BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 922
Page 1
REPLACE : 05/29/2013 Changes per consultant.
ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 922 (Patterson)
As Amended May 24, 2013
Majority vote
UTILITIES & COMMERCE 15-0
APPROPRIATIONS 16-0
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|Ayes:|Bradford, Patterson, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, |
| |Bonilla, Buchanan, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian |
| |Ch�vez, Fong, | |Calderon, Campos, |
| |Beth Gaines, Garcia, | |Donnelly, Eggman, Gomez, |
| |Gorell, | |Hall, Linder, Pan, Quirk, |
| |Roger Hern�ndez, Jones, | |Wagner, Weber |
| |Quirk, Rendon, Skinner, | | |
| |Williams | | |
| | | | |
|-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------|
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Enacts requirements to verify eligibility for the
California Alternative Rates for Energy program (CARE).
Specifically, this bill requires the California Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to authorize an electrical or gas corporation
to verify income for continued eligibility in the CARE program
regardless of the means by which the participant was first
enrolled into the CARE program.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee, increased costs to PUC of over $150,000 to fulfill
the required post-enrollment verification.
COMMENTS :
1)CARE overview : CARE program is a low-income energy rate
assistance program that dates back to 1980s that provides
eligible low-income households with a discount on electric and
natural gas bills. The program is funded by non-participating
ratepayers. CARE has delivered the much needed energy-related
bill savings through CARE discount rate to a significant
number of low income households.
AB 922
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Over the past three years (2010-2012), ratepayers provide a
combined total of $3.3 billion in CARE discounts.
Eligibility for CARE discount is based on the number of
persons living in the home and total annual household income.
Current enrollment practices rely on customer self-reporting
of income or enrollment in another low-income public benefits
program such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families,
Medi-Cal or Medicaid. CARE customers must recertify every two
years (every four years if applicant is on a fixed income) for
the discount. The utilities may randomly conduct income
verification. If selected, the customer is required to
provide income documents for every household member. Failure
to comply with the request could result in removal from CARE
discount from the customer's account.
In addition to the CARE discount households may also be
eligible to receive free low-cost energy efficiency upgrades
through a separate program called the Energy Savings
Assistance Program (ESAP).
2)PUC CARE decision : In August 2012, PUC issued Decision
12-08-044 on 2012-2014 ESAP and CARE applications.
Approximately $5 billion was awarded to continue these
low-income programs. CARE program budget total is just under
$4 billion for the independent owned utilities (IOUs) next
program cycle, as shown below.
-------------------------------------------------------------
| | | | | |
| | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | Cycle total |
|-------+-----------+------------+-------------+--------------|
|PG&E |$675,989,66|$647,446,512|$620,716,512 |$1,944,152,691|
| | 7 | | | |
|-------+-----------+------------+-------------+--------------|
|SCE |$342,557,00|$389,156,000|$429,212,000 |$1,160,925,000|
| | 0 | | | |
|-------+-----------+------------+-------------+--------------|
|SDG&E |$ |$ |$ |$ |
| | 79,108,350| 87,972,980| 89,010,739| 256,092,069|
|-------+-----------+------------+-------------+--------------|
|SoCalGa|$145,516,02|$145,870,266|$147,360,024 |$ |
AB 922
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|s | 4 | | | 438,746,314|
|-------+-----------+------------+-------------+--------------|
|Total |$1,243,171,|$1,270,445,7|$1,286,299,27|$3,799,916,075|
| | 041 | 59 | 5 | |
| | | | | |
-------------------------------------------------------------
The PUC found that CARE program design may need fine-tuning to
ensure that the CARE is not being provided to ineligible
customers at the expense of the ratepayers. As a result, the
PUC made several changes for the 2012-2014 program cycle.
Decision 12-08-044 allows utilities to verify a small
percentage of CARE customers enrolled using a stratified
probability sampling and modeling approach. Utilities were
directed to employ this verification probability modeling to
target those customers most likely to be ineligible for CARE
Program.
Analysis Prepared by : DaVina Flemings / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083
FN: 0001069