BILL NUMBER: SB 900	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN SENATE  MAY 27, 2014
	AMENDED IN SENATE  APRIL 8, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Senator Hill

                        JANUARY 15, 2014

   An act to amend Section 321.1 of, and to add Section 750 to, the
Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 900, as amended, Hill. Public  Utilities. 
 utilities: rate case application: safety. 
   Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, as defined. Existing law authorizes
the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility
and authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public
utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. If the commission
finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment,
appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or the
methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or
supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable,
unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the Public Utilities
Act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix
the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or
methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or
employed. Existing law states it is the intent of the Legislature
that the commission assess the economic effects or other consequences
of its decisions as a part of each ratemaking, rulemaking, or other
proceeding.
   This bill would require the commission to develop formal
procedures  , as specified,  to consider safety in a rate
case application by an electrical corporation or gas corporation. The
bill would require the commission to take actions to assess and
mitigate the impacts of its decisions on customer, public, and
employee safety.
   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 321.1 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
   321.1.  (a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the
commission assess the economic effects or other consequences of its
decisions as part of each ratemaking, rulemaking, or other
proceeding, and that this be accomplished using existing resources
and within existing commission structures. The commission shall not
establish a separate office or department for the purpose of
evaluating economic development consequences of commission
activities.
   (b) The commission shall take all necessary and appropriate
actions to assess and mitigate the impacts of its decisions on
customer, public, and employee safety.
  SEC. 2.  Section 750 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   750.  The commission shall develop formal procedures to consider
safety in a rate case application by an electrical corporation or gas
corporation. The procedures shall include  all of the
following:   a means by which safety information
acquired by the commission through monitoring, data tracking and
analysis, accident investigations, and audits of an applicant's
safety programs   may inform the commission's consideration
of the application.  
   (a) In advance of, or concurrent with, the scheduled submission of
a rate case application by an electrical corporation or gas
corporation, commission staff shall produce a report on the safety
performance of that corporation in those areas in which the
corporation's revenue requirement is under consideration. The report
shall examine the safety performance of the electrical corporation or
gas corporation over a time period no shorter than the period
between the scheduled rate case applications. The report shall be
entered into the record of the rate case proceeding. 

   (b) Subsequent to the submission of a rate case application by an
electrical corporation or gas corporation, commission staff units
responsible for safety risk assessment shall evaluate the quality of
the risk analysis of the applicant's incremental safety-related
revenue requests, including the quality of the alternatives analysis.
The report shall be entered into the record of the rate case
proceeding.  
   (c) The commission, in approving a decision determining the
revenue requirements of an electrical corporation or a gas
corporation in a rate case proceeding, shall make risk-informed
findings as to the safety benefits of incremental funding requests of
safety-related proposed expenditures by the corporation. 

   (d) The commission, in approving a decision determining the
revenue requirements of an electrical corporation or gas corporation
in a rate case proceeding, shall order commission staff to monitor
the safety performance of the corporation and to prepare a report on
the safety performance of that corporation in advance of, or
concurrent with, the next rate case application by the corporation.