Amended in Assembly April 22, 2013

Amended in Assembly April 10, 2013

California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 834

Introduced by Assembly Member Williams

February 21, 2013

An act to amend Section 25402.11 of the Public Resources Code, relating to energy efficiency standards.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 834, as amended, Williams. Energy efficiency standards: administrative enforcement.

Existing law authorizes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to establish an administrative enforcement process to enforce regulations establishing appliance efficiency standards. Existing law requires the commission to establish, by regulations, building construction and design standards and energy and water efficiency standards for new residential and new nonresidential buildings to increase the efficient use of energy and water.

This bill would additionally authorize the commission to establish an administrative enforcement process to enforce regulations establishing the building construction and design standards and energy and water efficiency standards.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 25402.11 of the Public Resources Code
is amended to read:

25402.11.  

(a) (1) The commission may adopt regulations
establishing an administrative enforcement process for a violation
of a regulation adopted pursuant to Section 25402 and for the
assessment of an administrative civil penalty not to exceed two
thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each violation. The
process shall comply with the requirements of Chapter begin delete 4 end delete begin insert 4.5 end insert
(commencing with Section 11400) and Chapter begin delete 4.5 end delete begin insert 5 end insert (commencing
with Section 11500) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the
Government Code.

(2) In assessing the amount of an administrative penalty, the
commission shall consider all of the following factors:

(A) The nature and seriousness of the violation.

(B) The number of violations.

(C) The persistence of the violation.

(D) The length of time over which the violation occurred.

(E) The willfulness of the violation.

(F) The violator’s assets, liabilities, and net worth.

(G) The harm to consumers and to the state that resulted from
the amount of energy wasted due to the violation.

(b) If the commission finds that a violation of the regulations
adopted pursuant to Section 25402 has occurred or is threatening
to occur, the commission may refer the matter to the Attorney
General to petition a court to enjoin the violation. The court may
grant prohibitory or mandatory injunctive relief as warranted by
issuing a temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction, or
permanent injunction, and may assess a civil penalty not to exceed
two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each violation,
considering the factors specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision
(a).

(c) Penalties collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited
into the begin delete Appliance end delete Efficiency Enforcement Subaccount, which is
hereby established in the Energy Resources Program Account.
The moneys in the begin delete Appliance end delete Efficiency Enforcement Subaccount
may be expended by the commission, upon appropriation by the
Legislature, for the education of the public regarding begin delete appliance end delete
energy efficiency and for the enforcement of the regulations
adopted pursuant to begin delete subdivision (c) of end delete Section 25402.

(d) An order imposing an administrative civil penalty shall be
subject to judicial review pursuant to subdivisions (a) and (b) of
Section 25534.2.

(e) A person shall not be liable for a civil penalty pursuant to
subdivision (b) if that person is subject to an administrative civil
penalty pursuant to subdivision (a).

(f) In a civil action brought on behalf of the commission
pursuant to this section, upon granting relief, the court shall award
to the commission the reasonable costs incurred by the commission
in investigating and prosecuting the action.

(g) The commission shall not initiate an administrative
enforcement process pursuant to the regulations adopted pursuant
to this section against an entity for the unlawful sale or the unlawful
offer for sale of an appliance if both of the following apply:

(1) The appliance fully complies with all of the requirements
of the regulations adopted pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section
25402.

(2) The only basis for the commission’s potential enforcement
action is that the appliance is not considered to be in compliance
because of the commission’s delay in reviewing and processing
information submitted to it that demonstrates full compliance.

(h) In addition to the prohibitions specified in subdivision (g),
the commission shall not initiate an administrative enforcement
process pursuant to the regulations adopted pursuant to this section
for a violation of a begin delete standard end delete begin insert regulation end insert adopted pursuant to Section
25402 until both of the following occur:

(1) No fewer than 60 days have elapsed since the date when the
begin delete standard end delete begin insert regulation end insert was published in the California Register.

(2) No fewer than 30 days have elapsed since the date when the
alleged violator received written notice of the alleged violation
and date when the commission provided public notice of the
standard.