BILL NUMBER: AB 413 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 1, 2010
AMENDED IN SENATE AUGUST 17, 2009
AMENDED IN SENATE JULY 13, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 1, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 5, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 20, 2009
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 13, 2009
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Fuentes
FEBRUARY 23, 2009
An act to amend Sections 327, 382, 739.1, and 747 of, and
to add Sections 365.1, 739.9, 745, and 748 to, the Public Utilities
Code, and to amend Section 80110 of the Water Code, relating to
energy. An act to add Section 17052 to the Business
and Professions Code, relating to unfair competition, and declaring
the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 413, as amended, Fuentes. Energy: rates.
Unfair competition.
Existing law defines unfair competition and makes unlawful
specified business practices intended to injure competitors or
destroy competition, and specifies criminal penalties and civil
remedies for violations, including injunctive relief and damages.
This bill would make it unlawful for any person to develop,
produce, or manufacture any article or product, as defined, using
stolen or misappropriated property, including, but not limited to,
unlicensed computer software, when the article or product is in
competition with an article or product that is lawfully developed,
produced, and manufactured. The bill would make violations of its
provisions subject to existing criminal penalties and civil remedies.
By expanding the scope of an existing crime, the bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
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.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has
regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical
corporations and gas corporations, as defined. Existing law
authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every
public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and
reasonable.
This bill would prohibit the commission, prior to January 1, 2014,
from requiring or permitting an electrical corporation to employ
mandatory or default time-variant pricing, as defined, for
residential customers, but would authorize the commission to
authorize an electrical corporation to offer residential customers
the option of receiving service pursuant to time-variant pricing and
to participate in other demand response programs. The bill,
commencing January 1, 2014, would permit the commission to approve an
electrical corporation's use of time-variant pricing if residential
customers have the option to not receive service pursuant to
time-variant pricing and incur no additional charge, as specified, as
a result of the exercise of that option.
(2) Existing law requires the commission to establish a program of
assistance to low-income electric and gas customers, referred to as
the California Alternate Rates for Energy or CARE program, and
prohibits the cost to be borne solely by any single class of
customer.
This bill would require the commission to establish the CARE
program to provide assistance to low-income electric and gas
customers with annual household incomes that are no greater than 200%
of the federal poverty guideline levels, and require that the cost
of the program not be borne solely by any single class of customer.
The bill would require, for an electrical corporation or public
utility that is both an electrical corporation and a gas corporation,
that the cost of the program be recovered on an equal cents per
kilowatthour or per-therm basis from all classes of customers that
were subject to the surcharge that funded the CARE program on January
1, 2008.
(3) Existing law relative to electrical restructuring requires
that the electrical corporations and gas corporations that
participate in the CARE program administer low-income energy
efficiency and rate assistance programs described in specified
statutes, and undertake certain actions in administering specified
energy efficiency and weatherization programs.
This bill would require that electrical corporations, in
administering the specified energy efficiency and weatherization
programs, target energy efficiency and solar programs to upper-tier
and multifamily customers in a manner that will result in long-term
permanent reductions in electricity usage at the dwelling units and
develop programs that specifically target nonprofit affordable
housing providers, including weatherization of existing dwelling
units and replacement of inefficient appliances. The bill would
require the commission, by not later than December 31, 2020, to
ensure that all eligible low-income electricity and gas customers are
given the opportunity to participate in low-income energy efficiency
programs, including customers occupying apartment houses or similar
multiunit residential structures, and would require the commission
and electrical corporations and gas corporations to expend all
reasonable efforts to coordinate ratepayer-funded programs with other
energy conservation and efficiency programs and to obtain additional
federal funding to support actions undertaken pursuant to this
requirement.
(4) Existing law relative to electrical restructuring requires the
commission to authorize and facilitate direct transactions between
electricity suppliers and retail end-use customers.
Existing law requires the commission to designate a baseline
quantity of electricity and gas necessary for a significant portion
of the reasonable energy needs of the average residential customer,
and requires that electrical and gas corporations file rates and
charges, to be approved by the commission, providing baseline rates
and requires the commission, in establishing baseline rates, to avoid
excessive rate increases for residential customers.
Existing law, enacted during the energy crisis of 2000-01,
authorized the Department of Water Resources, until January 1, 2003,
to enter into contracts for the purchase of electricity, and to sell
electricity to retail end-use customers and, with specified
exceptions, local publicly owned electric utilities, at not more than
the department's acquisition costs and to recover those costs
through the issuance of bonds to be repaid by ratepayers. That law
provides that the department is entitled to recover certain expenses
resulting from its purchases and sales of electricity and authorizes
the commission to enter into an agreement with the department
relative to cost recovery. That law prohibits the commission from
increasing the electricity charges in effect on February 1, 2001, for
residential customers for existing baseline quantities or usage by
those customers of up to 130% of then existing baseline quantities,
until the department has recovered the costs of electricity it
procured for electrical corporation retail end-use customers. That
law also suspends the right of retail end-use customers, other than
community choice aggregators and a qualifying direct transaction
customer, to acquire service through a direct transaction until the
Department of Water Resources no longer supplies electricity under
that law.
This bill would delete the prohibition that the commission not
increase the electricity charges in effect on February 1, 2001, for
residential customers for existing baseline quantities or usage by
those customers of up to 130% of then existing baseline quantities.
The bill would authorize the commission, until January 1, 2019, to
increase the rates charged residential customers for electricity
usage up to 130% of the baseline quantities by the annual percentage
change in the Consumer Price Index from the prior year plus 1%, but
not less than 3% and not more than 5% per year. This authorization
would be subject to the limitation that rates charged residential
customers for electricity usage up to the baseline quantities,
including any customer charge revenues, not exceed 90% of the system
average rate, as defined. The bill would authorize the commission to
increase the rates for participants in the CARE program, subject to
certain limitations. The bill would delete the existing suspension of
direct transactions in the Water Code that was adopted during the
energy crisis of 2000-01, and would instead require the commission to
authorize direct transactions subject to a phase-in schedule of not
less than 3 years and not more than 5 years, and subject a maximum
allowable total kilowatthours annual limit established, as specified,
for each electrical corporation. The bill would continue the
suspension of direct transactions except as expressly authorized,
until the Legislature, by statute, repeals the suspension or
otherwise authorizes direct transactions.
(5) Existing law requires the commission to prepare and submit to
the Governor and the Legislature a written report on an annual basis
before February 1 of each year on the costs of programs and
activities conducted by an electrical corporation or gas corporation
that has more than a specified number of customers in California.
This bill would change the submission date to April 1 of each
year, and would also require a separate report, due May 1 and
annually thereafter, to contain the commission's recommendations for
actions that can be undertaken to limit utility costs and rate
increases, consistent with the state's energy and environmental
goals. The bill would require the commission to annually require
electrical and gas corporations that have more than a specified
number of customers in California to study and report to the
commission on measures that these corporations recommend be
undertaken to limit utility costs and rate increases.
(6) 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 certain of 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 2/3 . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 17052 is added to the
Business and Professions Code , to read:
17052. (a) It is unlawful for any person to develop, produce, or
manufacture any article or product using any stolen or
misappropriated property, including, but not limited to, unlicensed
computer software, in competition with an article or product that is
lawfully developed, produced, or manufactured.
(b) A violation of subdivision (a) shall constitute unfair
competition within the meaning of Section 17200. Each article or
product described in subdivision (a) shall constitute a separate
violation.
(c) (1) Remedies and penalties for a violation of this section are
cumulative.
(2) An action for injunction and damages pursuant to Section 17070
for a violation of this section may be brought by the Attorney
General in addition to the other persons authorized to bring an
action under that section.
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.
SEC. 3. This act is an urgency statute necessary
for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety
within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order to address the severe and escalating problem of the use
of stolen or misappropriated property in producing goods and services
resulting in unfair competition against legitimate and law abiding
companies doing business in this state, resulting in a dire impact on
jobs and revenues, it is necessary that this act take effect
immediately. All matter omitted in this version of the bill
appears in the bill as amended in the Senate August 17, 2009. (JR11)