BILL NUMBER: SB 879	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	PASSED THE SENATE  SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 7, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  SEPTEMBER 1, 2011
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JULY 12, 2011
	AMENDED IN SENATE  MAY 11, 2011

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Padilla
   (Coauthor: Assembly Member Hill)

                        FEBRUARY 18, 2011

   An act to amend Section 2107 of, and to add Section 969 to, the
Public Utilities Code, relating to gas corporations.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 879, Padilla. Natural gas pipelines: safety.
   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as
defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to
establish a system of accounts to be kept by public utilities and to
prescribe the manner in which accounts are kept, the records and
memorandum to be kept, as well as the receipts and expenditures of
moneys, and any other forms, records, and memoranda that in the
judgment of the commission may be necessary to carry out any of the
provisions of the act. The act requires the commission to require a
public utility to establish and maintain a reserve account reflecting
any positive or negative balance whenever the commission authorizes
any change in rates reflecting and passing specific changes in costs
through to customers, and requires the commission to take any
positive or negative balance remaining into account by appropriate
adjustment or other action at the time of any subsequent rate
adjustment.
   This bill would require, in any ratemaking proceeding in which the
commission authorizes a gas corporation to recover expenses for the
gas corporation's transmission pipeline integrity management program
established pursuant to specified federal pipeline safety law or
related capital expenditures for maintenance and repair of
transmission pipelines, that the commission require the gas
corporation to establish and maintain a balancing account for the
recovery of those expenses.
   Existing law provides that any public utility that violates any
provision of the California Constitution or the Public Utilities Act,
or that fails or neglects to comply with any order, decision,
decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission,
where a penalty has not otherwise been provided, is subject to a
penalty of not less than $500 and not more than $20,000 for each
offense.
   This bill would increase the maximum amount of the penalty to
$50,000.
   Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any
order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the
commission is a crime.
   Because certain provisions of this bill are within the act and
require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a
violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local
program by creating a new crime.
   The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 969 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   969.  In any ratemaking proceeding in which the commission
authorizes a gas corporation to recover expenses for the gas
corporation's transmission pipeline integrity management program
established pursuant to Subpart O (commencing with Section 192.901)
of Part 192 of Title 49 of the United States Code or related capital
expenditures for the maintenance and repair of transmission
pipelines, the commission shall require the gas corporation to
establish and maintain a balancing account for the recovery of those
expenses. Any unspent moneys in the balancing account in the form of
an accumulated account balance at the end of each rate case cycle,
plus interest, shall be returned to ratepayers through a true-up
filing. Nothing in this section is intended to interfere with the
commission's discretion to establish a two-way balancing account.
  SEC. 2.  Section 2107 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   2107.  Any public utility that violates or fails to comply with
any provision of the Constitution of this state or of this part, or
that fails or neglects to comply with any part or provision of any
order, decision, decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of
the commission, in a case in which a penalty has not otherwise been
provided, is subject to a penalty of not less than five hundred
dollars ($500), nor more than fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for
each offense.
  SEC. 3.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.