Section 92: Right of user to gas or electricity
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/ma/part-i/title-xxii/chapter-164/92·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Section 92. On written petition of any person, having a residence or place of business in a town where a corporation is engaged in the manufacture, transmission or sale of gas or the distribution of electricity, aggrieved by its refusal or neglect to supply him with gas or electricity, the department may, after notice to the corporation to appear at a time and place therein named to show cause why the prayer of such petition should not be granted, issue an order directing and requiring it to supply the petitioner with gas or electricity, upon such terms and conditions as are legal and reasonable; provided, however, that if such corporation is engaged in such town solely in the transmission of gas such order shall not be made where it appears that compliance therewith would result in permanent financial loss to the corporation.
Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, in determining whether to issue an order directing a corporation to supply a petitioner with gas service, the department shall consider:
(i)whether the grant of the petition is in the public interest, including the public interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and complying with the limits and sublimits established pursuant to chapter 21N; and
(ii)whether, in the totality of the circumstances, the petitioner can secure adequate substitutes for gas-fired services for space heating, water heating and cooking appliances which, in the case of space heating, may include thermal energy that provides heating or cooling without combustion. The department may, in order to advance the public interest in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and complying with the limits and sublimits established pursuant to said chapter 21N, order actions that may vary the uniformity of the availability of natural gas service.
Grants of locations in the streets, lanes and highways of such town for the pipes or lines necessary to the supplying of gas or electricity in pursuance of such an order by a corporation solely engaged as aforesaid shall be subject to the provisions of sections eighty-six to ninety-one, inclusive.