BILL NUMBER: AB 2795	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Lopez

                        FEBRUARY 19, 2016

   An act to amend Section 707 of the Public Utilities Code, relating
to electricity.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2795, as introduced, Lopez. Electricity: community choice
aggregators.
   Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to consider
and adopt a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement
procedures to govern the conduct of electrical corporations relative
to the consideration, formation, and implementation of a community
choice aggregation program. Existing law requires the commission to
ensure that the code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement
procedures are implemented by no later than January 1, 2013.
   This bill would make a nonsubstantive change to that provision.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 707 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   707.  (a) Not later than March 1, 2012, the commission shall
institute a rulemaking proceeding for the purpose of considering and
adopting a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement
procedures, to govern the conduct of the electrical corporations
relative to the consideration, formation, and implementation of
community choice aggregation programs authorized in Section 366.2.
The code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures,
shall do all of the following:
   (1) Ensure that an electrical corporation does not market against
a community choice aggregation program, except through an independent
marketing division that is funded exclusively by the electrical
corporation's shareholders and that is functionally and physically
separate from the electrical corporation's ratepayer-funded
divisions.
   (2) Limit the electrical corporation's independent marketing
division's use of support services from the electrical corporation's
ratepayer-funded divisions, and ensure that the electrical
corporation's independent marketing division is allocated costs of
any permissible support services from the electrical corporation's
ratepayer-funded divisions on a fully allocated embedded cost basis,
providing detailed public reports of such use.
   (3) Ensure that the electrical corporation's independent marketing
division does not have access to competitively sensitive
information.
   (4) (A) Incorporate rules that the commission finds to be
necessary or convenient in order to facilitate the development of
community choice aggregation programs, to foster fair competition,
and to protect against cross-subsidization paid by ratepayers.
   (B) It is the intent of the Legislature that the rules include, in
whole or in part, the rules approved by the commission in Decision
97-12-088 and Decision 08-06-016.
   (C) This paragraph does not limit the authority of the commission
to adopt rules that it determines are necessary or convenient in
addition to those adopted in Decision 97-12-088 and Decision
08-06-016 or to modify any rule adopted in those decisions.
   (5) Provide for any other matter that the commission determines to
be necessary or advisable to protect a ratepayer's right to be free
from forced speech or to implement that portion of the federal Public
Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 that establishes the federal
standard that no electric utility may recover from any person other
than the shareholders or other owners of the utility, any direct or
indirect expenditure by the electric utility for promotional or
political advertising (16 U.S.C. Sec. 2623(b)(5)).
   (b)  The   No later than January 1, 2013, the
 commission shall ensure that the code of conduct, associated
rules, and enforcement procedures are  implemented by no
later than January 1, 2013.   implemented. 
   (c) This section does not limit the authority of the commission to
require that any marketing against a community choice aggregation
plan shall be conducted by an affiliate of the electrical
corporation, or to require that marketing against a community choice
aggregator not be conducted by a marketing division of the electrical
corporation, subject to affiliate transaction rules to be developed
by the commission.