(a) The General Assembly finds that the proportion of the state's population that is without access to service by a gas utility exceeds the proportion of the population that is without access to telephone or electric utility service. Therefore, the General Assembly declares it to be the intent and purpose of this subchapter to increase only the availability of natural gas through the procedures provided in this subchapter and not to make the procedures available to electric or telephone utilities.
(b) A gas utility may at any time petition the Arkansas Public Service Commission for a certificate of extension project. By its petition, the gas utility requests commission authorization to commence an extension project, to expend funds on the extension project, and to concurrently seek commission approval of changes in rates and surcharges sufficient to recover, at the time the plant goes into service, the excess expenditures arising out of the extension projects that have been granted certificates. A petition for a certificate shall provide information about the proposed extension project, including without limitation the following:
(1) An estimate of the cost of the extension project broken down into at least labor, materials, and overhead;
(2) A schedule of estimated completion dates;
(3) A brief description of the physical nature of the facilities, including pipe diameter and length of the extension in feet or miles;
(4) Estimated sales volumes, estimated number and types of customers, growth rates, and expected revenues;
(5) A calculation showing the amount of excess expenditures the gas utility expects to incur;
(6) A detailed description of the economic benefit to the gas utility and the gas utility's existing ratepayers; and
(7) An estimate of:
(A) The surcharge for each class of customer consistent with the most recent determination by the commission in its order addressing the gas utility's most recent application for a general change or modification in its rates and charges; or
(B) The increase in rates for each class of customer if the investment is to be recovered by the gas utility under a formula rate review mechanism pursuant to the Formula Rate Review Act, § 23-4-1201 et seq.