BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1650
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 25, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1650 (Portantino) - As Amended: April 16, 2012
Policy Committee:
UtilitiesVote:13-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
Yes Reimbursable: Yes
SUMMARY
This bill requires the adoption of disaster and emergency
preparedness plans, by electrical and water corporations,
consistent with standards to be developed by the Public
Utilities Commission (PUC). Specifically, this bill:
1)Requires the PUC to establish standards for disaster and
emergency preparedness plans, as specified.
2)Requires the regulated electrical corporations to:
a) Develop, adopt, and update biennially disaster and
emergency preparedness plans, as specified, in compliance
with the standards established per (1).
b) In developing these plans, to meet and consult with
appropriate representatives of every city and county within
the corporation's service area and provide these
representatives an opportunity to comment on the draft
plan, and to repeat these steps when the plan is updated.
3)Requires every city and county within the electrical
corporation's service area to designate a point of contact
with the electrical corporation for the consultation pursuant
to (2)(b).
4)Requires the meeting per (2)(b) to occur by April 1, 2013 and
to be a noticed public meeting allowing participation of all
the counties and cities within the electrical corporation's
service area. (The electrical corporation may also convene a
closed meeting to discuss sensitive security-related
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information contained in the emergency and disaster
preparedness plan.)
5)Requires PUC-regulated water companies to develop, adopt, and
update biennially plans in compliance with the standards
established per (1), and deems this requirement fulfilled when
a water company files such a plan pursuant to another state
statutory requirement.
6)Requires the water companies in performing the tasks described
in (5) to meet with representatives of the counties and cities
in their service territories.
FISCAL EFFECT
The PUC would incur first-year special fund costs of
$250,000-for a full-time utility engineer and a half-time
administrative law judge to develop standards and to conduct a
rulemaking in order to revise the commission's General Order 166
regarding electrical corporations' emergency plans-and ongoing
costs of about $110,000 for the utility engineer to review
emergency plans, update standards, meet with utility staff and
local officials, and attend public meetings required by the
bill. ÝPublic Utilities Reimbursement Account]
Minor reimbursable costs for each city and county within the
service territories of the electrical corporations to designate
a point of contact with the electrical corporation, who would
presumably meet with the corporation and provide comments on any
draft emergency plan. To reduce ambiguities regarding state
mandates, the bill should probably be amended to require
electrical corporations to invite every local government to
participate in plan development process.
COMMENTS
Purpose . According to the author, "current law does not require
electric utilities to prepare emergency preparedness plans and
to meet with local counties or cities to discuss plans for
emergencies. In December of last year there was a wind disaster
that caused major damage throughout the San Gabriel Valley. This
damage included the loss of electricity to tens of thousands of
utility customers, many for well over a week in duration.
Utility customers and local governments were largely kept
uninformed as to the status of the power outage and were thus
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unable to plan for alternate housing or local infrastructure
needs. There was an inappropriate lack of communication about an
unprecedented wind storm and its resultant damage."
Analysis Prepared by : Chuck Nicol / APPR. / (916) 319-2081