competition.

"Designated local exchange servicearea" means an area as determined by the commission to be best served bydesignating a carrier of last resort pursuant to section 269-43.

"Enforcement officer" means anyperson employed and authorized by the commission to investigate any matter onbehalf of the commission.  The term also means a motor vehicle safety officeremployed and assigned, pursuant to section 271-38, by the department of transportationto enforce sections 271-8, 271-12, 271-13, 271-19, and 271-29 throughassessment of civil penalties as provided in section 271-27(h), (i), and (j).

"Public highways" has the meaningdefined by section 264-1, including both state and county highways, butoperation upon rails shall not be deemed transportation on public highways.

"Public utility":

(1)  Includes every person who may own, control,operate, or manage as owner, lessee, trustee, receiver, or otherwise, whetherunder a franchise, charter, license, articles of association, or otherwise, anyplant or equipment, or any part thereof, directly or indirectly for public use,for the transportation of passengers or freight, or the conveyance ortransmission of telecommunications messages, or the furnishing of facilitiesfor the transmission of intelligence by electricity by land or water or airwithin the State, or between points within the State, or for the production,conveyance, transmission, delivery, or furnishing of light, power, heat, cold,water, gas, or oil, or for the storage or warehousing of goods, or the disposalof sewage; provided that the term shall include:

(A)  Any person insofar as that person owns oroperates a private sewer company or sewer facility; and

(B)  Any telecommunications carrier ortelecommunications common carrier;

(2)  Shall not include:

(A)  Any person insofar as that person owns oroperates an aerial transportation enterprise;

(B)  Persons owning or operating taxicabs, asdefined in this section;

(C)  Common carriers transporting only freighton the public highways, unless operating within localities or along routes orbetween points that the public utilities commission finds to be inadequatelyserviced without regulation under this chapter;

(D)  Persons engaged in the business ofwarehousing or storage unless the commission finds that regulation thereof isnecessary in the public interest;

(E)  The business of any carrier by water tothe extent that the carrier enters into private contracts for towage, salvage,hauling, or carriage between points within the State and the carriage is notpursuant to either an established schedule or an undertaking to performcarriage services on behalf of the public generally;

(F)  The business of any carrier by water,substantially engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, transportingpassengers on luxury cruises between points within the State or on luxuryround-trip cruises returning to the point of departure;

(G)  Any person who:

(i)  Controls, operates, or manages plants orfacilities for the production, transmission, or furnishing of power primarilyor entirely from nonfossil fuel sources; and

(ii)  Provides,sells, or transmits all of that power, except such power as is used in its owninternal operations, directly to a public utility for transmission to thepublic;

(H)  A telecommunications provider only to theextent determined by the commission pursuant to section 269-16.9;

(I)  Any person who controls, operates, ormanages plants or facilities developed pursuant to chapter 167 for conveying,distributing, and transmitting water for irrigation and such other purposesthat shall be held for public use and purpose;

(J)  Any person who owns, controls, operates,or manages plants or facilities for the reclamation of wastewater; providedthat:

(i)  The services of the facility shall beprovided pursuant to a service contract between the person and a state orcounty agency and at least ten per cent of the wastewater processed is useddirectly by the State or county which has entered into the service contract;

(ii)  The primary function of the facility shallbe the processing of secondary treated wastewater that has been produced by amunicipal wastewater treatment facility that is owned by a state or countyagency;

(iii)  The facility shall not make sales of waterto residential customers;

(iv)  The facility may distribute and sellrecycled or reclaimed water to entities not covered by a state or countyservice contract; provided that, in the absence of regulatory oversight anddirect competition, the distribution and sale of recycled or reclaimed watershall be voluntary and its pricing fair and reasonable.  For purposes of thissubparagraph, "recycled water" and "reclaimed water" meanstreated wastewater that by design is intended or used for a beneficial purpose;and

(v)  The facility shall not be engaged, eitherdirectly or indirectly, in the processing of food wastes;

(K)  Any person who owns, controls, operates,or manages any seawater air conditioning district cooling project; providedthat at least fifty per cent of the energy required for the seawater airconditioning district cooling system is provided by a renewable energyresource, such as cold, deep seawater; and

(L)  Any person who owns, controls, operates,or manages plants or facilities primarily used to charge or discharge a vehiclebattery that provides power for vehicle propulsion.

If the application of this chapter is orderedby the commission in any case provided in paragraphs (2)(C), (2)(D), (2)(H),and (2)(I), the business of any public utility that presents evidence of bonafide operation on the date of the commencement of the proceedings resulting inthe order shall be presumed to be necessary to public convenience andnecessity, but any certificate issued under this proviso shall nevertheless besubject to such terms and conditions as the commission may prescribe, asprovided in sections 269-16.9 and 269-20.

"Taxicab" means and includes:

(1)  Any motor vehicle used in the movement of passengerson the public highways under the following circumstances, namely, the passengerhires the vehicle on call or at a fixed stand, with or without baggage fortransportation, and controls the vehicle to the passenger's destination; and

(2)  Any motor vehicle having seating accommodationsfor eight or less passengers used in the movement of passengers on the publichighways between a terminal, i.e., a fixed stand, in the city of Honolulu, anda terminal in a geographical district outside the limits of the city ofHonolulu, and vice versa, without picking up passengers other than at theterminals or fixed stands; provided that passengers may be unloaded at anypoint between terminals; and provided further that this definition relating tomotor vehicles operating between terminals shall pertain only to those motorvehicles whose operators or owners were duly licensed (under section 445-222and any other applicable provision of law or ordinance) and doing businessbetween such terminals on January 1, 1957.

"Telecommunications carrier" or"telecommunications common carrier" means any person that owns,operates, manages, or controls any facility used to furnish telecommunicationsservices for profit to the public, or to classes of users as to be effectivelyavailable to the public, engaged in the provision of services, such as voice,data, image, graphics, and video services, that make use of all or part oftheir transmission facilities, switches, broadcast equipment, signalling, orcontrol devices.

"Telecommunications service" or"telecommunications" means the offering of transmission between oramong points specified by a user, of information of the user's choosing,including voice, data, image, graphics, and video without change in the form orcontent of the information, as sent and received, by means of electromagnetictransmission, or other similarly capable means of transmission, with or withoutbenefit of any closed transmission medium, and does not include cable serviceas defined in section 440G-3. [L 1913, c 89, §18; RL 1925, §2208; am L 1927, c100, §1; am L 1933, c 169, §6 and c 202, §1; am L Sp 1933, c 32, §2; RL 1935,§7940; RL 1945, §4701; am L 1949, c 366, §1; am L Sp 1949, c 65, §1; RL 1955,§104-1; am L 1957, c 151, §1; HRS §269-1; am L 1969, c 30, §1; am L 1974, c 59,§2; am L 1977, c 102, §2; am L 1980, c 77, §2; am L 1981, c 167, §1; am L 1984,c 95, §4; am L 1990, c 49, §3; am L 1991, c 57, §1; am L 1994, c 264, §2; am L1995, c 105, §§2, 7 and c 225, §3; am L 1996, c 102, §1 and c 205, §3; am L1997, c 120, §6; am L 1998, c 11, §16; am L 1999, c 255, §1; am L 2001, c 272,§7; am L 2005, c 22, §9 and c 164, §2; am L 2008, c 169, §3; am L 2009, c 156,§5]

 

Note

 

  Section 445-222 referred to in definition of"taxicab" is repealed.

 

Cross References

 

  Disposition of public lands, see §171-95.

  Franchise tax, see chapter 240.

  Public service company tax, see chapter 239.

 

Attorney General Opinions

 

  Channels for transmission of audio and video signals providedby telephone company are subject to PUC jurisdiction.  Att. Gen. Op. 65-12.

  Producers supplying electrical energy to electric utilitiesfor general public consumption are subject to PUC regulation.  Att. Gen. Op.65-23.

  Public utilities commission may regulate community antennatelevision systems as public utilities.  Att. Gen. Op. 69-29.

  Statute which would include newspapers within definition ofpublic utility and subject them to PUC jurisdiction would be violative offreedom of the press.  Att. Gen. Op. 74-11.

  "Rate" includes "rate schedule".  Att.Gen. Op. 76-1.

 

Case Notes

 

  Meaning of "taxicab" under former law.  41 H. 398.

  Ownership of property "indirectly for public use,"discussed.  56 H. 115, 530 P.2d 742.

  Termination of service to public effect on status as public utility. 56 H. 115, 530 P.2d 742.

  Entity was not a public utility.  67 H. 342, 686 P.2d 831.

  Cited:  100 F. Supp. 164; 24 H. 136, 141; 32 H. 51, 55; 32 H.127, 130; 34 H. 269, 270, aff'd 105 F.2d 286; 40 H. 579, 581; 41 H. 615, 616;43 H. 216; 44 H. 634, 638, 361 P.2d 390.