2010 New York Code
TCP - Transportation Corporations
Article 2 - (10 - 17) GAS AND ELECTRIC CORPORATIONS.
11 - Powers.

§  11. Powers. Every such corporation shall have the following powers:
  1.  A gas corporation and a gas  and  electric  corporation  shall  have
  power  to  manufacture gas, and to acquire natural or artificial gas and
  to mix the gases and to sell and furnish gas for light, heat  or  power;
  and  to  lay  conductors  for  gas  in  the streets, highways and public
  places, in each city, village and town in the county or  counties  named
  in  its  certificate of incorporation, with the consent of the municipal
  authorities of such city, village or town,  and  under  such  reasonable
  regulations as they may prescribe.
    2. Every corporation having authority under any general or special law
  or under any charter or franchise, to lay down, erect or maintain pipes,
  conduits,  ducts  or  other  fixtures  in,  over  or  under the streets,
  highways and public places  of  any  municipality  for  the  purpose  of
  furnishing  or  distributing  natural  gas,  may  acquire and supply for
  public use artificial gas.
    Where any gas corporation is serving  natural  gas  under  permits  or
  franchises  permitting  the  laying or maintaining of mains or pipes and
  conveying natural  gas,  and  the  supply  of  natural  gas  has  become
  inadequate  or  insufficient  to give reasonable service to consumers in
  the municipalities  served  by  it,  such  gas  corporation  may  supply
  artificial  gas  or a mixture of natural and artificial gases under such
  permits or franchises.
    3. An electric corporation and a gas and  electric  corporation  shall
  have power to generate, acquire and supply electricity for heat or power
  in  cities,  towns  and  villages  within  this  state, and to light the
  streets, highways and public places thereof, and the public and  private
  buildings therein; and to make, sell or lease all machines, instruments,
  apparatus  and  other  equipments  therefor,  and  for  transmitting and
  distributing electricity, to lay, erect and construct suitable wires  or
  other  conductors, with the necessary poles, pipes or other fixtures in,
  on, over and under the streets, avenues, public parks and places in such
  cities, towns or villages, with the consent of the municipal authorities
  thereof, and in such manner and under such  reasonable  regulations,  as
  they may prescribe.
    3-a.  An  electric  corporation and a gas corporation shall have power
  and authority to acquire such real estate as may be  necessary  for  its
  corporate  purposes  and  the  right  of way through any property in the
  manner prescribed by the eminent domain procedure law.
    3-b. The construction, use and maintenance by an electric  corporation
  of  transmission,  distribution  and service lines and wires in, over or
  under any street, highway or public place and the construction, use  and
  maintenance  by  a  gas  corporation  of  transmission, distribution and
  service pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or  under  any
  trees,  highway  or  public place, as may be necessary for its corporate
  purposes, are hereby declared to be public uses and purposes.
    Where any person or corporation other  than  the  state,  a  political
  subdivision  thereof, or a municipality is the owner of any right, title
  or interest in or to any street, highway or public place, or  in  or  to
  the  land  on  which  the street, highway or public place is located, an
  electric corporation or a  gas  corporation  is  hereby  authorized  and
  empowered to acquire the right to construct, use and maintain such lines
  or  wires and such pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures, in, over or
  under such street, highway or public place, from such owner  or  owners,
  by  petition in the manner prescribed by section four hundred two of the
  eminent domain procedure law to the supreme court in the county in which
  such street, highway or public place is situated. The corporation  shall
  file  with  the  court  a  certificate  of the public service commission
  certifying that the right sought to be acquired is necessary and in  the

public  interest and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence as to
  the matters lawfully certified therein.
    After  a hearing on such petition and any answer thereto, if the court
  shall find that such right to construct, use and maintain  is  necessary
  for  the  corporate  purposes  of  the  corporation,  it shall enter its
  judgment adjudging that such right is necessary for the public  use  and
  that  the  corporation  is  entitled  to construct, use and maintain its
  lines or wires or pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in,  over  or
  under such street, highway or public place and adjudging pursuant to the
  eminent  domain  procedure  law  the  compensation  to  be  made  by the
  corporation to the owner or owners.
    4. Any two or more domestic gas corporations,  electric  corporations,
  gas and electric corporations, and any other domestic corporation formed
  for  the  purpose  of  engaging  in  any  business in which domestic gas
  corporations, electric corporations or gas and electric corporations may
  engage, may merge or consolidate in accordance with  the  procedure  and
  with  the  effect  set forth in article nine of the business corporation
  law.
    5. A corporation mentioned in this article or incorporated under or by
  any general or special law of this state for the  purpose  of  supplying
  for  public use electricity for light, heat or power in cities, towns or
  villages in this state, upon filing a certificate of amendment therefor,
  to which is annexed the consent required  by  section  one  hundred  and
  eleven of this chapter, shall have all the rights, privileges and powers
  and be subject to all the restrictions of district steam corporations.
    6.  The  term  "municipal authorities" as used in subdivisions one and
  three of this section, shall be deemed to be the local legislative  body
  of  a  city,  the board of trustees of a village and the town board of a
  town. All consents in writing for the doing of acts  mentioned  in  such
  subdivisions   given  before  April  fourteenth,  nineteen  hundred  and
  twenty-two,  in  writing  by   the   highway   commissioners   or   town
  superintendent  of  highways  or  the  town  board  of  any  town to any
  corporation organized under the provisions  of  this  article  shall  be
  deemed  to be the consents of the municipal authorities required by this
  section.
    7. Subdivisions three and three-a of this section shall not  apply  to
  any merchant transmission company which:
    (a) commences and ends in the state of New York;
    (b)  through  its  employees, agents, representatives, or assigns, has
  represented  in  testimony  that  the   construction   of   such   power
  transmission  lines  will  increase  electric  rates  in any part of the
  state; and
    (c) which applied for and did not receive an early  designation  as  a
  national  interest  electric  transmission  corridor  under  an  act  of
  congress commonly known as the Energy Policy Act of 2005.