Revisor summarizes Kansas utility statutes, KCC authority, transmission siting rules, and jurisdictional limits

Nick Myers, assistant revisor of statutes, presented an overview of public utility regulation in Kansas to the Senate Utilities Committee during the committee’s first meeting of 2025.

“My name is, as the chair said, Nick Myers,” Myers said, and he described the Revisor’s role in drafting bills and providing legal assistance to legislators. He framed the presentation as a high-level survey of terminology and statutory structures that committee members are likely to encounter this session.

Myers told the committee that the Kansas Corporation Commission, created by the legislature, is the primary state regulator for public utilities. He summarized statutory definitions and distinctions: a public utility has been defined in Kansas statutes since 1911 to include entities that own, operate or manage equipment, plants, or machinery—other than for private use—for services that include telephone, telegraph, conveyance of oil and gas through pipelines, and furnishing heat, light, water, or power.