Minnesota Session Laws - 1987, Regular Session

  

                         Laws of Minnesota 1987 

                        CHAPTER 304-S.F.No. 865 
           An act relating to environment; authorizing an 
          assessment against public utilities to finance the 
          state costs of controlling acid deposition; amending 
          Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 116C.69, subdivision 
          3. 
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
    Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 1986, section 116C.69, 
subdivision 3, is amended to read:  
    Subd. 3.  [FUNDING; ASSESSMENT.] The board shall finance 
its base line studies, general environmental studies, 
development of criteria, inventory preparation, monitoring of 
conditions placed on site certificates and construction permits, 
and all other work, other than specific site and route 
designation, from an assessment made quarterly, at least 30 days 
before the start of each quarter, by the board against all 
utilities with annual retail kilowatt-hour sales greater than 
4,000,000 kilowatt-hours in the previous calendar year.  
    Until June 30, 1992, the assessment shall also include an 
amount sufficient to cover 60 percent of the costs to the 
pollution control agency of developing achieving, maintaining, 
and monitoring compliance with the acid deposition control plan 
required by standard adopted under sections 116.42 to 116.45;, 
reprinting informational booklets on acid rain, and costs for 
additional research on the impacts of acid deposition on 
sensitive areas published under section 116.44, subdivision 
1.  This amount shall be certified to the board by the executive 
director of the pollution control agency The director of the 
pollution control agency must prepare a work plan and budget and 
submit them annually by June 30 to the pollution control agency 
board.  The agency board must take public testimony on the 
budget and work plan.  After the agency board approves the work 
plan and budget they must be submitted annually to the 
legislative commission on Minnesota resources for review and 
recommendation before an assessment is levied.  Each share shall 
be determined as follows: (1) the ratio that the annual retail 
kilowatt-hour sales in the state of each utility bears to the 
annual total retail kilowatt-hour sales in the state of all such 
these utilities, multiplied by 0.667, plus (2) the ratio that 
the annual gross revenue from retail kilowatt-hour sales in the 
state of each utility bears to the annual total gross revenues 
from retail kilowatt-hour sales in the state of all such these 
utilities, multiplied by 0.333, as determined by the board.  The 
assessment shall be credited to the special revenue fund and 
shall be paid to the state treasury within 30 days after receipt 
of the bill, which shall constitute notice of said assessment 
and demand of payment thereof.  The total amount which may be 
assessed to the several utilities under authority of this 
subdivision shall not exceed the sum of the annual budget of the 
board for carrying out the purposes of this subdivision plus 60 
percent of the annual budget of the pollution control agency for 
developing the plan required by achieving, maintaining, and 
monitoring compliance with the acid deposition control standard 
adopted under sections 116.42 to 116.45, for reprinting 
informational booklets on acid rain, and for costs for 
additional research on the impacts of acid deposition on 
sensitive areas published under section 116.44, subdivision 1.  
The assessment for the second quarter of each fiscal year shall 
be adjusted to compensate for the amount by which actual 
expenditures by the board and the pollution control agency for 
the preceding fiscal year were more or less than the estimated 
expenditures previously assessed. 
    Sec. 2.  [EFFECTIVE DATE.] 
    Section 1 is effective the day following final enactment. 
    Approved May 28, 1987