Rep. Cubin (R-Wyo.) introduced bill that would establish guidelin...
Rep. Cubin (R-Wyo.) introduced bill that would establish guidelines for assessing federal right-of-way (RoW) fees on utility infrastructure projects. Although bill (HR-3258) is technology-neutral, Telecom ROW (TelROW) Coalition said it would address what it described as “arbitrary revisions” in…
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Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management fee schedules. TelRoW Chmn. Stephen Burns said federal agencies had levied fees on fiber projects on case-by-case basis, leading to unreasonable increases in companies’ annual RoW bills. He said revisions were made even though “no formal rulemaking has begun, nor have the federal statutes been changed. Yet the land management agencies arbitrarily raised [RoW] fees to a number of infrastructure providers, providing a real disincentive to further builds of much-needed telecommunications and energy networks.” Bill would require that fees be based upon “fair market value of a use of a land,” which would be determined by: (1) Value of the land. (2) Decrease in value of land resulting from RoW. (3) Amount necessary to restore value of land before RoW approval. Cubin said Nov. 8 that bill “ensures that Americans who live in rural areas receive the service they deserve in a timely and reasonable fashion. Furthermore, the bill guarantees a fair return to the federal treasury for the use of our public lands.”