2005 Rhode Island Code - § 39-3-40 — Storage, transportation and distribution of gas – Regulation – Penalties.

    (a) In regulating the storage, transportation and distribution of gas and the pressure under which these operations may respectively be carried on, the division of public utilities and carriers may ascertain, determine and fix adequate and serviceable standards for the measurement of quality, pressure or other condition pertaining to the performing of its service, or to the furnishing of its product or commodity by any gas storage, transportation and distribution facility, and prescribe reasonable regulations for examination and testing of such service, product or commodity.

   (b) Any person, firm or corporation who violates any provision of any code adopted by the division pertaining to the safety of pipeline facilities and the transportation of gas, or of any regulation or rule thereunder, at a time when the division has submitted and has in effect the annual certification to the United States secretary of transportation provided for in § 5(a) of the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, as amended, (see § 1671 et seq. of Title 49 of the United States Code), shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each violation for each day that the violation persists; provided, however, that the maximum civil penalty shall not exceed five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for any related series of violations.

   (2) Any such penalty shall be determined by the division. In determining the amount of the penalty, the appropriateness of the penalty to the size of the business of the person, firm or corporation charged, the gravity of the violation, and the good faith of the person, firm or corporation charged in attempting to achieve compliance after notification of a violation, shall be considered. The amount of the penalty, where finally determined, may be deducted from any sums which the state may owe to the person, firm or corporation charged or may be recovered in a civil action commenced in the state courts.