Bill Text: CA AB1362 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Electricity: load-serving entities: rate and program information.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Passed) 2019-10-02 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 395, Statutes of 2019. [AB1362 Detail]

Download: California-2019-AB1362-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Assembly  May 16, 2019

Amended  IN  Assembly  May 01, 2019

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 26, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1362

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Introduced by Assembly Member O’Donnell

February 22, 2019

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An act to amend Section 707 of, and to add Section 365.3 to, to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1362, as amended, O’Donnell. Electricity: load-serving entities: rate and program information.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes a community choice aggregator to aggregate the electrical load of electricity consumers within its boundaries and within the service territory of an electrical corporation. Existing law requires an electrical corporation to cooperate fully with any community choice aggregator that investigates, pursues, or implements community choice aggregation programs, including providing appropriate billing and electrical load data, which includes electrical consumption data, as defined. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime.

This bill would require the commission to ensure that local government entities have full access to accurate information on the short- and long-term costs, benefits, and risks associated with implementation of a community choice aggregation program.

This bill would require the commission to establish a centralized clearinghouse of residential electric rate tariffs and programs of electrical corporations, electric service providers, and community choice aggregators to enable customers and local governments to compare rates, services, environmental attributes, and other offerings. The bill would require this information to be available and easily accessible on the commission’s and the those electricity providers’ internet websites. The bill would require each of these those electricity providers to make available to the commission all information about its residential electric rate tariffs and programs.

Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the Public Utilities Act and because a violation of the reporting and posting requirements described above a commission action implementing its requirements would therefore be a crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. program. Because the bill would impose new reporting and posting requirements upon community choice aggregators, which are entities of local government, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for specified reasons.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: YES  

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Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 Section 365.3 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:

365.3.

 (a) The commission shall establish a centralized clearinghouse of load-serving entities’ residential electric rate tariffs and programs to enable customers and local governments to compare rates, services, environmental attributes, and other offerings. This information shall be available and easily accessible on both the commission’s and the load-serving entities’ internet websites.

(b) Pursuant to subdivision (a), each load-serving entity shall make available to the commission all information about its residential electric rate tariffs and programs.

(c) For purposes of this section, “load-serving entity” has the same meaning as in Section 380.

SEC. 2.Section 707 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read:

707.

(a)Not later than March 1, 2012, the commission shall institute a rulemaking proceeding for the purpose of considering and adopting a code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, to govern the conduct of the electrical corporations relative to the consideration, formation, and implementation of community choice aggregation programs authorized in Section 366.2. The code of conduct, associated rules, and enforcement procedures, shall do all of the following:

(1)Ensure that an electrical corporation does not market against a community choice aggregation program, except through an independent marketing division that is funded exclusively by the electrical corporation’s shareholders and that is functionally and physically separate from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions.

(2)Limit the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division’s use of support services from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions, and ensure that the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division is allocated costs of any permissible support services from the electrical corporation’s ratepayer-funded divisions on a fully allocated embedded cost basis, providing detailed public reports of such use.

(3)Ensure that the electrical corporation’s independent marketing division does not have access to competitively sensitive information.

(4)(A)Incorporate rules that the commission finds to be necessary or convenient in order to facilitate the development of community choice aggregation programs, to foster fair competition, and to protect against cross-subsidization paid by ratepayers.

(B)It is the intent of the Legislature that the rules include, in whole or in part, the rules approved by the commission in Decision 97-12-088 and Decision 08-06-016.

(C)This paragraph does not limit the authority of the commission to adopt rules that it determines are necessary or convenient in addition to those adopted in Decision 97-12-088 and Decision 08-06-016 or to modify any rule adopted in those decisions.

(5)Provide for any other matter that the commission determines to be necessary or advisable to protect a ratepayer’s right to be free from forced speech or to implement that portion of the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 that establishes the federal standard that no electric utility may recover from any person other than the shareholders or other owners of the utility, any direct or indirect expenditure by the electric utility for promotional or political advertising (16 U.S.C. Sec. 2623(b)(5)).

(b)The commission shall ensure that local government entities have full access to accurate information on the short- and long-term costs, benefits, and risks associated with implementation of a community choice aggregation program.

(c)This section does not limit the authority of the commission to require that any marketing against a community choice aggregation plan shall be conducted by an affiliate of the electrical corporation, or to require that marketing against a community choice aggregator not be conducted by a marketing division of the electrical corporation, subject to affiliate transaction rules to be developed by the commission.

SEC. 3.SEC. 2.

 No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act or because costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.