Public Service Commission Chairman Lane’s column: Happy Birthday, America

PRESS RELEASE

Happy 250th anniversary, America.

You’ve come a long way over the years and have been a beacon of light for many huddled in the darkness of political oppression.

The United States came into existence in 1776.

Fifty years later, in 1826, Samuel Morey patented an internal combustion engine.

Our nation’s centennial year was marked by the invention of the telephone and the first two-day telephone conversation over outdoor wires. It also saw the first public exhibition of an electric light in San Francisco.

One-hundred-fifty years into our history, Congress passed an act licensing pilots and planes for commercial travel. The first film with sound was launched by the Warner Brothers. And Henry Ford announced an 8-hour workday.

Only 50 years later, as we celebrated our 200th year as a nation, the first American spacecraft touched down safely on Mars. We had put human feet on the moon much earlier. Conrail was formed to save seven bankrupt railroads in the East and the Midwest. Apple Computers was founded.

Who knows what technological advances we will see over the next 50 years?

This year marks the 113th year of the Public Service Commission of West Virginia.

The Commission came into existence following a state Supreme Court ruling in 1910 that struck down legislative rate-making.

Since its inception, the Commission’s regulatory duties have expanded far beyond the original boundaries that covered railroad, telephone, gas, and electric company regulations.

We began regulating motor carriers in 1937.

In 1979, the independent Consumer Advocate Division was added to our jurisdiction to represent consumers before the Commission.

The Commission’s authority now involves electric rates, gas, water, wastewater, motor carriers, trash haulers, gas pipeline safety and transmission, inspections of trains, railroad cars, and some supervisory responsibility over railroad crossings. 

We regulate aspects of taxis, limousines, and towing services, broadband, and a wide range of telecommunications activities. We deal with cable TV in a limited way. We resolve problems dealing with utility pole attachments, oversee veterans’ grave markers, and we also have general supervision over the operation of 50,000 fire hydrants in the state.

The three members of the Commission oversee all these operations and ratemaking with a staff that totals about 200.

It’s a lot of responsibility and, like our nation, it is a duty that constantly evolves.

We look forward to many more years of our nation’s growth and eagerly anticipate the future. We also await what new vistas will open before the Public Service Commission.