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Public Service Company
A public service company (or public utility company) is a corporation or other non-governmental business entity (i.e. limited partnership) that delivers public services—certain services considered essential to the public interest. The ranks of such companies include public utility companies like natural gas, pipeline, electricity, and water supply companies, sewer companies, telephone companies and telegraph companies. They also include public services such as transportation of passengers or property as a common carrier, such as airlines, railroads, trucking, bus, and taxicab companies. Public service (or utility) companies may operate under certificates of public convenience and necessity which may limit competition. Their services may be subject to rate control and other regulations which are not common to general businesses. The concept of public service companies was that, in order to attract sufficient private investment capital and guarantee sufficient revenues to ensur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seattle Steam Company
CenTrio, formerly known as the Seattle Steam Company, is a district heating public utility that provides steam (generated by burning natural gas, diesel oil, and recycled wood) to over 175 businesses in downtown Seattle and on First and Capitol Hills via 18 miles of steam pipeline. Its plants are located on Western Avenue at Union Street, just west of Pike Place Market, and on Post Avenue at Yesler Way, in Pioneer Square. About Seattle Steam was founded in 1893 as the Seattle Steam Heat and Power Co. It owns 18 miles of pipes under the streets of Downtown. Its average winter output is of steam per hour; this drops to less than in the summer. Seattle Steam's biggest customers are Swedish Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, and Virginia Mason Medical Center, which use the steam for heat and sterilization. Other big customers include hotels, which use the steam for heat and for generating hot water, Seattle Public Library, which uses it for heat and the Seattle Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Truck
A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction, with a cabin that is independent of the payload portion of the vehicle. Smaller varieties may be mechanically similar to some automobiles. Commercial trucks can be very large and powerful and may be configured to be mounted with specialized equipment, such as in the case of refuse trucks, fire trucks, concrete mixers, and suction excavators. In American English, a commercial vehicle without a trailer or other articulation is formally a "straight truck" while one designed specifically to pull a trailer is not a truck but a " tractor". The majority of trucks currently in use are powered by diesel engines, although small- to medium-size trucks with gasoline engines exist in North America. Electrically powered trucks are more popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Law (common Law)
Civil law is a major "branch of the law", in common law legal systems such as those in England and Wales and in the United States, where it stands in contrast to criminal law. Glanville Williams. '' Learning the Law''. Eleventh Edition. Stevens. 1982. p. 2.W J Stewart and Robert Burgess. ''Collins Dictionary of Law''. HarperCollins Publishers. 1996. . Page 68. Definition 4 of "civil law". Private law, which relates to civil wrongs and quasi-contracts, is part of civil law, as is contract law and law of property (excluding property-related crimes, such as theft or vandalism). Civil law may, like criminal law, be divided into substantive law and procedural law. The rights and duties of persons ( natural persons and legal persons) amongst themselves is the primary concern of civil law. The common law is today as fertile a source for theoretical inquiry as it has ever been. Around the English-speaking world, many scholars of law, philosophy, politics, and history study the t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telecommunications Act Of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code. Heavily supported and lobbied for by major corporations in the telecommunications sector, the act was the first significant overhaul of United States telecommunications law in more than sixty years. It amended the Communications Act of 1934, and represented a major change in that law, because it was the first time that the Internet was added to American regulation of broadcasting and telephony.The Telecommunications Act of 1996. Title 3, sec. 301. Retrieved frofcc.gov (2011) The stated intention of the law was to "let anyone enter any communications business – to let any communications business compete in any market against any other." In practice, it gave way to one of the largest consolidations of the telecomm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Energy Policy Act Of 1992
The Energy Policy Act of 1992, effective October 24, 1992, (102nd Congress H.R.776.ENR, abbreviated as EPACT92) is a United States government Act of Congress, act. It was passed by United States Congress, Congress and set goals, created mandates, and amended utility laws to increase clean energy use and improve overall energy efficiency in the United States. The Act consists of twenty-seven titles detailing various measures designed to lessen the nation's dependence on imported energy, provide incentives for clean and renewable energy, and promote energy conservation in buildings. Amendment of prior energy acts It reformed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) to help small utility companies stay competitive with larger utilities and amended the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978, broadening the range of resource choices for utility companies and outlined new rate-making standards. It also amended parts of the Federal Power Act of 1935 (Titl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act Of 1989
The Natural Gas Wellhead Decontrol Act of 1989 (NGWDA) is an act that amends the Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 to declare that the price guidelines for the first sale of natural gas do not apply to: # Expired, terminated, or post-enactment contracts executed after the date of enactment of this Act; and # Certain renegotiated contracts. It would initiate decontrols as of May 15, 1991, for natural gas produced from newly spudded wells. It permanently repealed wellhead price controls beginning on January 1, 1993. By means of Senate bill 783, the NGWDA was amended to eliminate wellhead price and nonprice controls on the first sale of natural gas, and to make technical and conforming amendments to the NGWDA. The bill describes interim elimination of lawful prices and makes permanent elimination of wellhead price controls effective on January 1, 1993. Criticism In the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) hearing Corinne Grace v. El Paso Natural Gas (1990), FERC states it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bus Regulatory Reform Act
The Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982 (, ) was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on September 20, 1982. The law contained provisions considered " deregulatory" of the bus industry, representing the largest legislation of regulatory reform since 1935. On signing the bill into law, Reagan stated: Law The bill included reducing restrictions on bus lines to add or remove stops, and increasing ease of entry of entrepreneurs into the bus service market. As such, authority could be granted to any "fit, willing, and able" carrier unless a protestant could show the new authority was contrary to public interest. The bill provided the Interstate Commerce Commission could investigate or suspend rates considered discriminatory or predatory. It could also overrule state regulatory authorities on intrastate "rate and exit issues" if state rulings caused "undue burdens" on interstate commerce. Following the enactment of the new law, the Interstate Commerce Commission The Inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Carrier Act Of 1980
The Motor Carrier Regulatory Reform and Modernization Act, more commonly known as the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 (MCA) is a United States federal law which deregulated the trucking industry. Background Motor carrier deregulation was a part of a sweeping reduction in price controls, entry controls, and collective vendor price setting in United States transportation, begun in 1970-71 with initiatives in the Richard Nixon Administration, carried out through the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Administrations, and continued into the 1980s, collectively seen as a part of deregulation in the United States. Since the passage of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, the federal government had regulated various transportation modes, starting with the railroad industry, and later the trucking and airline industries. Increasing public interest in deregulation led to a series of federal laws beginning in 1976 with the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act. The deregulation of the tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staggers Rail Act
The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 is a United States federal law that deregulated the American railroad industry to a significant extent, and it replaced the regulatory structure that had existed since the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Background In the aftermath of the Great Depression and World War II, many privately owned, operated, and funded for-profit railroads were driven out of business by competition from publicly owned, operated, and funded Interstate highways, which almost always operated at a loss, and airlines, which often used airports and dispatchers (in this case air traffic control by the FAA) funded by public money. Not restricted by the requirement to break even, cars and trucks use the highway system as constructed by the state, leading to the end of passenger train service on most railroads. Trucking businesses had become major competitors by the 1930s with the advent of improved paved roads. After the war, they expanded their operations as the highway netw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Natural Gas Policy Act Of 1978
The Natural Gas Policy Act of 1978 (NGPA) is federal legislation that had been enacted as a response to US natural gas shortages of 1976–77. It was enacted for the following motivations: * To create a balance between natural gas supply and demand, * Create a national gas market, and * Transition to market-based prices. The NGPA: * Authorized the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to regulate interstate and some intrastate natural gas production and transportation. * Was designed to encourage the development of new natural gas supplies by gradually deregulating wellhead gas prices. * Established maximum lawful prices (ceilings) for the sale of natural gas, which were phased out over a series of years, allowing market forces to set natural gas prices. The Natural Gas Policy Act (NGPA) was the first building block in a plan from the Carter Administration to increase energy supply while reducing domestic consumption of energy. It preceded the Energy Security Act that Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Airline Deregulation Act
The Airline Deregulation Act is a 1978 United States federal law that deregulated the airline industry in the United States, removing federal control over such areas as fares, routes, and market entry of new airlines. The act gradually phased out and disbanded the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), but the regulatory powers of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over all aspects of aviation safety were not diminished. History Since 1938, the federal CAB had regulated all domestic interstate air transport routes as a public utility, setting fares, routes, and schedules. Airlines that flew only intrastate routes, however, were not regulated by the CAB but were regulated by the governments of the states in which they operated. One way that the CAB promoted air travel was generally attempting to hold fares down in the short-haul market, which would be subsidized by higher fares in the long-haul market. The CAB also had to ensure that the airlines had a reasonable rate of ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstate
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. The system extends throughout the contiguous United States and has routes in Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico. In the 20th century, the United States Congress began funding roadways through the Federal Aid Road Act of 1916, and started an effort to construct a national road grid with the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1921. In 1926, the United States Numbered Highway System was established, creating the first national road numbering system for cross-country travel. The roads were funded and maintained by U.S. states, and there were few national standards for road design. United States Numbered Highways ranged from two-lane country roads to multi-lane freeways. After Dwight D. Eisenhower be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
