BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 2559
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 9, 2012
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON UTILITIES AND COMMERCE
Steven Bradford, Chair
AB 2559 (Buchanan) - As Amended: April 9, 2012
SUBJECT : Natural gas pipelines: pipeline integrity management
SUMMARY : This bill would require California cities and
counties to expedite permitting for pipeline integrity
management projects. Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to ensure that
a city, county, or city and county is provided notice by a gas
corporation whenever pipeline inspection, remediation, or
replacement work within the city, county, or city and county,
and the work is likely to require action by the city, county,
or city and county to approve or facilitate the work.
2)Requires that the city, county, or city and county provided
with notice will expedite any permitting or other actions
necessary to complete any pipeline inspection, remediation, or
replacement work within the city, county, or city and county.
EXISTING LAW
1)Exempts pipeline projects from the requirements of the
California Environmental Policy Act if:
a) they are: "?less than one mile in length within a public
street or highway or any other public right-of-way for the
installation of a new pipeline or the maintenance, repair,
restoration, reconditioning, relocation, replacement,
removal, or demolition of an existing pipeline." For
purposes of this section, "pipeline" includes subsurface
facilities but does not include any surface facility
related to the operation of the underground facility.
b) They involve "?the operation, repair, maintenance,
permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alteration of
�Existing facilities of both investor and publicly-owned
utilities used to provide ? natural gas?], involving
negligible or no expansion of use beyond that existing at
the time of the lead agency's determination?. consist of
replacement or reconstruction of existing utility systems
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and/or facilities involving negligible or no expansion of
capacity where the new structure will be located on the
same site as the structure replaced and will have
substantially the same purpose and capacity as the
structure replaced."
1)Prohibits a local agency from charging permit and similar fees
in excess of the estimated reasonable costs of providing the
services rendered unless the amounts of the fees are approved
by the electorate.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS :
1)The author states that "AB 2559 provides the state's gas
utilities expedited local permitting for pipeline inspection,
remediation and replacement work undertaken pursuant to
pipeline integrity management. This bill results from a
recommendation by the Independent Review Panel established by
the CPUC in the wake of the San Bruno tragedy. One of the
Panel's recommendations encourages the Legislature to enact
legislation that would provide the state's gas utilities with
the right to expedited permitting by counties and
municipalities for pipeline inspection, remediation and
replacement that results from a utility's pipeline integrity
management plan. These pipeline integrity management plans are
currently required of operators of gas transmission pipelines
in order for the utilities to asses and address potential
problems with their pipelines. The state's main gas operators
have submitted Pipeline Safety Enhancement Plans that propose
a combined 815 miles of pressure testing and 391 miles of pipe
replacement for 2012-2014 alone. It is vital that the state's
gas operators have all the tools available to them so that the
safety work can be completed expeditiously and on schedule. AB
2559 will help facilitate this by providing gas utilities with
expedited permitting by counties and municipalities for the
operators' pipeline inspection, remediation and replacement
work. Codifying this requirement of expedited permitting for
pipeline integrity management work will help speed up critical
safety work, better ensure public safety across California and
put the public at ease that all needed maintenance has been
completed."
AB 2559
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2)The PUC formed its own review panel based on authority it
cited in its resolution to"do all things, whether specifically
designated in ... �the Public Utilities Code] or in addition
thereto, which are necessary and convenient" to our regulation
of public utilities, including, though not limited to,
adopting necessary rules and requirements in furtherance of
our constitutional and statutory duties to regulate and
oversee public utilities operating in California." The
Independent Review Panel recommended that the PUC "Request the
California General Assembly enact legislation that would
provide the state's gas utilities with the right to expedited
permitting by counties and municipalities for pipeline
inspection, remediation and replacement work undertaken
pursuant to pipeline integrity management."
3)Gas corporations have experienced permitting requirements by
local governments that appear to go beyond work related to
pipeline integrity management. Examples include unusually high
permitting fees or additional requirements, such as
resurfacing roads well beyond the area where the work is to be
performed.
4)Ratepayers pay to make repairs and maintain utility
infrastructure. Additional costs caused by permitting delays,
and unusually high fees, impact the rates that utility
customers pay.
5)Local building and planning departments vary widely in
resources to review, issue, make a determination, and inspect
construction projects. In larger communities, there may be
multiple plan checkers and inspectors while in others there
may be a single person who works as both plan checker and
inspector. The author may wish to consider adding language
that defines expedited permitting to mean within 10 business
days and that if a local agency determines that it cannot
grant the permit in ten business days, it shall provide an
explanation to the utility in writing along with the timeline
for processing the permit.
6)To the extent that a local government may ask for work that is
additional to but unrelated to pipeline repairs, the author
may wish to consider an amendment to require that local
governments may not require work to be performed as part of a
permit, that is outside of the scope of the proposed pipeline
project, unless it specifically related to public health and
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safety.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) (Sponsor)
Sierra Club California
Opposition
None on file.
Analysis Prepared by : Susan Kateley / U. & C. / (916)
319-2083