Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-21. Access to premises of utility
The commissioners, the attorney general, and the agents of the division, as provided in § 39-1-15 and § 39-1-20, while engaged in the performance of their duties, may, at all reasonable times, enter any premises, buildings, cars, plant, or equipment, or other places belonging to, or controlled by, any public utility, communications carrier, or contract carrier, and inspect the same or any part thereof, and any person obstructing, hindering, or in any way causing to be obstructed or hindered, any commissioner or the attorney general or any agent of the division, in the performance of his or her duties, or who shall refuse to permit any commissioner, the attorney general, or any agent of the division entrance into any premises, building, cars, plant, or equipment, or other places belonging to or controlled by any public utility, communications carrier, or contract carrier, in the performance of his or her duties as such, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500).
Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-21
- Commissioner: means a member of the public utilities commission. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Division: means the division of public utilities and carriers. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
- person: may be construed to extend to and include co-partnerships and bodies corporate and politic. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-6
- Public utility: means and includes every company that is an electric distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, 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 manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, 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 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 § 39-16-9 and in P. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2