Amended in Senate April 11, 2016

Senate Bill No. 1049

Introduced by Senator Hill

February 12, 2016

An act to amend Section 316 of the Public Utilities Code, relating to begin delete electricity. end delete begin insert energy public utilities. end insert

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 1049, as amended, Hill. begin delete Electricity: end delete begin insert Electrical corporations and gas corporations: end insert accident investigations.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical begin insert corporations and gas end insert corporations. begin insert The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 requires each gas corporation to develop a plan, as specified, for the safe and reliable operation of its commission-regulated gas pipeline facility, as defined. end insert Existing law requires the commission to adopt inspection, maintenance, repair, and replacement standards for the distribution systems of electrical corporations in order to provide high quality, safe, and reliable service. Existing law requires every electrical corporation to cooperate fully with the commission in an investigation into any major accident or any reportable incident, as defined by the commission, concerning overhead electric supply facilities, regardless of pending litigation or other investigations, including those that may be related to a commission investigation. Existing law requires every electrical corporation to provide the commission, upon its request, immediate access to specified documents, including any and all documents under the electrical corporation’s control that are related to the incident and are not subject to attorney-client privilege or attorney work product doctrine.

This bill would require every electrical corporation to cooperate fully with the commission in an investigation into any major accident or any reportable incident concerning any electric supply facilities, rather than only overhead electric supply facilities. begin delete The bill would require an electrical corporation seeking to protect commission requested documents related to an accident or reportable incident from disclosure under the attorney-client privilege or attorney work product doctrine to bring a motion for protective order. The bill would establish procedures for making the motion, deciding the motion, and commission and judicial review of that decision. end delete begin insert The bill would require every gas corporation to cooperate fully with the commission in an investigation into any major accident or any reportable incident concerning commission-regulated gas pipeline facilities, regardless of pending litigation or other investigations. The bill would require each electrical corporation and gas corporation, after the scene of the incident has been made safe and, in the case of a major outage, service has been restored, to provide the commission, upon request, with access to all measurements of every utility instrumentality or facility in the vicinity of the incident, all calculations regarding every instrumentality or facility in the vicinity of the incident, any analysis regarding the cause, or causes, of the incident, and any recording or paraphrasing of any statement by a witness. end insert

Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 316 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

316.  

(a) Each electrical corporation begin insert and gas corporation end insert shall
cooperate fully with the commission in an investigation into any
major accident or any reportable incident, as these terms are defined
by the commission, concerning electric supply begin delete facilities, end delete begin insert facilities
and commission-regulated gas pipeline facilities, end insert regardless of
pending litigation or other investigations, including, but not limited
to, those that may be related to a commission investigation.

(b) After the scene of the incident has been made safe begin delete and end delete begin insert and,
in the case of a major outage, end insert service has been restored, each
electrical corporation begin insert and gas corporation end insert shall provide the
commission, upon its request, immediate access to all of the
following:

(1) Any factual or physical evidence under the electrical begin insert or gas end insert
corporation’s, or its agent’s, physical control, custody, or
possession related to the incident.

(2) The name and contact information of any known percipient
witness.

(3) Any employee percipient witness under the electrical begin insert or gas end insert
corporation’s control.

(4) The name and contact information of any person or entity
that has taken possession of any physical evidence removed from
the site of the incident.

begin insert

(5) Each and every measurement of every utility instrumentality
or facility in the vicinity of the incident. Historical, as well as
post-incident measurements, shall be produced. Measurements of
instrumentalities or facilities not owned by the utility shall also
be produced, if those measurements are available.

end insert begin insert

(6) Each and every calculation regarding every instrumentality
or facility in the vicinity of the incident. Historical, as well as
postincident, calculations shall be produced.

end insert begin insert

(7) Each and every analysis regarding the cause, or causes, of
the incident. Each analysis shall be produced regardless of whether
identified as a root cause analysis, a causal evaluation, a failure
analysis, a storm register, or identified in some other manner.

end insert begin insert

(8) Each and every recording or paraphrasing of any statement
by a witness.

end insert begin delete

(5)

end delete

begin insert (9) end insert  Any and all documents under the electrical begin insert or gas end insert
corporation’s control that are related to the incident and are not
subject to attorney-client privilege or begin insert the end insert attorney work product
doctrine.

begin delete

(c) In order to prevent disclosure of documents requested by
the commission pursuant to paragraph (5) of subdivision (b) under
the attorney-client privilege or attorney work product doctrine, an
electrical corporation shall bring a motion for protective order for
a declaration that the documents not be produced. A motion for
protective order shall be made promptly, within 10 working days
of a request for production of documents, or shall be denied as
untimely. If a proceeding investigating the accident or reportable
incident has been opened and an administrative law judge has been
assigned for the proceeding, the motion for protective order shall
be filed with the assigned administrative law judge. If no
proceeding has been opened or no administrative law judge has
been assigned to the proceeding, the motion for protective order
shall be filed with the chief administrative law judge of the
commission. The chief administrative law judge or assigned
administrative law judge shall hear and decide the motion for
protective order promptly, within 10 working days of the filing of
the motion. Notwithstanding Section 1731, if the motion for
protective order is denied, or denied in part, the electrical
corporation may seek a writ of review without having brought a
motion for reconsideration. Notwithstanding the 30-day time period
of subdivision (a) of Section 1756, any writ of review shall be
brought promptly, within 10 working days of service of the order
denying, or denying in part, the motion for protective order, or it
shall be denied as untimely. If the chief administrative law judge
or assigned administrative law judge grants the motion for
protective order, in whole or in part, the division of the commission
responsible for investigating the accident or reportable incident
shall either amend its request for documents to exclude those
documents that are protected from disclosure or shall seek a
rehearing before the full commission pursuant to Article 2
(commencing with Section 1731) of Chapter 9. The commission
may shorten the time for hearing of the motion for rehearing
pursuant to this paragraph. An electrical corporation may, pursuant
to Section 1756, seek a writ of review from the order of the
commission on the motion for rehearing, except that the writ shall
be brought within 10 working days of the date of the order, or shall
be denied as untimely.

(d)

end delete

begin insert (c) end insert  Each electrical corporation begin insert and gas corporation end insert shall
preserve any and all documents or evidence it collects as part of
its own investigation related to the incident for at least five years
or a shorter period of time as authorized by the commission.

begin delete

(e)

end delete

begin insert (d) end insert  Any and all documents collected by an electrical corporation
begin insert or gas corporation end insert pursuant to this section shall be catalogued and
preserved in an accessible manner for assessment by commission
investigators as determined by the commission.

SEC. 2.  

No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of
the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within
the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.