BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2556
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 23, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
AB 2556 (Allen) - As Amended: March 29, 2012
SUBJECT : Electrical lines: trimming of trees.
SUMMARY : This bill would require each investor owned electric
utilities (IOU) and publicly owned electric utility (POU) to
avoid excessive tree trimming. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the IOUs and POUs to avoid excessive tree trimming
that threatens the health of a tree, to make a good faith
effort to implement good forestry practices and vegetation
management practices, preserve the health of mountainous
lands, forest-covered lands, brush-covered lands, and protect
the aesthetic, cultural, and property value of the area.
2)Prohibit removal of trees unless specified circumstances exist
and require the utility to obtain the written confirmation by
an arborist of the need to remove a tree and to provide
specified notice prior to removal of a tree.
3)Requires an IOU or POU utility to provide notification to a
property owner, provide notification on its Internet Web site,
and publish legal notification prior to undertaking tree
trimming maintenance or brush removal.
EXISTING LAW
1)State law requires:
a) A person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or
maintains a building or structure in, upon, or adjoining a
mountainous area, forest-covered lands, brush-covered
lands, grass-covered lands, or land that is covered with
flammable material maintain defensible space no greater
than 100 feet from each side of the structure.
b) Any person that owns, controls, operates, or maintains
any electrical transmission or distribution line upon any
mountainous land, or forest covered land, brush-covered
land, or grass-covered land shall maintain around and
adjacent to any pole or tower which supports a switch,
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fuse, transformer, lightning arrester, line junction, or
dead end or corner pole, a firebreak which consists of a
clearing of not less than 10 feet in each direction from
the outer circumference of such pole or tower.
c) Any person that owns, controls, operates, or maintains
any electrical transmission or distribution line upon any
mountainous land, or in forest-covered land, brush-covered
land, or grass-covered land to maintain a clearance of the
respective distances which are specified in this section in
all directions between all vegetation and all conductors
which are carrying electric current:
For any line which is operating at 2,400 or more
volts, but less than 72,000 volts, four feet.
For any line which is operating at 72,000 or more
volts, but less than 110,000 volts, six feet.
For any line which is operating at 110,000 or more
volts, 10 feet.
In every case, such distance shall be sufficiently
great to furnish the required clearance at any position
of the wire, or conductor when the adjacent air
temperature is 120 degrees Fahrenheit, or less.
Dead trees, old decadent or rotten trees, trees
weakened by decay or disease and trees or portions
thereof that are leaning toward the line which may
contact the line from the side or may fall on the line
shall be felled, cut, or trimmed so as to remove such
hazard.
a) Allows exemptions from these requirements if the person
does not have the legal right to maintain such clearing,
nor do such sections require any person to enter upon or to
damage property which is owned by any other person without
the consent of the owner of the property.
b) With some exceptions, state regulations require the
following related to removal of flammable vegetation and
material within a firebreak surrounding poles or towers
At ground level - remove flammable materials,
including but not limited to, ground litter, duff and
dead or desiccated vegetation that will allow fire to
spread, and;
From 0 - 2.4 m (0-8 feet) above ground level remove
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flammable trash, debris or other materials, grass,
herbaceous and brush vegetation. All limbs and foliage of
living trees shall be removed up to a height of 2.4 m (8
feet).
From 2.4 m (8 feet) to horizontal plane of highest
point of conductor attachment remove dead, diseased or
dying limbs and foliage from living sound trees and any
dead, diseased or dying trees in their entirety.
a) PUC General Order 95 establishes minimum clearances
between vegetation and power lines and associated live
parts. The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
allows reasonable vegetation management practices for the
purposes of public safety or service reliability to obtain
greater clearances to ensure compliance until the next
scheduled maintenance. PUC guidelines allow each utility to
determine and apply additional appropriate clearances
beyond specified clearances which take into consideration
various factors, including: line operating voltage, length
of span, line sag, planned maintenance cycles, location of
vegetation within the span, species type, experience with
particular species, vegetation growth rate and
characteristics, vegetation management standards and best
practices, local climate, elevation, fire risk, and
vegetation trimming requirements that are applicable by
statute. Depending on line voltage, clearance requirements
are as low as 4 feet and as much as 20 feet.
1)Federal regulation requires utilities to:
Trim trees and other vegetation growing in or adjacent
to the power line right-of-way to prevent power outages.
Regularly prune trees and other vegetation beyond the
minimum clearance distance to account for the fact that
they continuously grow and sway with the wind.
Prepare and implement a Vegetation Management Plan
consistent with local laws and regulations
Perform a Vegetation Inspection of 100% of its
applicable transmission lines at least once per calendar
year
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
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1)Author's Statement . In recent years, controversies have arisen
between communities and electrical utilities over what many
perceive to be unnecessary tree removals and excessive tree
trimming. For example, in August of 2009, residents noticed
that two trees had been cut down in TJ Martin Park, a city
park in San Jose. After some research, the residents learned
that Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) had removed the two trees
and had a plan to remove another 140 trees in both TJ Martin
and another San Jose park, Jeffrey Fontana Park. The 140
trees represented about 30% of the trees in both parks. After
months of protests and community meetings, PG&E agreed to
remove only thirteen trees. However, the following year, PG&E
proposed to remove another fifty-five trees. Again, after
many months of protests and community meetings, PG&E agreed to
cut only seven trees.
More recently, a controversy has arisen in multiple areas
throughout Sonoma County where PG&E has decided to virtually
remove all trees underneath a 39-mile stretch of transmission
lines. Since their original public statements, PG&E has
retracted and have informed residents that they are only doing
inventory and have yet to determine which trees will be
removed. Residents in these communities estimate that PG&E
has scheduled at least 10,000 trees for removal though PG&E
has yet to verify the number despite requests from residents.
In every area where controversies have occurred, two common
themes have emerged: First, communities argue that the
electrical utility provided insufficient community
notification for scheduled tree removals.
Second, communities argue that the electrical utility has
provided conflicting, inconsistent, or inadequate information
justifying the need for tree removals.
2)Since vegetation growth is constant and always present,
unmanaged vegetation poses an increased outage risk,
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especially when transmission lines are operating at or near
their power rating. This can present a significant risk of
consecutive line failures thereby leading to cascading
outages. Once the first line fails the shift of the current to
the other lines and/or the increasing system loads will lead
to the second and subsequent line failures as contact to the
vegetation under those lines occurs.
3)As a result of vegetation-induced outages affecting large
regions of the U.S., recent rules imposed on utilities require
vegetation management. Vegetation management will range from
pruning to removal, depending on fire risk assessment.
4)PG&E's vegetation management program in a 40 mile corridor
underneath transmission lines have angered residents near or
adjacent to the corridor. The corridor stretches from The
Geysers over Oakmont and Bennett Valley to Petaluma. The
utility is working to perform its work prior to the start of
the fire season in that region.
5)In October 2007, several severe wildfires swept through
Southern California. Massive evacuations, road closures and
power outages impacted many Californians; as thousands of
firefighters bravely fought the flames. People died as a
result of these fires, and thousands of families lost their
homes. Three of the fires in San Diego Gas & Electric's
(SDG&E) territory were linked to power lines. These were the
Guejito, Witch and Rice fires. The cause of the Rice fire was
attributed to an untrimmed sycamore tree limb broke and fell
onto SDG&E's 12 kV conductors during Santa Ana wind
conditions, starting a fire.
6)SDG&E is estimating that uninsured wildfire costs could reach
$594 million.
7)PG&E and its subcontractors have recently settled two lawsuits
over fires n Eldorado and Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The
settlement is reported to be nearly $30 million. One of the
two fires was caused by a Douglas Fir falling on a
transmission line.
8)Vegetation management takes place over the large service areas
of a utility and requires taking into account weather, bird
breeding seasons, and scheduling vegetation inspection and
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management on hundreds of thousands of trees along thousands
of miles of wires. The proposed notice requirements would
significantly impede the ability of utilities to comply with
federal vegetation management laws.
9)The author may wish to clarify that nothing in this bill
prevents a utility from complying with federal or state law.
10)The provision in the bill to 'avoid excessive tree trimming
that threatens the health of the tree' may conflict with
vegetation management requirements to take into consideration
the planned maintenance cycle. The author may wish to modify
this provision to take into account the planned maintenance
cycle.
11)The provision in the bill to protect "aesthetic, cultural or
property value" is not clear nor does it provide a means by
which to determine this. The author may wish to consider
removing this provision.
12)The provision that a utility provide property owners with 120
day notice prior to removing a tree is likely to interfere
with implementing required vegetation management plans within
seasonal constraints. The author may wish to consider
requiring that utilities annually provide copies of their
vegetation management plans to cities and counties and make
those plans available on their internet web sites. In
addition, the author may wish to add a provision that the
utilities send a notification to property owners in the area
when the utility is working that locality to inform property
owners that the utility is conducting vegetation management in
their area and that trees that are unhealthy or close to power
lines may be removed. The utility should also include a point
of contact in case property owners would like to find out more
information or express concerns.
On Page 3, line 19 Avoid excessive tree trimming that
threatens the health of a tree, unless necessary due to the
vegetation management maintenance cycle .
On Page 3, line 24, strike: Protect the aesthetic, cultural,
and property value of the area.
On Page 5, beginning at line 7:
In performing tree trimming maintenance or brush removal, each
electrical corporation and local publicly owned electric
utility shall do all of the following:
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(a) Provide annually written notification to the property
owner of the intent to trim trees or remove brush no less than
120 days prior to the scheduled tree trimming or brush removal
a copy of the company's vegetation management plan to the
city, county, city and county, or other entity of local
government. If the owner of the property is a city, county,
city and county or other entity of local government, notice
shall be given to the city council, board of supervisors, or
other governing body. If the owner of the property is the
state, notice shall be given to the state entities that
administer and occupy the property and to the city council or
board of supervisors of the city, county, or city and county
where the state property is located.
(b) Provide notification on the utility's Internet Web site no
less than 120 days prior to the scheduled tree trimming or
bush removal. Publish the vegetation management plan on the
utility's Internet Web site.
(c) Publish legal notification of the scheduled tree trimming
or brush removal at least once in a newspaper of general
circulation serving the area of the proposed tree trimming or
brush removal not less than 120 days prior to the scheduled
tree trimming or brush removal. Utilities shall provide a
notification to affected property owners in the locality when
the utility to provide information that the utility is
conducting vegetation management in their area and that trees
that are unhealthy or close to power lines may be removed. The
utility shall also include a point of contact in case property
owners would like to find out more information or express
concerns.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file.
Opposition
Bear Valley Electric Service
California Association of Small and Multi-jurisdictional
Utilities (CASMU)
California Chamber of Commerce (CalChamber)
California Licensed Foresters Association (CLFA) (unless
amended)
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California Pacific Electric Company
Northern California Power Agency (NCPA)
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) (unless amended)
Pacific Power
San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E)
Southern California Edison (SCE)
Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083