Amended in Senate May 27, 2014

Amended in Senate April 8, 2014

Senate Bill No. 900

Introduced by Senator Hill

January 15, 2014

An act to amend Section 321.1 of, and to add Section 750 to, the Public Utilities Code, relating to public utilities.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 900, as amended, Hill. Public begin delete Utilities. end delete begin insert utilities: rate case application: safety. end insert

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and authorizes the commission to establish rules for all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature. If the commission finds after a hearing that the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, or service of any public utility, or the methods of manufacture, distribution, transmission, storage, or supply employed by the public utility, are unjust, unreasonable, unsafe, improper, inadequate, or insufficient, the Public Utilities Act requires that the commission determine and, by order or rule, fix the rules, practices, equipment, appliances, facilities, service, or methods to be observed, furnished, constructed, enforced, or employed. Existing law states it is the intent of the Legislature that the commission assess the economic effects or other consequences of its decisions as a part of each ratemaking, rulemaking, or other proceeding.

This bill would require the commission to develop formal procedures begin insert , as specified, end insert to consider safety in a rate case application by an electrical corporation or gas corporation. The bill would require the commission to take actions to assess and mitigate the impacts of its decisions on customer, public, and employee safety.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 321.1 of the Public Utilities Code is
amended to read:

321.1.  

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature that the commission
assess the economic effects or other consequences of its decisions
as part of each ratemaking, rulemaking, or other proceeding, and
that this be accomplished using existing resources and within
existing commission structures. The commission shall not establish
a separate office or department for the purpose of evaluating
economic development consequences of commission activities.

(b) The commission shall take all necessary and appropriate
actions to assess and mitigate the impacts of its decisions on
customer, public, and employee safety.

SEC. 2.  

Section 750 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:

750.  

The commission shall develop formal procedures to
consider safety in a rate case application by an electrical
corporation or gas corporation. The procedures shall include begin delete all
of the following: end delete begin insert a means by which safety information acquired
by the commission through monitoring, data tracking and analysis,
accident investigations, and audits of an applicant’s safety
programs end insert begin insert may inform the commission’s consideration of the
application. end insert

begin delete

(a) In advance of, or concurrent with, the scheduled submission
of a rate case application by an electrical corporation or gas
corporation, commission staff shall produce a report on the safety
performance of that corporation in those areas in which the
corporation’s revenue requirement is under consideration. The
report shall examine the safety performance of the electrical
corporation or gas corporation over a time period no shorter than
the period between the scheduled rate case applications. The report
shall be entered into the record of the rate case proceeding.

(b) Subsequent to the submission of a rate case application by
an electrical corporation or gas corporation, commission staff units
responsible for safety risk assessment shall evaluate the quality of
the risk analysis of the applicant’s incremental safety-related
revenue requests, including the quality of the alternatives analysis.
The report shall be entered into the record of the rate case
proceeding.

(c) The commission, in approving a decision determining the
revenue requirements of an electrical corporation or a gas
corporation in a rate case proceeding, shall make risk-informed
findings as to the safety benefits of incremental funding requests
of safety-related proposed expenditures by the corporation.

(d) The commission, in approving a decision determining the
revenue requirements of an electrical corporation or gas corporation
in a rate case proceeding, shall order commission staff to monitor
the safety performance of the corporation and to prepare a report
on the safety performance of that corporation in advance of, or
concurrent with, the next rate case application by the corporation.

end delete