Energy
SB 52 (Kopp-I) Petroleum franchises
Requires the California Energy Commission to report to the Legislature at 6-month intervals, beginning July 1, 1998 through December 31, 2000, concerning the percentage of fuel sold through retail gasoline outlets that are owned and operated by refiners. Allows franchisees to purchase alternative fuels from any source if the franchiser is unable to or refuses to supply those fuels.
(Failed passage on Senate Floor)
SB 90 (Sher-D) Energy resources: renewable energy resources: funding
Codifies the report by the California Energy Commission to the Legislature on AB 1890 renewable funding, dated March 1997. Requires those revenues collected by electrical corporations for renewable technologies to be deposited in the Renewable Resource Trust Fund, as well as accounts within the fund, both of which the bill creates.
Chapter 905, Statutes of 1997
SB 116 (Peace-D) Public Utilities Commission: grant program: solar energy
Creates a grant program within the California Public Utilities Commission to provide state assistance for solar energy systems. Provides for state assistance equal to 25% of the cost of the system, up to $1,000 per system. Provides for grants and program administration to be funded from currently authorized voluntary contributions made by utility ratepayers in their utility bills.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 252* (Kelley-R) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Requires the California Energy Commission, in consultation with the California Public Utilities Commission, to prepare a report on the net benefits and feasibility of electrical load aggregation options for small rural counties and on any legislation needed to achieve identified potential benefits.
Chapter 479, Statutes of 1997
SB 286* (Mountjoy-R) Electric and gas service: master-meter customers
Authorizes master meter customers of an electric utility who are in mobilehome parks to engage in direct transactions with electricity suppliers.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communciations Committee)
SB 368 (Peace-D) Energy resources: federal oil overcharge funds
Appropriates $32,646,000 of Petroleum Violation Escrow Account funds for various projects.
Chapter 659, Statutes of 1997
Specific project bills which were included in SB 368 were SB 313 (Ayala-D), SB 332 (Johannessen-R) and AB 277 (Ortiz-D).
SB 477* (Peace-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Modifies the definition of "special purpose trust" to facilitate the issuance of rate reduction bonds by the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, and establishes electric consumer protections for residential and small commercial customers.
Chapter 275, Statutes of 1997
SB 558 (Leslie-R) Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Adjusts the amount of funds permitted for use in planning and administration of the federal Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, requires that the State Department of Community Services and Development apply for specific weatherization allocation waivers, and provides discretion regarding specific aspects of the program to local providers.
Chapter 823, Statutes of 1997
SB 703 (Rainey-R) Energy transporters
Specifies how local agencies are to calculate the municipal surcharge imposed on transportation customers purchasing commodity electricity from non-franchised utilities under electric restructuring.
Chapter 487, Statuts of 1997
SB 800 (Lewis-R) Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission
Abolishes the California Energy Commission, and transfers its functions to the California Public Utilities Commission.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 1216 (Costa-D) Biomass energy
Contains legislative findings and declarations regarding the Legislature's intent to implement methods of financial assistance to ensure the retention of the biomass industry after deregulation of the energy market.
(In Senate Appropriations Committee)
AB 873 (Takasugi-R) Taxation: energy credits
Establishes personal income tax and bank and corporation tax credits for energy conservation measures and solar energy systems. Makes the energy conservation credit 40% for measures installed on single-family dwellings and 20% for measures on other properties, and the solar credit 10% for systems installed on non-single-family residences.
(In Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee)
AB 1387 (Murray-D) Solar Electric Power Systems Financing Program
Establishes the Solar Electric Systems Financing Program in the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to provide financing for the purchase of specified solar electric power systems. Requires the board of directors of the bank to establish procedures for reimbursement of losses that are incurred by participating financial institutions as a result of loan defaults. Authorizes the bank to issue bonds or other debt instruments for the purposes of the program to purchase qualified loans from participating financial institutions or to make loans directly to qualified end users.
(In Senate Appropriations Committee)
AJR 15 (Bordonaro-R) Spent nuclear fuel: in-state transport
Memorializes the President and Congress to take appropriate action necessary to prevent the shipment of spent nuclear fuel from overseas through California.
(Refused adoption in Assembly Rules Committee)
AJR 21 (Migden-D) Spent nuclear fuel
Memorializes the President and Congress to call upon the U.S. Department of Energy to halt indefinitely the 5 planned shipments of spent nuclear fuel rods through the San Francisco Bay to the Concord Naval Weapons Station for land transport to Idaho, and memorializes the department to prevent these shipments until specified actions are taken with regard to notice, safety and environmental impacts, and compensation.
Resolution Chapter 78, Statutes of 1997
Utilities
SB 216 (Brulte-R) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Makes technical changes in provisions related to the restructuring of the electrical services industry. Intended to serve as a vehicle for modifications to the electric restructuring legislation.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 286* (Mountjoy-R) Electric and gas service: master-meter customers
Authorizes master meter customers of an electric utility, who are in mobilehome, parks to engage in direct transactions with electricity suppliers.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 357 (Rainey-R) Municipal utility districts: competitive bid contracts
Permits the East Bay Municipal Utility District board to delegate power to determine and award contracts to low bidders to its general manager, and raises the current bid threshold requirements for preparation of a formal bid package for supplies and materials for municipal utility districts.
Chapter 313, Statutes of 1997
SB 378 (Peace-D) Public utilities: solicitation of information
Requires the vendors of electric, gas, or telecommunications services to tell customers, when they solicit customer information that is not directly related to provision of the service, that providing the information is optional with the customer and whether the provided information will be sold or given to others.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 405 (Peace-D) Public utilities: telephones
Establishes customer notice requirements when a telephone corporation sells its long-distance customers to another telephone corporation.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 448 (Sher-D) Public records
Prohibits the release of specified information about private citizens who are utility customers of local agencies contained in public records, such as name, address, and telephone number. Makes exceptions for authorized family members, police, courts, official government business, and where the utility determines that the public interest in disclosure clearly outweighs the public interest in nondisclosure.
Chapter 276, Statutes of 1997
SB 523 (Polanco-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to take specified measures prior to authorizing the unbundling of any distribution service of an electrical corporation.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 524 (Thompson-D) Electric and gas service: master-meter customers
Allows "master-meter" customers in mobilehome parks to engage in direct transactions with electricity suppliers, as specified.
(On Senate Unfinished Business File)
SB 595* (Burton-D) Public Utilities Commission: appointees and employees
Clarifies that specified conflict of interest provisions in the Public Utilities Code pertain to Commissioners, not employees.
Chapter 195, Statutes of 1997
SB 606 (Sher-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Requires electrical corporations to disclose the charges allocated to metering, billing and information services.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 653 (Calderon-D) Public Utilities Commission: judicial review
Revises judicial review procedures of the California Public Utilities Commission to take place in either the Supreme Court or court of appeal.
Vetoed by the Governor
SB 714* (Solis-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Extends the time for adoption of specified performance and/or prescriptive standards relating to the restructuring of the electrical industry to January 1, 1998.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 875 (Vasconcellos-D) Public utilities: vegetation management
Directs the California Public Utilities Commission to require each electrical corporation to develop a list of trees suitable for planting beneath electric power lines and notify customers of the benefit of using those trees.
(In Senate Judiciary Committee)
SB 961 (Hughes-D) Public utilities: telephone directories
Requires that the California Public Utilities Commission regulate all entities that publish telephone directories that contain classified advertising.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 962 (Hughes-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Makes a specific geothermal plant located in Nevada eligible for renewable transition subsidies designated for in-state renewable electricity producers.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 1054 (Costa-D) Water and sewer systems: rates
Requires water and sewer utilities to provide a 45-day notice of impending specified rate increases to customers who so request notification, and allows utilities to charge the customers for these costs.
(In Assembly Appropriations Committee)
SB 1070 (Peace-D) Emergency Telephone Users Surcharge Law
Permits 911 monies to pay for 911 service, which can provide the location of the calling party.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 1142 (Calderon-D) Public Utilities Commission: judicial review
Provides for expanded judicial review of the California Public Utility Commission decisions.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Commerce Committee)
SB 1148 (Peace-D) Public utilities: telecommunications services
Vehicle for implementing solutions to the problems of an insufficient telecommunications infrastructure.
(In Assembly awaiting assignment to committee)
SB 1152 (Dills-D) Television: emergency broadcasts: hearing-impaired
States legislative intent to require closed captioning services for deaf and hearing-impaired throughout all live emergency broadcast alerts.
(In Assembly Governmental Organization Committee)
SB 1172 (Burton-D) Public utilities
Authorizes an economic development program for new California businesses, which locate on military bases designated for closure, using competition transition charge exemption-based electricity rate discounts.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
SB 1268 (Kelley-R) Water corporations: public water system: acquisition
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission, when establishing the rate base value for the distribution system of a public water system acquired by a water corporation, to use the standard of fair market value for ratesetting purposes.
Chapter 675, Statutes of 1997
SB 1305 (Sher-D) Public utilities
Requires disclosure of electrical generation source information to residential and small commercial customers.
Chapter 796, Statutes of 1997
SCR 15 (Peace-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Creates a 6-member Joint Oversight Committee on Electricity Restructuring and Reform to oversee the implementation of recently enacted legislation relating to electrical restructuring and California Public Utilities Commission reform. Requires the joint oversight committee to report to the Legislature at the end of each legislative session and sunsets on June 30, 1998.
(In Assembly Rules Committee)
AB 306 (Kaloogian-R) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Includes "micro-generation" as a change in usage which partially exempts an electricity user from the competition transition charge.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 313 (Thomson-D) Gas: producers' cooperatives
Allows a gas producer's cooperative to acquire a real property easement from a public utility provided the easement is for the purpose of accommodating the association's gas plant, and the California Public Utilities Commission finds the use of the easement to be in the public interest.
Chapter 230, Statutes of 1997
AB 360* (Kuykendall-R) Public utilities
Modifies the definition of "special purpose trust" to facilitate the issuance of rate reduction bonds by the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank. Requires electrical corporations to include the California Public Utilities Commission's e-mail address in notices of proposed rate changes.
(In Assembly awaiting concurrence)
AB 443* (Baca-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to take specified actions prior to authorizing the unbundling of any distribution service of an electrical corporation.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 487 (Leach-R) Telephone corporations: unlisted access numbers
Allows a telephone subscriber to withhold, through a written request, his or her unlisted or unpublished telephone number from a private for-profit agency operating under contract with, and at the direction of, specific agencies for the exclusive purpose of responding to a 911 call or communication of imminent threat to life or property.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 578 (Martinez-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Specifies the framework and authorities for the Electricity Oversight Board, an agency created by electrical industry restructuring legislation during the last legislative session.
Chapter 261, Statutes of 1997
AB 579* (Martinez-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Directs the California Public Utilities Commission to require that all distribution services associated with the transmission and distribution of electricity be unbundled by January 1, 1998.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 580 (Martinez-D) Telephones: billing practices
Requires all telephone corporations, including wireless and cellular, to bill in increments of 10 seconds or less.
(Failed passage in Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee; reconsideration granted)
AB 581 (Martinez-D) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Provides for a comprehensive registration program for sellers of electric service, a consumer education program more detailed than in current law, disclosure of relevant information both before a sale is made on the bill, specific rules in a variety of areas, and enforcement by the California Public Utilities Commission.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 582 (Martinez-D) Public utilities: telecommunications
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission, pursuant to the New Regulator Framework, to report to the Legislature by December 1, 1998, its findings and recommendations as to the effect of competition in the California telecommunications industry.
Vetoed by the Governor
AB 637 (Alby-R) Municipal utility districts
Allows municipal utilities to expend ratepayer funds to advertise their services, as specified, to attract new customers and to retain current customers. Exempts a municipal utility providing electrical services outside of its jurisdictional boundary from a local agency formation commission review.
Chapter 175, Statutes of 1997
AB 770 (Margett-R) Surface impoundments: exemption
Allows a public utility that has obtained an exemption from the prohibition against operating a hazardous waste surface impoundment within one-half mile of a drinking water source to transfer the exemption to a subsequent owner if certain conditions are met.
Chapter 330, Statutes of 1997
AB 906 (Papan-D) Cellular telephone resellers
Requires facilities-based commercial mobile service providers that offer bulk or volume user rate plans to any customer to offer those plans on a nondiscriminatory basis and to resellers without restriction on the resale of those plans to the public. Restricts enforcement of this provision to civil action.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 909 (Runner-R) Vehicles: infant and child common carriers
Creates a special classification for common carriers transporting infants and children under the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission with separate regulatory procedures and fees applicable only to them.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 911 (Knox-D) Emergency telephone systems
Requires the State Department of General Services, in consultation with the California Highway Patrol, the California Public Utilities Commission, and public safety organizations, to develop (by April 1, 1998) a method and schedule of implementation of Phase I of a federal order to locate and identify wireless "911" calls.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 1043 (Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee) Utility users taxes
Makes it unlawful for any local jurisdiction imposing a utility tax, or certain persons, as specified, to disclose or allow the examination of certain tax-related information or documents.
Chapter 806, Statutes of 1997
AB 1047 (Cardenas-D) Endangered species: taking: public utilities
Authorizes the State Department of Fish and Game to issue permits, or enter into memorandums of understandings, to authorize the taking of a candidate, threatened, or endangered species by public utilities or other public entities providing water, electricity, or gas services.
(In Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee)
AB 1096 (Martinez-D) Public Utilities Commission: Attorney General
Transfers from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to the Office of the Attorney General the consumer advocacy division within the CPUC, known as the Office of Ratepayer Advocate, and renames it the Office of the Consumer Advocate.
(Failed passage in Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 1128 (Miller-R) Publicly owned utilities for furnishing water service
Allows the City of West Covina to sell its water utility if a majority of the utility's customers that live within the City approve the sale in a mail ballot election.
Chapter 521, Statutes of 1997
AB 1154 (Assembly Utilites and Commerce Committee) Public utilities: electrical restructuring
Permits the finding of imprudent or unreasonable acts by an electrical corporation, if the failure to amend a power purchase contract is likely to result in a reduction of costs to the customers of the electrical corporation with no risk to the shareholders of that corporation, and subjects the electrical corporation to specified provisions of existing law relating to rate change requirements.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 1156 (Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee) Residential telephone wiring
Requires telephone companies to file with the California Public Utilities Commission a plan indicating how it will disclose all the inside wiring diagrams, records, and installation documents that will facilitate installation to customers and will advance implementation of new technology by consumers. Provides that this information be a part of the annual notice to residential consumers.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 1158 (Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee) Public utility services: customer satisfaction
Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to report on the impact of the transition to competition on the quality of services provided by the utilities.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee)
AB 1161* (Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee) Public utilities: telecommunications services
Directs the California Public Utilities Commission to require, no later than January 1, 1998, the unbundling of all services associated with the telecommunications industry, except commercial mobile service, and to report back to the Legislature on the progress of the industry as to unbundling no later than July 1, 1997.
(In Senate Energy, Utilities and Communciations Committee)
AB 1299 (Machado-D) Public utilities: telecommunications services
Prohibits the California Public Utilities Commission from taking action that could harm economic development or adversely affect universal telephone service in rural or nonurban areas.
(In Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee)
AB 1423 (Martinez-D) Hotels and motels: telephone charges: notice
Requires nonpublic utility providers of telephone service to post a notice describing applicable telephone charges, as specified.
Chapter 681, Statutes of 1997
AB 1424 (Martinez-D) Telecommunications: telephone cards
Orders the California Public Utilities Commission to require every corporation that produces a card used by a consumer for telephone calls to include specific information on the card.
(Failed passage in Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee; reconsideration granted)
ACA 15 (Martinez-D) Public Utilities Commission
Repeals the constitutional provisions providing for a Public Utilities Commission, except that the specified plenary powers of the Legislature would remain as a constitutional provision.