BILL NUMBER: AB 1879	ENROLLED
	BILL TEXT

	PASSED THE SENATE  AUGUST 9, 2010
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 12, 2010
	AMENDED IN SENATE  AUGUST 4, 2010
	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, 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. 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, if it has not done so in a proceeding by January 1, 2011, 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.


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.
  SEC. 2.  Section 737.1 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
   737.1.  The commission shall reconsider Decision 86-06-035 of the
commission. If the commission has not reconsidered that decision in a
proceeding on or before January 1, 2011, 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.