BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1463|
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VETO
Bill No: SB 1463
Author: Moorlach (R)
Amended: 6/30/16
Vote: 21
SENATE ENERGY, U. & C. COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/5/16
AYES: Hueso, Morrell, Cannella, Hertzberg, Hill, Lara, Leyva,
McGuire, Pavley
NO VOTE RECORDED: Gaines, Wolk
SENATE NATURAL RES. & WATER COMMITTEE: 9-0, 4/12/16
AYES: Pavley, Stone, Allen, Hertzberg, Hueso, Jackson,
Monning, Vidak, Wolk
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 7-0, 5/27/16
AYES: Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, McGuire, Mendoza, Nielsen
SENATE FLOOR: 38-0, 5/31/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Vidak, Wolk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Runner, Wieckowski
SENATE FLOOR: 39-0, 8/25/16
AYES: Allen, Anderson, Bates, Beall, Berryhill, Block,
Cannella, De León, Fuller, Gaines, Galgiani, Glazer, Hall,
Hancock, Hernandez, Hertzberg, Hill, Hueso, Huff, Jackson,
Lara, Leno, Leyva, Liu, McGuire, Mendoza, Mitchell, Monning,
Moorlach, Morrell, Nguyen, Nielsen, Pan, Pavley, Roth, Stone,
Vidak, Wolk, Wieckowski
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 8/18/16 - See last page for vote
SB 1463
Page 2
SUBJECT: Electrical lines: mitigation of wildfire risks
SOURCE: City of Laguna Beach
DIGEST: This bill requires the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC), in consultation with the Department of
Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), to prioritize areas in
which communities are subject to conditions that increase fire
hazards associated with overhead utility facilities when
determining areas which it will require enhanced mitigation
measures for wildfire hazards posed by overhead electrical lines
and equipment. This bill also requires the CPUC to define
"enhanced mitigation measures" and to describe how the agency
incorporated the concerns of local governments and/or fire
departments in determining the geographic communities.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law:
1)Provides that the CPUC has regulatory authority over public
utilities, including electric corporations. (California
Constitution, Article 3 and 4)
2)States it is the intent of the Legislature that the CPUC
assess the consequences of its decisions, including economic
effects, and assess and mitigate the impacts of its decision
on customer, public, and employee safety, as part of each
ratemaking, rulemaking, or other proceeding, and that this be
accomplished using existing resources. (Public Utilities Code
§321.1)
3)Requires the CPUC to develop formal procedures to incorporate
safety in a rate case application by an electrical corporation
or gas corporations. (Public Utilities Code §750)
SB 1463
Page 3
4)Establishes the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zones in order
to classify lands in the state with whether a very high fire
hazard is present so that public officials are able to
identify and adopt measures to mitigate against fire risk.
(Government Code §51175)
5)Establishes the California Emergency Services Act and provides
that the state is recognized with responsibility to mitigate
the effects of natural, manmade, or war-caused emergencies
that result in conditions of disaster or in extreme peril to
life, property, and the resources of the state, generally to
protect the health and safety and preserve the lives and
property of the people of the state. Confers on the Governor
to provide state assistance and emergency programs.
(Government Code §8550)
This bill:
1)Requires CPUC, in consultation with CAL FIRE, to prioritize
areas in which communities are subject to conditions that
increase fire hazards associated with overhead utility
facilities when determining areas which it will require
enhanced mitigation measures for wildfire hazards posed by
overhead electrical lines and equipment.
2)Requires the CPUC, consistent with Public Utilities Code
Section 321.1, to develop a definition of "enhanced mitigation
measures" for purposes of its fire-threat maps and fire-safety
regulations as included in Rulemaking 15-05-006.
3)Requires the CPUC to include a description of how the agency
incorporated the concerns of local governments and/or fire
departments in its findings supporting a decision to approve
the boundaries for the communities prioritized.
SB 1463
Page 4
Background
Laguna's experience with wildfire. On Friday, July 3, 2015, a
portion of Laguna Canyon area experienced a fire when falling
trees hit a power line on Arroyo Drive which sparked a fire on a
brush covered hillside along Laguna Canyon Road. With light
winds and air support, the fire was knocked down after burning
about 15 acres. Five aircraft and 150 firefighters were
deployed. Based on a local news story, the brush fire prompted
the Mayor to call for an all-out effort to underground utilities
citywide. According to the same Laguna Beach Indy newspaper
story, residents, motivated by improving views and lowering fire
risk, themselves have footed the bill to bury utility lines in
their own neighborhoods in 40 percent of the city, the public
works department estimates. According to a city statement,
since 2007, at least four fires have been attributed to
above-ground electric utilities and been involved in 46
accidents along Laguna Canyon Road. Laguna Beach has also
experienced one of the nation's costliest fires. In 1993 an
arsonist-caused fire burned 16,000 acres and destroyed or
severely damaged over 400 homes and caused $528 million dollars
in damage.
CPUC efforts to address wildfires. In October of 2007, a series
of large wildfires ignited and burned hundreds of thousands of
acres in several counties in Southern California. The fires
displaced nearly one million residents, destroyed thousands of
homes, and took the lives of ten people and an additional seven
who died from evacuating or from fire related causes. These
fires included the Witch Fire, one of the nation's most
damaging, which was ignited by power lines. Other notable
wildfires were caused by power lines, including Grass Valley
Fire, the Malibu Canyon Fire, the Rice Fire, the Sedgewick Fire,
and the Witch Fire. After the 2007 fires ravaged several areas
of the state, in 2008, the CPUC initiated rulemaking proceeding
to address fires related to utility poles. The CPUC's efforts
have resulted in additional requirements on utilities to reduce
the likelihood of fires started by or threatening utility
facilities, including improved vegetation management, as well
SB 1463
Page 5
as, requiring the utilities to develop electric utility fire
prevention plans. The first phase also adopted fire hazard maps
of high-risk areas in Southern California. In May 2015, the CPUC
opened a new rulemaking proceeding to develop and adopt
fire-threat maps and fire-safety regulations (R. 15-05-006).
The CPUC tasked CAL FIRE to oversee and select outside experts
to develop a more refined statewide fire hazard map. As noted
in the Scoping Memo, the fire-threat map will be based on
approximately 150 terabytes of fire-weather data, which will be
used to run millions of fire simulations to build a high
resolution, statewide fire-treat map. The CPUC and CAL FIRE
have conducted workshops to solicit feedback on the draft map.
After a couple of delays, a final map was issued on February 12
of this year, known as Fire Map 1, which will be used as the
foundation for the development of Fire Map 2 to delineate
High-Fire Threat District boundaries.
Mapping fire hazard and risk. The City of Laguna Beach
submitted comments into the proceeding to express the City's
objections to Fire Map 1, particularly because the map places
the city under the lowest margins of the Utility Fire Threat
index. The City of Laguna Beach stated that the map has
limitations and needs correcting to what appears to be the
exclusion of key criteria that artificially eliminates developed
communities from high wildfire risk categories, including
housing density and local fire history. The City of Laguna
points to a 2008 CAL FIRE Fire Hazard Severity Zone Development
map which designates 90 percent of the city in a very high fire
hazard severity zone. They also submitted comments to request
the CPUC explain how the map will be used prior to adoption, so
as to ensure utilities won't point to the map to argue that
communities, such as Laguna Beach, are not at risk for wildfire
and should, therefore, not receive any mitigation efforts.
SB 1463. This bill requires the CPUC, in consultation with CAL
FIRE, in R.15-05-006, or another appropriate proceeding to
prioritize areas in which communities are subject to conditions
that increase fire hazards associated with overhead utility
facilities generally and at specific locations and develop a
definition of "enhanced mitigation measures." This bill also
SB 1463
Page 6
requires any findings supporting a decision to approve the
boundaries for specified areas to describe how the CPUC
incorporated the concerns of local governments, fire
departments, or both in determining those boundaries.
Related Legislation
SB 1028 (Hill, 2016) requires CPUC-regulated utilities to file
wildfire mitigation plans and requires the CPUC to vote to
review and comment on those plans. The bill also requires
publicly-owned utilities to file wildfire mitigation plans with
their governing boards. The bill is currently pending
consideration by the full Assembly.
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.:YesLocal: No
According to the Assembly Appropriations Committee:
Increased costs of $582,000 (State Responsibility Area fund or
General Fund) over two years for CAL FIRE to assist in the
design and development of the revised Fire Threat Map and the
development of enhanced mitigation measures.
Minor costs to the CPUC (Public Utilities Commission Utilities
Reimbursement Account).
SUPPORT: (Verified8/19/16)
City of Laguna Beach (source)
City of Aliso Viejo
City of Irvine
City of Malibu
City of Newport
SB 1463
Page 7
Orange County Fire Chiefs Association
Rural County Representatives of California
OPPOSITION: (Verified8/19/16)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: According to the sponsor, the City
of Laguna Beach, SB 1463 instructs the CPUC on best use of fire
hazard information in developing future heightened utility fire
mitigation standards for at-risk communities throughout the
state. On February 2, 2016, the CPUC served the final version
of Fire Map 1. The City of Laguna Beach was placed within the
low-risk margins of the Utility Fire Threat Index. The City is
concerned that the map may be used by utilities to justify
providing a less-safe level of service than would otherwise be
requires if the City remained in a high risk zone. SB 1463
would resolve this issue by requiring the CPUC to take into
consideration areas in which communities are at risk from the
consequences of wildfires not just those areas where certain
environmental hazards are present.
GOVERNOR'S VETO MESSAGE:
"To the Members of the California State Senate:
I am returning Senate Bill 1463 without my signature.
This bill requires the Public Utilities Commission to
prioritize areas that have increased fire hazard associated
with overhead utility facilities.
Since May of last year, the Commission and CalFire have
been doing just that through the existing proceeding on
SB 1463
Page 8
fire-threat maps and fire-safety regulations. This
deliberative process should continue and the issues this
bill seeks to address should be raised in that forum.
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 75-0, 8/18/16
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Arambula, Atkins, Baker,
Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke,
Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley,
Cooper, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Beth Gaines, Gallagher,
Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez,
Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein,
Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian,
Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Quirk, Ridley-Thomas,
Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond,
Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood, Rendon
NO VOTE RECORDED: Dababneh, Frazier, Roger Hernández, Holden,
Kim
Prepared by: Nidia Bautista / E., U., & C. / (916) 651-4107
11/18/16 14:42:45
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