Public Utilities Law

The Public Utilities Law governs the companies that furnish gas, electricity, water, and telephone service to the public, together with the common carriers that move persons and property by railroad, street railroad, and pipeline. It works chiefly by definition: it fixes the meaning of "public utility" and of each regulated category of plant, line, system, and corporation, and it designates a commission and its commissioners as the authority to which those enterprises answer. Whether a given business falls under that authority therefore turns on whether it fits one of the defined classes, and the act's terms are applied alongside the other statutes and laws reaching the same businesses.

Editorial summary generated from the text of this act. It is not part of the statute — read the sections below for the operative language.