SF0099

Establishes a prescriptive easement for electric utilities to maintain electricity delivery systems installed on property before January 1, 2006, based on visible installation and continuous use without a written agreement.

• Legislature finds that during rural electrification, landowners commonly allowed electrical distribution lines across their properties without written documentation, and these historic arrangements warrant legal protection without expanding burdens beyond the parties' original intent. (Section 1)
• Defines key terms including 'delivery' (distribution or transmission of electricity), 'electric utility', 'electricity user' (persons receiving electricity or whose land is crossed by utility systems), 'public utility', and 'system' (physical structures conveying electricity). (W.S. 34-1-159(a))
• Grants electric utilities a nonexclusive easement for electricity delivery systems if the system was installed by January 1, 2006, is visibly installed, and has been continuously and uninterruptedly used, provided no valid written agreement exists between the utility and landowner. (W.S. 34-1-159(b))
• Permits electric utilities to reconstruct, re-phase, maintain, and repair existing systems and to trim or remove hazardous vegetation, with access limited to the easement area unless access would be hazardous or materially encumbered. (W.S. 34-1-159(c))
• Limits easement width to thirty feet in any direction from the location of the existing line or system components, consistent with historical and traditional use by the electric utility. (W.S. 34-1-159(d))
• Establishes that an easement is deemed abandoned if the electric utility fails to use the delivery system for more than three consecutive years without an agreement with the landowner. (W.S. 34-1-159(e))
• Clarifies that the statute does not interfere with existing easements or agreements, does not allow utilities to expand use beyond historic or normal development except for reasonable expansion to serve neighboring or local land uses, and does not modify broader prescriptive easement laws. (W.S. 34-1-159(f))

Effective: July 1, 2026