Prescriptive easement for electricity delivery.

25LSO-0320
2025
STATE OF WYOMING
25LSO-0320
Numbered
2.0

SENATE FILE NO. SF0087

Prescriptive easement for electricity delivery.

Sponsored by: Senator(s) Cooper, Anderson, Driskill and Nethercott and Representative(s) Davis, Eklund, Larsen, L and Williams

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to property, conveyances and security transactions; establishing prescriptive easements for electricity delivery; providing requirements for the prescriptive easements; specifying uses of the prescriptive easements; providing definitions; specifying applicability; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1
.

W.S. 34
‑
1
‑
159 is created to read:

34
‑
1
‑
159.

Prescriptive easement for electricity delivery.

(a)

As used in this section:

(i)

"Delivery" means the distribution or transmission of electricity;

(ii)

"Electric utility" means any person, including cooperative electric utilities that perform any of the functions specified in W.S. 37
‑
1
‑
101(a)(vi)(C), that is authorized to engage in business in Wyoming and that is primarily engaged in the generation, transmission or sale of electric energy. "Electric utility" shall not include any electric utility owned or operated by a city or town;

(iii)

"Electricity user" means a person or the person's predecessor that receives or received electricity from a public utility or that is or was a member or customer of a public utility;

(iv)

"Public utility" means as defined by W.S. 37
‑
1
‑
101(a)(vi);

(v)

"System" means the physical structures, including overhead power lines and underground power lines and appurtenant structures, that convey electricity from a public utility to an electricity user.

(b)

A prescriptive easement for an electric utility's delivery system shall be established if the electric utility has used and maintained the delivery system for a period of not less than five (5) years during which the use has been:

(i)

Continuous and uninterrupted, consistent with the historical and traditional use by the electric utility of the delivery system. A temporary change of use, cessation of use or de
‑
energization for a period not exceeding one (1) continuous year shall not be deemed an interruption under this paragraph;

(ii)

Above ground or, if not above ground, clearly marked;

(iii)

Without the written consent or permission from the owners of the property over which the prescriptive easement is claimed;

(iv)

In the public interest.

(c)

The holder of a prescriptive easement established under this section:

(i)

Shall provide the landowner, at the address listed for the landowner in the county assessor's records, notice in writing of the intent to file a prescriptive easement not less than thirty (30) days before recording the easement. For purposes of this paragraph, notice is effective upon mailing or hand delivery;

(ii)

May record a notice describing the prescriptive easement consistent with the requirements of W.S. 34
‑
1
‑
141 in the office of the county clerk in the county in which the prescriptive easement or a portion thereof is located;

(iii)

May access, use, maintain, replace, rebuild, change or repair the delivery system and surrounding area located within the easement in accordance with law. Maintenance, as used in this section, shall include the right of the holder of the prescriptive easement to remove incompatible vegetation and to temporarily remove infrastructure in or spanning the system, provided that:

(A)

Before the temporary removal for maintenance purposes of infrastructure that a landowner uses for ingress or egress, the holder of the prescriptive easement shall provide reasonable written notice given the extent and estimated time for maintenance but in no case shall notice be provided less than seventy
‑
two (72) hours before any temporary removal;

(B)

Any temporary removal of a landowner's infrastructure for the purpose of delivery system maintenance shall be reasonable and minimize any burden on the landowner. The holder of the prescriptive easement shall replace the landowner's infrastructure in a timely manner in consultation with the landowner or, if replacement is not possible or if the landowner and the holder agree, the holder of the easement may pay for the replacement of infrastructure. The holder shall pay the landowner for any direct monetary damages suffered by the landowner as a result of the holder's access to the prescriptive easement.

(d)

The width of a prescriptive easement established under this section for a delivery system shall be based on the size of the delivery system's physical structures and in accordance with the standards of the electric utility industry and shall:

(i)

Be of a reasonable width sufficient to utilize equipment suitable for the operation and maintenance of the delivery system;

(ii)

Be from the center line of the delivery system, but may vary from each side of the center line as circumstances require to provide for safe and efficient delivery system operation, including consideration for the size of the equipment, placement of equipment or material, topography, height of surrounding vegetation and voltage of the system.

Section 2
.

(a)

Nothing in this act shall be construed to:

(i)

Interfere with, impair or modify any existing easement or property right, including an easement for electricity delivery established by written instrument or other law;

(ii)

Alter any rights or duties associated with any existing easement or property right, as established by law;

(iii)

Preclude the acquisition or establishment of a prescriptive easement under existing common
‑
law principles.

Section 3
.

This act is effective July 1, 2025
.

(END)

1
SF0087