BILL NUMBER: AB 1879 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 8, 2010
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Beall
FEBRUARY 16, 2010
An act to add Section 737.1 to the Public Utilities Code, relating
to utility charges.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1879, as amended, Beall. Electrical and gas corporations:
collection of charges.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities
Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities, including
electrical corporations and gas corporations, as respectively
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. Existing law, the Public
Utilities Act, requires that when a public utility seeks recovery in
a court for the collection of lawful tariff charges, the complaint
must be filed within 3 years, which may be extended 6 months if the
public utility presents its claim or demand in writing to the person
from whom the tariff charges are alleged to be due within that 3-year
statute of limitations period. An existing decision
of the commission governs retroactive billing by gas
corporations and electrical corporations and imposes a 3-year limit
on utility billing adjustments for meter and billing errors for
commercial customers.
This bill would require the commission to reconsider that decision
and open a proceeding to examine whether the 3-year limit on billing
adjustments for meter and billing errors is an appropriate timeframe
for small commercial customers of gas corporations and electrical
corporations.
This bill would prohibit an electrical corporation or gas
corporation from billing a residential customer or small commercial
customer, as defined, for charges that were unbilled or undercharged
for a period exceeding 3 months, if the previous mistake in billing
is the result of a meter error or billing error. The bill would
additionally require that the risk of undercollection of lawful
tariff charges by an electrical corporation or gas corporation that
results from the above-described 3-month backbilling limitation, is
borne by the shareholders of the utility.
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 prohibition on backbilling 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 no .
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all
of the following:
(a) In 1986, the Public Utilities Commission issued Decision
86-06-035, an order establishing procedures for retroactive billing
by gas corporations and electrical corporations.
(b) Under Decision 86-06-035, if a commercial customer is
undercharged, gas corporations and electrical corporations may render
an adjusted retroactive bill for the undercharged amount for up to
three previous years.
(c) Decision 86-06-035 makes no distinction between small
commercial customers and corporations for purposes of the retroactive
billing procedures.
(d) Under Decision 86-06-035, the retroactive billing limit for
residential customers is three months.
(e) It is the intent of the Legislature to call on the Public
Utilities Commission to reexamine the allowable timeframe that gas
corporations and electrical corporations have to collect an erroneous
bill, derived from a faulty meter or bill, for small commercial
customers.
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 737.1 is
added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:
737.1. (a) An electrical corporation or gas corporation shall not
bill a residential customer or small commercial customer, as defined
in Section 311, for charges that were unbilled or undercharged for a
period exceeding three months, if the previous mistake in billing is
the result of a meter error or billing error.
(b) The commission shall ensure that the risk of undercollection
of lawful tariff charges by an electrical corporation or gas
corporation as a result of the three-month backbilling limitation of
subdivision (a), is borne by the shareholders of the utility.
SEC. 2. In implementing Section 1, the Public Utilities
Commission shall extend to small commercial customers, as defined in
Section 311 of the Public Utilities Code, the same protections from
billing errors that are applicable to residential customers as a
result of Decision 86-06-035 and Resolution G-3372, as modified by
Decision 05-09-046.
SEC. 3. 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.
737.1. The commission shall reconsider Decision
86-06-035 of the commission. The commission shall open a proceeding
to examine whether the three-year limit on billing adjustments for
meter and billing errors is an appropriate timeframe for small
commercial customers of gas corporations and electrical corporations.