[quote user=“ICLand”]
Well, that’s a new one to me, but the conclusion that they are is hardly “novel.” Most states and the federal government make the claim as well.
Here are some examples:
Ohio. § 5727.01. Definitions.
(A) “Public utility” means each person referred to as a telephone company, telegraph company, electric company, natural gas company, pipe-line company, water-works company, water transportation company, heating company, rural electric company, railroad company, or combined company.
Chapter 2 of Title 54 of the Utah Code: a public utility includes “every railroad corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, distribution electrical cooperative, wholesale electrical cooperative, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, sewerage corporation, heat corporation, and independent energy producer not described . . . where the service is performed for, or the commodity delivered to, the public generally.”
California Constitution, Art. IV, § 33.
"Every private corporation, and every individual or association of individuals, owning, operating, managing, or controlling any commercial railroad, interurban railroad, street railroad, canal, pipeline, plant, or equipment, or any part of such railroad, canal, pipeline, plant, or equipment within this State for the transportation or conveyance of passengers, or express matter, or freight of any kind, including crude oil, or for the transmission of telephone or telegraph messages, or for the production, generation, transmission, delivery or furnishing of heat, light, water or power or for the furnishing of storage or wharfage facilities, either directly or indirectly, to or for the public, and every common carrier, is hereby declared to be a public utility
Wyoming: 37-1-101.