Terms Used In Louisiana Revised Statutes > Title 45 > Chapter 9 > Part V-B - Louisiana Electric Utility Storm Recovery Securitization Act

• Ancillary agreement: means any bond, insurance policy, letter of credit, reserve account, surety bond, swap arrangement, hedging arrangement, liquidity or credit support arrangement, or other financial arrangement entered into in connection with the issuance of storm recovery bonds. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• 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.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Assignee: means any legal or commercial entity, including but not limited to a corporation, limited liability company, partnership, limited partnership, or other legally recognized entity to which an electric utility sells, assigns, or transfers, other than as security, all or a portion of its interest in or right to storm recovery property. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
• Bankruptcy: Refers to statutes and judicial proceedings involving persons or businesses that cannot pay their debts and seek the assistance of the court in getting a fresh start. Under the protection of the bankruptcy court, debtors may discharge their debts, perhaps by paying a portion of each debt. Bankruptcy judges preside over these proceedings.
• Commission: means the Public Service Commission or, solely with respect to an electric utility furnishing electric service within the city of New Orleans, the council of the city of New Orleans. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• 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.
• Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
• 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.
• Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
• Financing costs: means :

  (a)  Interest and acquisition, defeasance, or redemption premiums that are payable on storm recovery bonds;

  (b)  Any payment required under an ancillary agreement and any amount required to fund or replenish reserve or other accounts established under the terms of any indenture, ancillary agreement, or other financing documents pertaining to storm recovery bonds;

  (c)  Any other cost related to issuing, supporting, repaying, and servicing storm recovery bonds, including but not limited to servicing fees, accounting and auditing fees, trustee fees, legal fees, consulting fees, administrative fees, placement and underwriting fees, capitalized interest, rating agency fees, stock exchange listing and compliance fees, and filing fees, including costs related to obtaining the financing order;

  (d)  Any income taxes and license fees imposed on the revenues generated from the collection of storm recovery charges or otherwise resulting from the collection of storm recovery charges, in any such case whether paid, payable, or accrued; or

  (e)  Any state and local taxes, franchise, gross receipts, and other taxes or similar charges including but not limited to regulatory assessment fees, in any such case whether paid, payable, or accrued. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227

• Financing order: means an order of the commission, if granted by the commission in its sole discretion, which allows for:

  (a)  The issuance of storm recovery bonds. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227

• Financing party: means any holder of storm recovery bonds and any trustee, collateral agent, or other person acting for the benefit of holders of storm recovery bonds. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Grantor: The person who establishes a trust and places property into it.
• 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.
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• 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: includes a body of persons, whether incorporated or not. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 1:10
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Public debt: Cumulative amounts borrowed by the Treasury Department or the Federal Financing Bank from the public or from another fund or account. The public debt does not include agency debt (amounts borrowed by other agencies of the Federal Government). The total public debt is subject to a statutory limit.
• Recourse: An arrangement in which a bank retains, in form or in substance, any credit risk directly or indirectly associated with an asset it has sold (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles) that exceeds a pro rata share of the bank's claim on the asset. If a bank has no claim on an asset it has sold, then the retention of any credit risk is recourse. ^{Source: FDIC}
• Secured party: means a financing party in favor of which an electric utility or its successors or assignees creates a security interest in all or any portion of its interest in or right to storm recovery property. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Security interest: means a pledge, hypothecation, or other encumbrance of or other right over any portion of storm recovery property created by contract to secure the payment or performance of an obligation. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm: means a named tropical storm or hurricane, ice or snow storm, flood, or other significant weather or natural disaster that occurred during calendar year 2005 or that occurs thereafter. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm recovery activity: means any activity or activities by or on behalf of an electric utility in connection with the restoration of service associated with electric power outages affecting customers of an electric utility as the result of a storm or storms, including but not limited to mobilization, staging, and construction, reconstruction, replacement, or repair of electric generation, transmission, or distribution facilities. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm recovery bonds: means bonds, debentures, notes, certificates of participation, certificates of ownership, or other evidences of indebtedness or ownership that are issued pursuant to an indenture, contract, or other agreement of an electric utility or an assignee pursuant to a financing order, the proceeds of which are used directly or indirectly to provide, recover, finance, or refinance commission-approved storm recovery costs, financing costs, and costs to replenish or fund a storm recovery reserve to such level as the commission may authorize in a financing order, and which are secured by or payable from storm recovery property. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm recovery charge: means the amounts authorized by the commission to recover, finance, or refinance storm recovery costs, financing costs, and costs to replenish or fund a storm recovery reserve to such level as the commission may authorize in a financing order. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm recovery costs: means , if requested by the electric utility, and as may be approved by the commission, costs incurred or to be incurred by an electric utility in undertaking a storm recovery activity. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Storm recovery property: means the contract right constituting incorporeal movable property newly created pursuant to this Part which may consist of any of the following:

  (a)  All rights and interests of an electric utility or successor or assignee of the electric utility under a financing order, including the right to impose, bill, charge, collect, and receive storm recovery charges authorized in the financing order and to obtain periodic adjustments to such charges as may be provided in the financing order. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227

• Storm recovery reserve: means an electric utility's storm reserve or such other similar reserve established pursuant to order or rule of the commission. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
• Uniform Commercial Code: A set of statutes enacted by the various states to provide consistency among the states' commercial laws. It includes negotiable instruments, sales, stock transfers, trust and warehouse receipts, and bills of lading. ^{Source: OCC}
• Uniform Commercial Code - Secured Transactions: means Chapter 9 of Title 10 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes of 1950. See Louisiana Revised Statutes 45:1227
• Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.