BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 291
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Date of Hearing: July 3, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Mike Gatto, Chair
SB 291 (Hill) - As Amended: June 25, 2013
Policy Committee: Utilities and
Commerce Vote: 12-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill requires the California Public Utilities Commission
(PUC) to develop and implement a comprehensive staff safety
enforcement program for gas and electrical corporations by July
1, 2014 and January 1, 2015 respectively. Specifically, this
bill:
1)Requires the PUC to develop procedures for commission staff to
issue corrective actions, orders and citations under the
direction of the Executive Director. The PUC may institute a
formal proceeding regardless of any enforcement action taken
by commission staff.
2)Requires the PUC to design the enforcement program to improve
gas and electrical system safety through the enforcement of
applicable law, order or rule.
3)Requires the commission staff to consider the nature of the
violation, voluntary removal or resolution efforts, and prior
history of violations when issuing citations and assessing
penalties.
4)Requires the procedures to include a notification of a
violation, a reasonable period not to exceed 30 days to
correct the violation. A hearing may be requested by the
party receiving the citation.
5)Requires the PUC to develop an administrative limit on the
amount of any monetary penalty that may be set by commission
staff.
SB 291
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6)Requires the PUC to develop and implement an appeals process
regarding issuances and appeals of citations.
FISCAL EFFECT
On-going costs of between $150,000 and $200,000 annually from
the Utilities Reimbursement Account to manage citations and
appeals including hearings before an administrative law judge.
According to the PUC, there will also be an unknown one-time
collection from ratepayers for the development of a database to
track, manage and dispense with future citations. However, this
bill does not specifically require the PUC to develop a
database, which likely will be necessary to address existing
requirements not associated with the bill.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose and Background. According to the author, after the
San Bruno explosion, the PUC began implementing
recommendations for gas safety. However, there has been no
such activity for electricity safety even though between 2008
and 2011, there have been an average of 11 fatalities per year
on electrical facilities under the PUC's jurisdiction.
Traditional enforcement mechanisms may take over a year and
are usually performed in reaction to accidents involving
multiple fatalities or extensive property damage. Smaller
violations may indicate serious problems and should be
addressed in an expedited manner.
The PUC currently has delegated authority to staff for
violations of gas safety, rail safety, water and sewer public
health, electric resource adequacy, Renewable Portfolio
Standards (RPS) filing requirements and others.
This bill will codify the delegated enforcement authority for
gas safety and will provide delegated enforcement authority
for electric safety.
2)Technical amendment. On page 2, line 23, the word "being"
should be stricken and replaced with the word "receiving."
SB 291
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Analysis Prepared by : Jennifer Galehouse / APPR. / (916)
319-2081