Terms Used In Connecticut General Statutes > Chapter 277a - Public Utility Environmental Standards Act

• Advice and consent: Under the Constitution, presidential nominations for executive and judicial posts take effect only when confirmed by the Senate, and international treaties become effective only when the Senate approves them by a two-thirds vote.
• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• another: may extend and be applied to communities, companies, corporations, public or private, limited liability companies, societies and associations. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appraisal: A determination of property value.
• aquaculture: means the farming of the waters of the state and tidal wetlands and the production of protein food, including fish, oysters, clams, mussels and other molluscan shellfish, on leased, franchised and public underwater farm lands. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Authority: means the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and "department" means the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Certified telecommunications provider: means a person certified by the authority to provide intrastate telecommunications services, as defined in section 16-247a, pursuant to sections 16-247f to 16-247h, inclusive. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Cogeneration technology: means the use for the generation of electricity of exhaust steam, waste steam, heat or resultant energy from an industrial, commercial or manufacturing plant or process, or the use of exhaust steam, waste steam or heat from a thermal power plant for an industrial, commercial or manufacturing plant or process, but shall not include steam or heat developed solely for electrical power generation. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection: means the Commissioner of Energy and Environmental Protection appointed pursuant to title 4, or the commissioner's designee. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Community antenna television service: means (A) the one-way transmission to subscribers of video programming or information that a community antenna television company makes available to all subscribers generally, and subscriber interaction, if any, which is required for the selection of such video programming or information, and (B) noncable communications service. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Consumer: means any private dwelling, boardinghouse, apartment, store, office building, institution, mechanical or manufacturing establishment or other place of business or industry to which water is supplied by a water company. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Customer-side distributed resources: means (A) the generation of electricity from a unit with a rating of not more than sixty-five megawatts on the premises of a retail end user within the transmission and distribution system including, but not limited to, fuel cells, photovoltaic systems or small wind turbines, or (B) a reduction in the demand for electricity on the premises of a retail end user in the distribution system through methods of conservation and load management, including, but not limited to, peak reduction systems and demand response systems. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• distribution company: means any person providing electric transmission or distribution services within the state, but does not include: (A) A private power producer, as defined in section 16-243b. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Electric distribution services: means the owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling of poles, wires, conduits or other fixtures along public highways or streets for the distribution of electricity, or electric distribution-related services. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Electric generation services: means electric energy, electric capacity or generation-related services. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Electric transmission services: means electric transmission or transmission-related services. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Emergency generating device: means an electric generating device with a generating capacity of five megawatts or less, installed primarily for the purpose of producing emergency backup electrical power for not more than five hundred hours per year, and that (1) does not have a substantial adverse environmental effect, as determined by the council, or (2) is owned and operated by an entity other than an electric distribution or gas company, or (3) is under construction or in operation prior to May 2, 1989. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executive session: A portion of the Senate's daily session in which it considers executive business.
• Facility: means : (1) An electric transmission line of a design capacity of sixty-nine kilovolts or more, including associated equipment but not including a transmission line tap, as defined in subsection (e) of this section. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• farming: include cultivation of the soil, dairying, forestry, raising or harvesting any agricultural or horticultural commodity, including the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training and management of livestock, including horses, bees, the production of honey, poultry, fur-bearing animals and wildlife, and the raising or harvesting of oysters, clams, mussels, other molluscan shellfish or fish. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• Gas company: includes every person owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling mains, pipes or other fixtures, in public highways or streets, for the transmission or distribution of gas for sale for heat or power within this state, or engaged in the manufacture of gas to be so transmitted or distributed for such purpose, but shall not include (A) a person manufacturing gas through the use of a biomass gasification plant provided such person does not own, lease, maintain, operate, manage or control mains, pipes or other fixtures in public highways or streets, (B) a municipal gas utility established under chapter 101 or any other gas utility owned, leased, maintained, operated, managed or controlled by any unit of local government under any general statute or any public or special act, or (C) an entity approved to submeter pursuant to section 16-19ff. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Grid-side distributed resources: means the generation of electricity from a unit with a rating of not more than sixty-five megawatts that is connected to the transmission or distribution system, which units may include, but are not limited to, units used primarily to generate electricity to meet peak demand. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Modification: means a significant change or alteration in the general physical characteristics of a facility. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• month: means a calendar month, and the word "year" means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Municipality: means a city, town or borough of the state and "municipal" has a correlative meaning. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means any individual, corporation, limited liability company, joint venture, public benefit corporation, political subdivision, governmental agency or authority, municipality, partnership, association, trust or estate and any other entity, public or private, however organized. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• Plant: includes all real estate, buildings, tracks, pipes, mains, poles, wires and other fixed or stationary construction and equipment, wherever located, used in the conduct of the business of the company. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• President pro tempore: A constitutionally recognized officer of the Senate who presides over the chamber in the absence of the Vice President. The President Pro Tempore (or, "president for a time") is elected by the Senate and is, by custom, the Senator of the majority party with the longest record of continuous service.
• Private power producer: means (A) a subsidiary of a gas public service company which is not affiliated with an electric public service company, or a subsidiary of a holding company controlling, directly or indirectly, a gas public service company but not an electric public service company, which generates electricity solely through ownership of fifty per cent or less of a private power production facility or, with the approval of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, through ownership of one hundred per cent of a private power production facility which (i) uses a source of energy other than gas as the primary energy source of the facility, or (ii) uses gas as the primary energy source of the facility and uses an improved and innovative technology which furthers the state energy policy as set forth in section 16a-35k, (B) a subsidiary of any other public service company or a subsidiary of a holding company controlling, directly or indirectly, such a public service company, which generates electricity solely through ownership of fifty per cent or less of a private power production facility, (C) the state, a political subdivision of the state or any other person, firm or corporation other than a public service company or any corporation which was a public service company, prior to July 1, 1981, and which consents to be regulated as a public service company or a holding company for a public service company, which generates electricity solely through ownership of one hundred per cent or less of a private power production facility, or (D) any combination thereof. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-243b
• Public service company: includes electric distribution, gas, telephone, pipeline, sewage, water and community antenna television companies and holders of a certificate of cable franchise authority, owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling plants or parts of plants or equipment, but shall not include towns, cities, boroughs, any municipal corporation or department thereof, whether separately incorporated or not, a private power producer, as defined in section 16-243b, or an exempt wholesale generator, as defined in 15 USC 79z-5a. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1
• Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
• Remainder: An interest in property that takes effect in the future at a specified time or after the occurrence of some event, such as the death of a life tenant.
• succeeding: when used by way of reference to any section or sections, mean the section or sections next preceding, next following or next succeeding, unless some other section is expressly designated in such reference. See Connecticut General Statutes 1-1
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Transcript: A written, word-for-word record of what was said, either in a proceeding such as a trial or during some other conversation, as in a transcript of a hearing or oral deposition.
• Transmission line tap: means an electrical transmission line not requested by an applicant to be treated as a facility that has the primary function, as determined by the council, of interconnecting a private power producing or cogeneration facility to the electrical power grid serving the state, and does not have a substantial adverse environmental effect, as determined by the council based on a review of the line's proposed purpose, the line's proposed length, the number and type of support structures, the number of manholes required for the proposed line, the necessity of entering a right-of-way including any easements or land acquisition for any construction or maintenance on the proposed line, and any other environmental, health or public safety factor considered relevant by the council. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-50i
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Water company: includes every person owning, leasing, maintaining, operating, managing or controlling any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well or distributing plant or system employed for the purpose of supplying water to fifty or more consumers. See Connecticut General Statutes 16-1