N.Y. Transportation Corporations Law § 11 (2026)

§ 11. Powers. Every such corporation shall have the following powers:
1. A gas corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall have power
to manufacture gas, and to acquire thermal energy or natural or
artificial gas and to mix the gases and to sell and furnish thermal
energy for heating or cooling or gas for light, heat or power; and to
lay conductors, pipes, conduits, ducts and other fixtures for gas or
thermal energy networks in the streets, highways and public places, in
each city, village and town in the county or counties named in its
certificate of incorporation, with the consent of the municipal
authorities of such city, village or town, and under such reasonable
regulations as they may prescribe.
  2. Every corporation having authority under any general or special law
or under any charter or franchise, to lay down, erect or maintain pipes,
conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or under the streets,
highways and public places of any municipality for the purpose of
furnishing or distributing natural gas or thermal energy, may acquire
and supply for public use artificial gas or thermal energy.
  Where any gas corporation is serving natural gas under permits or
franchises permitting the laying or maintaining of mains or pipes and
conveying natural gas, and the supply of natural gas has become
inadequate or insufficient to give reasonable service to consumers in
the municipalities served by it, such gas corporation may supply
artificial gas or a mixture of natural and artificial gases or thermal
energy under such permits or franchises.
  3. An electric corporation and a gas and electric corporation shall
have power to generate, acquire and supply electricity or thermal energy
for heat, cooling or power in cities, towns and villages within this
state, and to light the streets, highways and public places thereof, and
the public and private buildings therein; and to make, sell or lease all
machines, instruments, apparatus and other equipments therefor, and for
transmitting and distributing electricity or thermal energy, to lay,
erect and construct suitable wires or other conductors, with the
necessary poles, pipes, thermal energy networks or other fixtures in,
on, over and under the streets, avenues, public parks and places in such
cities, towns or villages, with the consent of the municipal authorities
thereof, and in such manner and under such reasonable regulations, as
they may prescribe.
  3-a. An electric corporation and a gas corporation shall have power
and authority to acquire such real estate as may be necessary for its
corporate purposes and the right of way through any property in the
manner prescribed by the eminent domain procedure law.
  3-b. The construction, use and maintenance by an electric corporation
of transmission, distribution and service lines and wires or thermal
energy networks in, over or under any street, highway or public place
and the construction, use and maintenance by a gas corporation of
transmission, distribution and service pipes, conduits, ducts or other
fixtures in, over or under any trees, highway or public place, as may be
necessary for its corporate purposes, are hereby declared to be public
uses and purposes.
  Where any person or corporation other than the state, a political
subdivision thereof, or a municipality is the owner of any right, title
or interest in or to any street, highway or public place, or in or to
the land on which the street, highway or public place is located, an
electric corporation or a gas corporation is hereby authorized and
empowered to acquire the right to construct, use and maintain such lines
or wires and such pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures, in, over or
under such street, highway or public place, from such owner or owners,
by petition in the manner prescribed by section four hundred two of the
eminent domain procedure law to the supreme court in the county in which
such street, highway or public place is situated. The corporation shall
file with the court a certificate of the public service commission
certifying that the right sought to be acquired is necessary and in the
public interest and such certificate shall be conclusive evidence as to
the matters lawfully certified therein.
  After a hearing on such petition and any answer thereto, if the court
shall find that such right to construct, use and maintain is necessary
for the corporate purposes of the corporation, it shall enter its
judgment adjudging that such right is necessary for the public use and
that the corporation is entitled to construct, use and maintain its
lines or wires or pipes, conduits, ducts or other fixtures in, over or
under such street, highway or public place and adjudging pursuant to the
eminent domain procedure law the compensation to be made by the
corporation to the owner or owners.
  4. Any two or more domestic gas corporations, electric corporations,
gas and electric corporations, and any other domestic corporation formed
for the purpose of engaging in any business in which domestic gas
corporations, electric corporations or gas and electric corporations may
engage, may merge or consolidate in accordance with the procedure and
with the effect set forth in article nine of the business corporation
law.
  5. A corporation mentioned in this article or incorporated under or by
any general or special law of this state for the purpose of supplying
for public use electricity for light, heat or power in cities, towns or
villages in this state, upon filing a certificate of amendment therefor,
to which is annexed the consent required by section one hundred and
eleven of this chapter, shall have all the rights, privileges and powers
and be subject to all the restrictions of district steam corporations.
  6. The term "municipal authorities" as used in subdivisions one and
three of this section, shall be deemed to be the local legislative body
of a city, the board of trustees of a village and the town board of a
town. All consents in writing for the doing of acts mentioned in such
subdivisions given before April fourteenth, nineteen hundred and
twenty-two, in writing by the highway commissioners or town
superintendent of highways or the town board of any town to any
corporation organized under the provisions of this article shall be
deemed to be the consents of the municipal authorities required by this
section.
  7. Subdivisions three and three-a of this section shall not apply to
any merchant transmission company which:
  (a) commences and ends in the state of New York;
  (b) through its employees, agents, representatives, or assigns, has
represented in testimony that the construction of such power
transmission lines will increase electric rates in any part of the
state; and
  (c) which applied for and did not receive an early designation as a
national interest electric transmission corridor under an act of
congress commonly known as the Energy Policy Act of 2005.