BILL NUMBER: AB 2137 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 28, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Quirk
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to add Section 12098.9 to the Government Code, and to add
Section 323.5 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to energy
efficiency.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2137, as amended, Quirk. Energy efficiency programs:
information available for small businesses.
Existing law creates the Office of Small Business Advocate within
the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. Existing
law establishes the duties and functions of the advocate, which
include advisory participation in the consideration of all
legislation and administrative regulations that affect small
businesses. Existing law also requires the office to post specified
information on its Internet Web site, including information about
emergency preparedness, responses, and recovery strategies for small
businesses and information regarding programs administered through
the statewide network of small business financial development
corporations.
This bill would require the office to develop and maintain on its
Internet Web site a section dedicated to all of the energy efficiency
programs that are available to small businesses within the state.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations
and gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act requires
the Public Utilities Commission to review and accept, modify, or
reject a procurement plan for each electrical corporation in
accordance with specified elements, incentive mechanisms, and
objectives. The act requires that an electrical corporation's
proposed procurement plan include certain elements, including a
showing that the electrical corporation will first meet its unmet
needs through all available energy efficiency and demand reduction
resources that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible. Existing
law requires the Public Utilities Commission, in consultation with
the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission,
to identify all potentially achievable cost-effective electricity
efficiency savings and to establish efficiency targets for electrical
corporations to achieve pursuant to their procurement plan. The
Public Utilities Act additionally requires the Public Utilities
Commission, in consultation with the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, to identify all potentially
achievable cost-effective natural gas efficiency savings and to
establish efficiency targets for gas corporations to achieve and
requires that a gas corporation first meet its unmet resource needs
through all available gas efficiency and demand reduction resources
that are cost effective, reliable, and feasible.
This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission to develop
and maintain on its Internet Web site a section dedicated to all of
the electrical corporation and gas corporation energy efficiency
programs that are available to small businesses within the state,
which emphasizes energy efficiency measures that are likely to be of
most interest to small businesses. The bill would require the Public
Utilities Commission, when available, to include hyperlink or URL
connections to electrical corporation and gas corporation Internet
Web sites that enable users of the Internet to directly access
available information on those utility Internet Web sites. The
bill would require the commission to require those electrical
corporations and gas corporations that are responsible for the joint
Internet Web site dedicated to energy efficiency programs that is
administered by a 3rd party, to include on that joint Internet Web
site a hyperlink or URL connection to the section of the commission's
Internet Web site that is dedicated to the energy efficiency
programs available to small businesses.
Existing law makes any public utility, as defined, and any
corporation other than a public utility, that violates the Public
Utilities Act, or that fails to comply with any part of any order,
decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission
guilty of a crime.
Because the provisions of this bill are within the act and require
action by the commission to implement its requirements with respect
to certain electrical corporations and gas corporations, 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no yes .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all the following:
(a) Helping small businesses become more energy efficient can help
California reduce energy consumption and thereby help in reducing
emissions of greenhouse gases throughout the state.
(b) Small businesses are the backbone of California's economic
prosperity.
(c) Maximizing the energy efficiency programs the state,
electrical corporations, gas corporations, and local publicly owned
electric and gas utilities offer can help small businesses become
more productive and assist in reducing electrical demand during peak
demand periods.
(d) To better serve the public, and to benefit the state, the
state shall promote and facilitate the fullest possible participation
of small businesses to benefit from energy efficiency programs run
by the state, as well as any programs of an electrical corporation,
gas corporation, or local publicly owned electric or gas utility.
SEC. 2. Section 12098.9 is added to the Government Code, to read:
12098.9. (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms
have the following meanings:
(1) "Energy efficiency programs" mean all energy efficiency,
energy conservation, energy savings, or weatherization programs of
the state or a local government, electrical corporations, gas
corporations, or a local publicly owned electric or gas utility.
(2) "Electrical corporation," "gas corporation," and "local
publicly owned electric utility" have the same meanings as
respectively defined in Sections 218, 222, and 224.3 of the Public
Utilities Code. "Local publicly owned gas utility" includes the gas
departments of the City of Long Beach and the City of Palo Alto.
(3) "Small business" has the same meaning as defined in Section
14837.
(b) In order to educate small business owners of the availability
of various programs promoting the efficient use of energy, the office
shall develop and maintain on its Internet Web site a section
dedicated to all of the energy efficiency programs that are available
to small businesses within the state. The office shall consult with
the Public Utilities Commission, the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, and local publicly owned
electric and gas utilities in developing the information to include
on its Internet Web site.
SEC. 3. Section 323.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
323.5. (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have
the following meanings:
(1) "Energy efficiency programs" mean all energy efficiency,
energy conservation, energy savings, or weatherization programs of
electrical corporations or gas corporations subject to direction and
supervision by the commission.
(2) "Hyperlink" means a special Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
code that allows text or graphics to serve as a link that, when
clicked on, takes a user to another place in the same document, to
another document, or to another Internet Web site or Web page.
(3) "Small business" has the same meaning as defined in Section
14837 of the Government Code.
(4) "Uniform Resource Locator" or "URL" means the address of an
Internet Web site or the location of a resource on the World Wide Web
that allows a browser to locate and retrieve the Internet Web site
or the resource.
(b) In order to educate small business owners of the availability
of various electrical corporation and gas corporation programs
promoting the efficient use of electricity and natural gas, the
commission shall develop and maintain on its Internet Web site a
section dedicated to all of the energy efficiency programs that are
available to small businesses within the state, which emphasizes
energy efficiency measures that are likely to be of most interest to
small businesses. Where available, the commission shall include
hyperlink or URL connections to electrical corporation and gas
corporation Internet Web sites that enable users of the Internet to
directly access available information on those utility Internet Web
sites.
(c) The commission shall require those electrical corporations and
gas corporations that are responsible for the joint Internet Web
site dedicated to energy efficiency programs that is administered by
a third party, to include on that joint Internet Web site a hyperlink
or URL connection to the section of the commission's Internet Web
site that is dedicated to the energy efficiency programs available to
small businesses described in subdivision (b).
(c)
(d) (1) Nothing in this section limits the authority of
the commission to make information relative to energy efficiency
programs available to other target audiences in addition to small
businesses.
(2) Nothing in this section limits the authority of the commission
to make information specially available to small businesses relative
to other public utility programs that may be of special interest to
small businesses.
SEC. 4. 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.