Amended in Assembly May 28, 2015

Amended in Assembly April 29, 2015

Amended in Assembly March 26, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 361

Introduced by Assembly Member Achadjian

(Coauthor: Senator Monning)

February 17, 2015

An act to add begin insert and repeal end insert Section 8610.5 begin delete to end delete begin insert of end insert the Government Code, relating to emergency services.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 361, as amended, Achadjian. California Emergency Services Act: nuclear powerplants.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes local government entities to create disaster councils by ordinance and in turn develop disaster plans specific to their jurisdictions. Existing law, the Radiation Protection Act of 1999, requires local governments to develop and maintain radiological emergency preparedness and response plans to safeguard the public in the emergency planning zone around a nuclear powerplant, and generally makes the Office of Emergency Services responsible for the coordination and integration of all emergency planning programs and response plans created pursuant to the Radiation Protection Act of 1999. The California Emergency Services Act, until July 1, 2019, prescribes a method for funding state and local costs for carrying out these activities that are not reimbursed by federal funds, with the costs borne by utilities operating nuclear powerplants with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more.

This bill, operative July 1, 2019, would extend, until begin delete July 1, end delete begin insert August 26, end insert 2025, the method for funding state and local costs for emergency service activities associated with a nuclear powerplant, as described above, with respect to a utility operating a nuclear powerplant with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more, thereby extending an amount, as specified, available for disbursement for local costs for the Diablo Canyon site.

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 8610.5 is added to the Government Code,
to read:

8610.5.  

(a) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Office” means the Office of Emergency Services.

(2) “Previous fiscal year” means the fiscal year immediately
prior to the current fiscal year.

(3) “Utility” means an “electrical corporation” as defined in
Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code.

(b) (1) State and local costs to carry out activities pursuant to
this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of
Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code that are not
reimbursed by federal funds shall be borne by a utility operating
a nuclear powerplant with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts
or more.

(2) The Public Utilities Commission shall develop and transmit
to the office an equitable method of assessing a utility operating
a powerplant for its reasonable share of state agency costs specified
in paragraph (1).

(3) Each local government involved shall submit a statement
of its costs specified in paragraph (1), as required, to the office.

(4) Upon notification by the office, from time to time, of the
amount of its share of the actual or anticipated state and local
agency costs, a utility shall pay this amount to the Controller for
deposit in the Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account,
which is continued in existence, for allocation by the Controller,
upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out activities
pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section
114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code.
The Controller shall pay from this account the state and local costs
relative to carrying out this section and Chapter 4 (commencing
with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and
Safety Code, upon certification of the costs by the office.

(5) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Controller may
disburse up to 80 percent of a fiscal year allocation from the
Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account, in advance, for
anticipated local expenses, as certified by the office pursuant to
paragraph (4). The office shall review program expenditures related
to the balance of funds in the account and the Controller shall pay
the portion, or the entire balance, of the account, based upon those
approved expenditures.

(c) (1) The total annual disbursement of state costs from a utility
operating a nuclear powerplant within the state for activities
pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section
114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code,
shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum
funding levels established in this section, subject to subdivisions
(e) and (f).

(2) Of the annual amount of two million forty-seven thousand
dollars ($2,047,000) for the 2009-10 fiscal year, the sum of one
million ninety-four thousand dollars ($1,094,000) shall be for
support of the office for activities pursuant to this section and
Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division
104 of the Health and Safety Code, and the sum of nine hundred
fifty-three thousand dollars ($953,000) shall be for support of the
State Department of Public Health for activities pursuant to this
section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part
9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code.

(d) (1) The total annual disbursement for each fiscal year,
commencing July 1, 2009, of local costs from a utility shall not
exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum funding levels
established in this section, in support of activities pursuant to this
section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part
9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code. The maximum
annual amount available for disbursement for local costs, subject
to subdivisions (e) and (f), shall, for the fiscal year beginning July
1, 2009, be one million seven hundred thirty-two thousand dollars
($1,732,000) for the Diablo Canyon site.

(2) The amounts paid by a utility under this section shall be
allowed for ratemaking purposes by the Public Utilities
Commission.

(e) The amounts available for disbursement for state and local
costs as specified in this section shall be adjusted and compounded
each fiscal year by the larger of the percentage change in the
prevailing wage for San Luis Obispo County employees, not to
exceed 5 percent, or the percentage increase in the California
Consumer Price Index from the previous fiscal year.

(f) Through the inoperative date specified in subdivision (h),
the amounts available for disbursement for state and local costs
as specified in this section shall be cumulative biennially. Any
unexpended funds from a year shall be carried over for one year.
The funds carried over from the previous year may be expended
when the current year’s funding cap is exceeded.

(g) This section shall become operative on July 1, 2019.

(h) This section shall become inoperative on begin delete July 1, end delete begin insert August 26, end insert
2025, and, as of January 1, 2026, is repealed.

(i) When this section becomes inoperative, any amounts
remaining in the special account shall be refunded to a utility
contributing to it, to be credited to the utility’s ratepayers.