BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
1414 (Kehoe)
Hearing Date: 05/10/2010 Amended: 04/27/2010
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy Policy Vote: EU&C 10-0
SB 1414 (Kehoe), Page 2
_________________________________________________________________
____
BILL SUMMARY: SB 1414 changes the deadlines under which the
Public Utilities Commission is required to determine whether an
application for rehearing will be granted.
_________________________________________________________________
____
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 Fund
Additional staffing to review Between $780 and $1,130 per
year Special *
applications
* Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account.
_________________________________________________________________
____
STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
Current law allows any party to a proceeding before the Public
Utilities Commission to file an application requesting the
Commission rehear an order issued in the proceeding. The
Commission is authorized to decide whether to grant the
rehearing and current law does not specify a time period in
which the Commission must rule on the application.
If an application for rehearing is made more than ten days
before the effective date of the related order, the order shall
be suspended for up to 60 days (less if the Commission acts on
the application before 60 days have elapsed). If an application
for rehearing is made less than ten days before the effective
date of an order, there is no automatic suspension of the order.
If the application is not acted upon by the Commission within 60
days, the application is deemed denied.
Concerns have been raised that some applications for rehearing
have not been acted upon by the Commission in a timely manner.
In addition, although decisions by the Commission are appealable
to the courts, the courts often decline to rule on those appeals
if there is a pending application for rehearing at the
Commission (even when 60 days have elapsed).
SB 1414 changes the process for reviewing applications for
SB 1414 (Kehoe), Page 2
rehearing at the Commission. Specifically, when an application
for rehearing is made more than ten days before the effective
date of an order, the bill requires that the order be suspended
until the Commission rules on the application for rehearing. In
addition, for applications for rehearing made less than ten days
before the effective date, the bill requires the Commission to
rule on the application within 120 days. If the Commission does
not act upon the application, it is deemed denied.
Because the bill requires the Commission to either suspend an
order until an application for rehearing is acted upon, or
requires the Commission to act upon applications within 120
days, the Commission anticipates the need for additional legal
staff to reduce the time the Commission takes to act upon new
applications and to reduce the existing backlog of applications.
The Commission estimates it will need five to seven additional
attorneys and one to two additional support staff positions.
Total costs will be between $780,000 and $1,130,000.