The general assembly hereby finds that:
(1) Duplication of electric system facilities leads to excessive consumer costs and adverse environmental and aesthetic impacts;
(2) The public health, safety, and welfare require that electric service to a particular geographic area be provided by a single electric system;
(3) The general assembly has heretofore established the geographic territories of electric systems as those geographic areas in which a particular electric system maintained facilities to provide electric service on March 6, 1968, except as those geographic areas have been modified by statutorily authorized agreements among adjacent electric systems, all as provided by § 6-51-112;
(4) Maintenance of the previously established geographic territories, as modified by statutorily authorized agreements, continues to be in the public interest and promotes the public health, safety and welfare;
(5) The consumer owners of municipal and cooperative electric systems have invested large sums in facilities and equipment necessary to provide electric service within areas served by those electric systems; and
(6) It would be contrary to the public interest to permit utilities that are not consumer owned to expand service into areas already served by consumer owned municipal and cooperative electric systems, as such expansion would result in a duplication of service facilities and the loss of consumer investment in displaced facilities.
