Authorizes any county or city, or any combination of counties, cities, or counties and cities, to establish a local or regional overdose fatality review team for the purpose of (i) conducting contemporaneous reviews of local overdose deaths, (ii) promoting cooperation and coordination among agencies involved in investigations of overdose deaths or in providing services to surviving family members, (iii) developing an understanding of the causes and incidence of overdose deaths in the locality, (iv) developing plans for and recommending changes within the agencies represented on the local team to prevent overdose deaths, and (v) advising the Department of Health and other relevant state agencies on changes to law, policy, or practice to prevent overdose deaths. The bill authorizes a local or regional team to review the death of any person who resides in the Commonwealth and whose death was or is suspected to be due to overdose. A violation of the confidentiality of the review process is punishable as a Class 3 misdemeanor.
Requires each hospital to establish a protocol requiring that, before a health care provider arranges for air medical transportation services for a patient who does not have an emergency medical condition, the hospital provide the patient or his authorized representative with written or electronic notice that the patient (i) may have a choice of transportation by an air medical transportation provider or medically appropriate ground transportation by an emergency medical services provider and (ii) will be responsible for charges incurred for such transportation in the event that the provider is not a contracted network provider of the patient's health insurance carrier or such charges are not otherwise covered in full or in part by the patient's health insurance plan. The provisions of such requirement become effective on March 1, 2019. The bill directs the Office of Emergency Medical Services to develop a mechanism no later than January 1, 2019, to disclose to a patient, prior to services provided by an out-of-network air transport provider, a good faith estimate of the range of typical charges for out-of-network air transport services provided in that geographic area.
Prohibits a private entity from operating a rest area for commercial purposes without the approval of the General Assembly. The bill provides that the prohibition does not apply to any program or contract between a private entity and an agency or political subdivision of the Commonwealth authorized pursuant to federal law, regulation, or policy as of July 1, 2018. This bill is identical to
Provides that when arrangements for funeral services have been made by a licensed funeral service establishment, funeral service licensees shall accept caskets provided by third parties in accordance with federal law.
Requires that the existing prescription drug donation program regulated by the Board of Pharmacy accept eligible prescription drugs from individuals, including those residing in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or intermediate care facilities established for individuals with intellectual disability (ICF/IID), licensed hospitals, any facility operated by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, from an agent pursuant to a power of attorney, a decedent's personal representative, a legal guardian of an incapacitated person, and a guardian ad litem donated on behalf of the represented individual. The bill also provides liability protection for those who donate, accept, and dispense such unused drugs.
Requires that electric distribution lines installed on or after July 1, 2018, upon or over agricultural land shall be placed at a height that is not less than the minimum height requirement that applies to the placement of such lines above road crossings.
Provides that a general contractor may not waive or diminish his lien rights in a contract in advance of furnishing any labor, services, or materials. The bill further provides that, notwithstanding the prohibition against waiving or diminishing such a lien right, a general contractor may, prior to or after providing any labor, services, or materials, contract to subordinate his lien rights to prior and later recorded deeds of trust, provided that such contract is (i) in writing and (ii) signed by any general contractor whose lien rights are being subordinated pursuant to such contract. This bill is identical to
Establishes an annual wireless support structure public rights-of-way use fee to be charged to wireless services providers and wireless infrastructure providers in connection with a permit for occupation and use of the public rights-of-way under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation (VDOT) or a locality for the construction of new wireless support structures. The amount of the use fee is (i) $1,000 for any wireless support structure at or below 50 feet in height; (ii) $3,000 for any wireless support structure above 50 feet and at or below 120 feet in height; (iii) $5,000 for any wireless support structure above 120 feet in height; and (iv) $1 per square foot for any other equipment, shelter, or associated facilities constructed on the ground. The measure provides that the use fee amounts shall be adjusted every five years on the basis of inflation. The measure also provides that an existing agreement, contract, license, easement, or permit allowing the use of the public rights-of-way by a wireless services provider or wireless infrastructure provider may be enforced by VDOT or the locality only until the current term of the agreement, contract, license, easement, or permit expires. This bill is identical to
Adds Rockingham County to the list of counties that may impose a transient occupancy tax at a rate not to exceed 5%. The revenue attributable to a rate in excess of 2% shall be used solely for tourism and travel purposes. Under current law, all counties may impose a transient occupancy tax at a rate not to exceed 2%.
Creates the occupational title of master barber and requires the Board for Barbers and Cosmetology to issue a license to practice as a master barber, defined in the bill, to any individual licensed as a barber prior to December 8, 2017, and to an applicant who has successfully (i) completed the educational requirements as required by the Board, (ii) completed the experience requirements as required by the Board, and (iii) passed the examination approved by the Board. The bill contains an emergency clause. This bill is identical to
Provides that, in lieu of the biennial review proceedings previously required, Dominion Energy Virginia (DEV) and Appalachian Power (APCo) will be subject to triennial reviews of their rates, terms, and conditions for generation, distribution, and transmission services. The measure advances the termination of the Transitional Rate Period for DEV by three years, to December 31, 2016. The termination of the Transitional Rate Period for APCo remains December 31, 2017. DEV's first review after its Transitional Rate Period will be held in 2021, which is one year earlier than currently scheduled, and will utilize the four 12-month test periods beginning January 1, 2017, and ending December 31, 2020. APCo's first review after its Transitional Rate Period will be held in 2020, which is unchanged, and will utilize the three 12-month test periods beginning January 1, 2017, and ending December 31, 2019. The measure also (i) requires the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to enter its final order on petitions for approval of a voluntary rate or rate design test or experiment by the earlier of not more than six months after the filing of the petition or three months after the hearing on the petition; (ii) excludes from the definition of "public utility" for purposes of the Utility Facility Act a company that provides storage of electric energy that is not for sale to the public, if the company is not organized as a public utility; (iii) authorizes an investor-owned electric utility, if a cable operator does not elect to relocate facilities underground when the electric utility relocates its facilities underground, to either convey poles to the cable operator or retain ownership of the poles; (iv) provides that an energy efficiency program proposed by an electric or natural gas utility is in the public interest if the net present value of the benefits exceeds the net present value of the costs as determined by any three of four benefit cost tests; (v) exempts large general service customers from being charged any costs of new energy efficiency programs; (vi) establishes a new rate adjustment clause category for expenses of electric distribution grid transformation projects, which include advanced metering infrastructure, intelligent grid devices, automated control systems for electric distribution circuits and substations, communications networks for service meters, certain distribution system hardening projects, physical security measures at key distribution substations, cyber security measures, certain energy storage systems and microgrids, electrical facilities and infrastructure for electric vehicle charging systems, LED street light conversions, and new customer information platforms; (vii) declares that electric distribution grid transformation projects are in the public interest; (viii) provides that the costs of such projects may be recovered either through a rate adjustment clause or through a customer credit reinvestment offset; (ix) directs the SCC to approve, without consideration of their reasonableness or prudence, the costs of the conversion of an investor-owned electric utility's existing overhead distribution tap lines with new underground facilities if the average cost per customer does not exceed $20,000 and the costs per mile do not exceed $750,000, provided that as of December 31, 2028, any costs recovered by a utility for such purpose is limited to the remaining costs for conversions previously approved or for which approval is pending; (x) requires SCC to enter an order on a petition for approval of an electric distribution grid transformation project within six months after the petition's filing; (xi) increases the amount of capacity of solar and wind generation facilities constructed by a utility that are in the public interest from 50 megawatts to 5,000 megawatts, including rooftop solar installations with a capacity of not less than 50 kilowatts; (xii) declares that offshore wind generation facilities with a capacity of not more than 16 megawatts, and all onshore wind generation facilities, are in the public interest and that the costs thereof may be recovered either through a rate adjustment clause or through a customer credit reinvestment offset; (xiii) provides that if DEV has not commenced construction of an offshore wind generation facility by July 1, 2023, the SCC may cease its rate adjustment clause and roll the costs into its rate base without increasing base rates; (xiv) requires certain costs related to generation plant facilities fueled by coal, natural gas, or oil or for automated meter reading electric distribution service meters and costs associated with projects necessary to comply with state or federal environmental laws, regulations, or judicial or administrative orders relating to coal combustion by-product management that the utility does not petition to recover through a rate adjustment clause to be deemed to have been recovered through customer rates during the test period under review unless doing so would place the utility in an under-earning position, in which event the SCC is required to authorize deferred recovery of such costs and allow the utility to amortize and recover the deferred costs over future periods; (xv) bars the SCC, in the first triennial review proceeding conducted after January 1, 2021, from ordering a rate increase for DEV and from ordering a rate decrease of more than $50 million; (xvi) allows utilities, upon request,to reduce or eliminate amounts of overearnings that otherwise would be required to be credited to customers by applying a customer credit reinvestment offset for expenses on new solar and wind generation facilities and electric distribution grid transformation projects, if the utility has invested in such projects an amount not less than 100 percent of the amount of its overearnings; (xvii) provides that the portion of the costs associated with new utility-owned solar or wind generation facilities or with electric distribution grid transformation projects that are the subject of a customer credit reinvestment offset shall not be thereafter recoverable through the utility's base rates or a rate adjustment clause; (xviii) requires APCo to continue funding its pilot program for energy assistance and weatherization for low-income, elderly, and disabled individuals at no less than the existing levels, and requires DEV to fund its similar pilot program at no less than $13 million annually; (xix) directs the SCC to find that prior to January 1, 2024, the construction or purchase by a public utility of certain solar or wind generation facilities, or the purchase by a public utility of energy, capacity, and environmental attributes from such solar facilities, is in the public interest, and requires 25 percent of the generation capacity from such facilities to be from the purchase by a public utility of energy, capacity, and environmental attributes from solar facilities owned by persons other than a public utility; (xx) requires all of such solar generation capacity located in the Commonwealth to be subject to competitive procurement but allows a public utility to select solar generation capacity without regard to whether such selection satisfies price criteria if the selection of the solar generating capacity materially advances non-price criteria if such non-price solar generating capacity selected does not exceed 25 percent of the utility's solar generating capacity; (xxi) authorizes a utility to petition the SCC for a prudency determination for a solar or wind project; (xxii) requires electric utilities to file updates to its integrated resource plan (IRP) in each year immediately preceding the year the utility is subject to a triennial review filing rather than annually; and (xxiii) requires each electric utility's IRP to evaluate long-term electric distribution grid planning and proposed electric distribution grid transformation projects and developing a long-term plan for energy efficiency measures to accomplish policy goals of reduction in customer bills, reduction in emissions, and reduction in carbon intensity. The provision creating the customer credit reinvestment offset expires on July 1, 2028. The measure also includes enactment clauses that (a) establish a pilot program consisting of the approval of the underground construction of two electrical transmission lines and directs the SCC to approve as a qualifying project a transmission line that appears to track the I-66 Hybrid Route that has been considered in the application of DEV for the Haymarket transmission line project in Prince William County and approve a rate adjustment clause to allow the utility to recover from the utility's Virginia jurisdictional customers the costs of the project; (b) bar APCo from recovering $10 million of incurred fuel costs; (c) require DEV to provide current customers voluntary bill credits of $133 million in 2018 and $67 million in 2019; (d) require reductions in the rates for incumbent electric utilities to reflect reductions in federal tax liability resulting from the enactment of federal tax legislation, including reductions in 2018 of $50 million by APCo and $125 million by DEV; (e) direct the SCC to conduct pilot programs for the deployment of electric power storage batteries with capacity limits of up to 10 MW for APCo and 30 MW for DEV; (f) allow certain large nonresidential customers that enter into a three-year minimum exclusive supply agreement to receive a Manufacturing and Commercial Competitiveness Retention Credit that reduces their base generation charges by two percent; (g) require DEV to consider in its next IRP whether the construction or purchase of one or more generation facilities with at least one MW of generating capacity that use combined heat and power or waste heat to power are in the customer interest; (h) require APCo and DEV to investigate the feasibility of providing broadband Internet services to unserved areas of the Commonwealth using utility distribution and transmission infrastructure; (i) require the SCC to submit annual reports that assess, among other things, new construction and development of new utility-owned and utility-operated generating facilities utilizing energy derived from sunlight; (j) require APCo and DEV to develop programs of energy conservation measures, with APCo's program costing not less than $140 million and DEV's program costing not less than $870 million; (k) require APCo and DEV to investigate and report upon its economic development activities and assistance provided to Virginia localities in the area of economic development in each utility's respective service area; (l) require APCo and DEV to investigate potential improvements to net energy metering programs; (m) require DEV's IRPs to incorporate policy goals of reduction in customer bills, reduction in emissions, and reduction in the utility's carbon intensity; (n) require the SCC to submit annual reports assessing the reliability of electrical transmission or distribution systems, the integration of utility-owned or customer-owned renewable electric generation resources with the utility's electric distribution grid, the level of investment in generation, transmission, or distribution of electricity, and related matters; (o) provide that the provisions of this measure apply retroactively to applications regarding new underground facilities or offshore wind facilities pending with the SCC on or after January 1, 2018; (p) require APCo, subject to SCC approval, by July 1, 2018, to construct or acquire solar generation facilities in Virginia with an aggregate capacity of not less than 200 MW; (q) provide that no more than one half of the combined capital investment amount attributable to investments in new utility-owned solar or wind generation facilities, electric distribution grid transformation projects, undergrounding distribution facilities, undergrounding two transmission lines, and energy efficiency programs shall be investments in undergrounding distribution facilities, undergrounding two transmission lines, and electric grid distribution transformation projects solely designed for physical security at distribution substations; and (r) require the SCC to submit reports after each triennial review proceeding that describe and quantify investments in solar and wind projects and in electric distribution grid transformation projects.
Exempts from the requirement that motor vehicles be inspected prior to retail sale transactions (i) a motor vehicle that is sold on the basis of a special order placed with a dealer or manufacturer outside the Commonwealth by a dealer who makes modifications to such vehicle prior to delivery to the first retail customer who takes delivery outside the Commonwealth or (ii) a new motor vehicle that has previously been inspected and displays a valid inspection sticker. For a new vehicle sold on the basis of a special order by a dealer on behalf of a nonresident, the bill expands the existing exception for an order placed with a manufacturer outside the Commonwealth to also exempt an order placed with a dealer outside the Commonwealth. The bill contains a technical amendment. This bill is identical to
