It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 39-1-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 39-1 entitled "Public Utilities Commission" is hereby amended to read as follows:

{ADD 39-1-2. Definitions. -- ADD} Terms used in this title shall be construed as follows, unless another meaning is expressed or is clearly apparent from the language or context.

(1) "Commission" means the public utilities commission;

(2) "Commissioner" means a member of the public utilities commission;

(3) "Chairperson" means the chairperson of the public utilities commission;

(4) "Division" means the division of public utilities and carriers;

(5) "Administrator" means the administrator and chief executive officer of the division of public utilities and carriers;

(6) "Company" means and includes a person, firm, partnership, corporation, association, joint stock association or company, and his, her, its, or their lessees, trustees or receivers appointed by any court;

(7) "Public utility" means and includes every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, electric, water, telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining, managing, or controlling any plant or equipment or any part of any plant or equipment within this state for generating, manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, steam, electrical or nuclear energy, heat, light or power, directly or indirectly to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed on or in connection with any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state, or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any public highways, parkways or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission, transportation, or distribution of gas or electric current for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling or power for providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state or any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state including the water supply board of the city of Providence; provided, that, except as provided in section 39-16-9 and in chapter 2072 of the public laws, 1933, as amended, this definition shall not be construed to apply to any public waterworks or water service owned and furnished by any city, town, water district, fire district, or any other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation, excepting the water supply board of the city of Providence, unless any city, town, water district, fire district, municipal or quasi-municipal corporation obtains water from a source owned or leased by the water resources board, either directly or indirectly, or obtains a loan from the board pursuant to the provisions of chapter 15 of title 46, or sells water, on a wholesale or retail basis, inside and outside the territorial limits of the city or town, water district, fire district, municipal or quasi-municipal corporation, except, however, that a public waterworks or water service owned and furnished by any city, town, water district, fire district, or any other municipal or quasi-municipal corporation which sells water, on a wholesale or retail basis, inside and outside its territorial limits shall not be construed as a public utility if it has fewer than 1500 total customer service connections and provided outside sales do not exceed ten (10) percent of the total water service connections or volumetric sales and provided the price charged to outside customers, per unit of water, is not greater than the price charged to inside customers for the same unit of water, nor to the Rhode Island public transit authority, or to the production and/or distribution of steam, heat, or water by Rhode Island port authority and economic development corporation in the town of North Kingstown; and the term "public utility" shall also mean and include the Narragansett Bay water quality management district commission; {ADD and provided that the ownership or operation of a facility by a company which dispenses alternative fuel or energy sources at retail for use as a motor vehicle fuel or energy source, and the dispensing of alternative fuel or energy sources at retail from such a facility, does not make the company a public utility within the meaning of this title solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale; and provided further that this exemption shall not apply to presently regulated public utilities which sell natural gas or are dispensers of other energy sources; ADD} and provided further, that the term "public utility" shall not include any company;

(i) producing or distributing steam or heat from a fossil fuel fired cogeneration plant located at the university of Rhode Island in South Kingstown, Rhode Island, and

(ii) producing and/or distributing thermal energy and/or electricity to a state owned facility from a plant located on an adjacent site regardless of whether distribution lines cross a public highway.

(8) "Common carrier", except when used in chapters 12, 13 and 14 of this title, means and includes all carriers for hire or compensation including railroads, street railways, express, freight and freight line companies, dining car companies, steam boat, motor boat, power boat, hydrofoil, and ferry companies and all other companies operating any agency or facility for public use in this conveyance over fixed route, or between fixed termini within this state or persons or property by or by a combination of land, air, or water;

(9) "Charter carrier" means and includes all carriers for hire or compensation within this state not included in the definition of common carrier;

(10) "Railroad" means and includes every railroad other than a street railway, by whatsoever power operated for public use in the conveyance in this state of persons or property for compensation, with all bridges, ferries, tunnels, switches, spurs, tracks, stations, wharves, and terminal faciities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, leased, or owned by or in connection with any railroad;

(11) "Street railway" means and includes every railway by whatsoever power operated or any extension or extensions, branch, or branches thereof, for public use in the conveyance in this state of persons or property for compensation, being mainly upon, along, above, or below any street, avenue, road, highway, bridge, or public place in any city or town, and including all switches, spurs, tracks, rights of trackage, subways, tunnels, stations, terminals and terminal facilities of every kind, used, operated, controlled, or owned by or in connection with any street railway;

(12) "Airport" and "landing field" mean and include all airports and landing fields other than those owned by the state;

(13) "Plant" and "equipment" mean and include all real estate, easements, rights therein and appurtenances thereunto belonging, buildings, tracks, pipes, mains, poles, wires, and other fixed or stationary construction and equipment, machinery, apparatus, devices, rolling stock, and tangible property of whatsoever kind and nature and wherever located, used, controlled, operated, leased, or owned by a public utility in the conduct of its business;

(14) "Liquefied natural gas" means a fluid in the liquid state composed predominantly of methane and which may contain minor quantities of ethane, propane, nitrogen, or other components normally found in natural gas;

(15) "Natural gas" means the combustible gaseous mixture of low-molecular-weight, paraffin hydrocarbons, generated below the surface of the earth containing mostly methane and ethane with small amounts of propane, butane, and hydrocarbons, and sometimes nitrogen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and helium;

(16) "Nonprofit housing development corporation" means a nonprofit corporation, which has been approved as a section 501(c)(3) [26 U.S.C. section 501(c)(3)] corporation by the Internal Revenue Service, and which is organized and operated primarily for the purpose of providing housing for low and moderate income persons;

(17) "Motor carriers" means any carrier regulated by the Administrator pursuant to Chapters 3, 11, 12, 13 and 14 of this title.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.