CHAPTER 132 HOUSE BILL No. 2374* An Act concerning public utilities; relating to procedures to recover certain security costs. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas:

      Section  1. This act may be cited as the Kansas energy security act.

      Sec.  2. The legislature finds that:

      (a) Actual and threatened acts of terrorism directed at the American
people make it clear that government must take enhanced measures to
protect its citizens and provide for greater security of services essential
to the public welfare.

      (b) The threat of terrorism extends to utilities that provide basic serv-
ices upon which individual citizens, schools, hospitals, nursing homes, day
care centers, businesses and industry rely.

      (c) Under these extraordinary circumstances, practices and proce-
dures that would otherwise apply in regulatory proceedings shall not ham-
per the government in performing its most basic purposes: Providing for
the security of its citizens and protecting the public welfare.

      Sec.  3. (a) In adopting procedures applicable in proceedings pursu-
ant to K.S.A. 66-1233, and amendments thereto, the state corporation
commission shall provide for:

      (1) Confidentiality of information so that the amount of recovery re-
quested, the amount of recovery allowed, the method of cost recovery
requested and the method of cost recovery allowed is not disclosed;

      (2) protective orders for all filings so that the citizens' utility ratepayer
board may receive and review documents if the board intervenes;

      (3) procedures to reflect rules of the United States nuclear regulatory
commission or other regulatory bodies that govern the release of infor-
mation and documentation which an applicant is required to submit to
support the application or supply to the commission, commission staff or
intervenors;

      (4) the security cost recovery charge to be unidentifiable on custom-
ers' bills;

      (5) the security cost recovery charge shall be allocated and added to
all wholesale and retail rates and future contracts. Any contract existing
on the effective date of this act, which does not specifically prohibit the
addition of such charges, shall have such charges added;

      (6) review of security-related filings in an expedited manner with ref-
erence only to security-related items to assure that the proposed items
provide enhanced security;

      (7) denial of any expenditure that the commission determines is not
prudent or is not for security measures and approval of all other expend-
itures; and

      (8) recovery of capital expenditures over a period equal to not more
than 1/2 the usable lifetime of the capital investment.

      (b) A determination by the commission of the prudence of an ex-
penditure for security measures shall not be based on standard regulatory
principles and methods of recovery and shall take fully into account the
findings and intent of the legislature as stated in section 2, and amend-
ments thereto.

      (c) The provisions of this act and K.S.A. 66-1233, and amendments
thereto, shall apply recovery of prudent expenditures for enhanced se-
curity incurred after September 11, 2001.

 Sec.  4. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its
publication in the Kansas register.

Approved April 21, 2003.
 Published in the Kansas Register May 1, 2003.
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