851.
(a) A No public utility, utility other than a common carrier by railroad subject to Part A 1 of the Interstate Commerce Act (49 U.S.C. Sec. 10101 et seq.), shall not (Title 49, U.S.C.) may sell, lease, assign, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of, of or encumber the whole or any part of its railroad, street railroad, line, plant, system, or other property necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public, or any franchise or permit or any right thereunder, or nor by any means whatsoever, directly or indirectly, merge or consolidate its railroad, street railroad, line, plant, system, or other property, or franchises or permits or any part thereof, with any other public utility, without first having either secured an order from the commission authorizing it to do so for qualified transactions valued above five million dollars ($5,000,000), or for qualified transactions valued at five million dollars ($5,000,000) or less, filed an advice letter and obtained approval from the commission an order authorizing it to do so. If the advice letter is uncontested, approval may be given by the executive director or the director of the division of the commission having regulatory jurisdiction over the utility. The commission shall determine the types of transactions valued at five million dollars ($5,000,000) or less, that qualify for advice letter handling. For a qualified transaction valued at five million dollars ($5,000,000) or less, the commission may designate a procedure different than the advice letter procedure if it determines that the transaction warrants a more comprehensive review. Absent protest or incomplete documentation, the commission shall approve or deny the advice letter within 120 days of its filing by the applicant public utility. The commission shall reject any advice letter that seeks to circumvent the five million dollar ($5,000,000) threshold by dividing a single asset with a value of more than five million dollars ($5,000,000), into component parts, each valued at less than five million dollars ($5,000,000). Every sale, lease, assignment, mortgage, disposition, encumbrance, merger, or consolidation made other than in accordance with the advice letter and approval from order of the commission authorizing it is void. The permission and approval of the commission to the exercise of a franchise or permit under Article 1 (commencing with Section 1001) of Chapter 5, 5 of this part, or the sale, lease, assignment, mortgage, or other disposition or encumbrance of a franchise or permit under this article shall does not revive or validate any lapsed or invalid franchise or permit, or enlarge or add to the powers or privileges contained in the grant of any franchise or permit, or waive any forfeiture.(b) (1) Subdivision (a) shall apply to any transaction described in subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 854.2.
(2) For any transaction described in subparagraph (F) of paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) of Section 854.2, as part of its review under subdivision (a), the commission shall determine whether the transaction is fair and reasonable to affected public utility employees, including both union and nonunion employees.
(c) Nothing This section does not prevent in this section prevents the sale, lease, encumbrance, encumbrance or other disposition by any public utility of property that is not necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public, and any disposition of property by a public utility shall be conclusively presumed to be of property that is not useful or necessary in the performance of its duties to the public, as to any purchaser, lessee, lessee or encumbrancer dealing with that the property in good faith for value, provided that this value. This section does not apply to the interchange of equipment in the regular course of transportation between connecting common carriers.
(b) For a telephone corporation, a property or asset that is “necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public” under subdivision (a), means an operational property or asset owned by the telephone corporation that is essential to the delivery of service to end users, on a wholesale or retail basis, and is any of the following:
(1) The property or asset is currently and actively being used by the telephone corporation to provide service to end users.
(2) The telephone corporation has a present intention to use the property or asset to provide service to end users.
(3) The telephone corporation has a present obligation to make the property or asset available to wholesale telecommunications providers to provide service to end users.
(c) A telephone corporation may designate, wholly or partially, any property or asset as surplus and not “necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public” pursuant to subdivision (a), if the property or asset is any of the following:
(1) The property or asset consists of vacant or unused office or administrative space.
(2) The property or asset consists of vacant or unused space on a utility pole or tower or in utility conduit, provided that the telephone corporation complies with all other applicable statutory provisions and commission general orders regarding pole, tower, and conduit attachments.
(3) The property or asset consists of vacant or unimproved real estate that the telephone corporation does not have a present intention to use to provide service to end users, or does not have a present obligation to make available to wholesale providers to provide service to end users.
(4) The property or asset is accounted for as a nonoperating asset on the books of the telephone corporation.
(5) The property or asset is no longer being actively used by the telephone corporation or a wholesale telecommunications provider to provide service to end users, and the telephone corporation has no present intention to use the property or asset to provide service to end users, or no present obligation to make the property or asset available to wholesale telecommunications providers to provide service to end users.
(d) A telephone corporation is not required to obtain commission approval prior to disposing of or encumbering any property or asset with a fair market value of less than five million dollars ($5,000,000), if the telephone corporation has no present obligation to make the property or asset available to any wholesale telecommunications provider to provide service to end users.
(e) The commission shall permit a telephone corporation to make a filing to dispose of a property or asset with a fair market value in excess of five million dollars ($5,000,000), as required in subdivision (a), in accordance with the procedures adopted by the commission in the commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure applicable to advice letter filings. The commission shall apply those procedures in issuing a resolution to a filing under this subdivision, including the procedures relating to protests. The commission retains authority to treat an advice letter filing as an application filing in specific cases, and to eliminate the filing requirement altogether for classes of filings under this section.
(f) A telephone corporation is not required to obtain commission approval to dispose of or encumber property or assets that are surplus under subdivision (c).