BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 291 Page 1 SENATE THIRD READING SB 291 (Hill) As Amended September 6, 2013 Majority vote SENATE VOTE : 36-0 UTILITIES & COMMERCE 12-0 APPROPRIATIONS 16-0 ----------------------------------------------------------------- |Ayes:|Bradford, Patterson, |Ayes:|Gatto, Harkey, Bigelow, | | |Buchanan, Chávez, Fong, | |Bocanegra, Bradford, Ian | | |Beth Gaines, Garcia, | |Calderon, Campos, Eggman, | | |Roger Hernández, Quirk, | |Gomez, Hall, Holden, | | |Rendon, Skinner, Brown | |Linder, Pan, Quirk, | | | | |Wagner, Weber | |-----+--------------------------+-----+--------------------------| | | | | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY : Requires the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to develop and implement a safety enforcement program for gas and electrical corporations by July 1, 2014, and January 1, 2015, respectively. Specifically, this bill : 1)Requires PUC to develop procedures for commission staff to issue corrective actions, orders and citations under the direction of the Executive Director. PUC may institute a formal proceeding regardless of any enforcement action taken by commission staff. 2)Requires 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. SB 291 Page 2 5)Requires PUC to develop an administrative limit on the amount of any monetary penalty that may be set by commission staff. 6)Requires PUC to develop and implement an appeals process regarding issuances and appeals of citations. 7)Specifies that the provisions in this bill do not apply to independent generators. FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee, 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 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 PUC to develop a database, which likely will be necessary to address existing requirements not associated with the bill. COMMENTS : According to the author, after the San Bruno explosion, 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 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. 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. SB 291 Page 3 Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916) 319-2083 FN: 0002559