Bill Text: CA AB1879 | 2017-2018 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: Gas corporation: service connections.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)
Status: (Passed) 2018-09-18 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 481, Statutes of 2018. [AB1879 Detail]
Download: California-2017-AB1879-Chaptered.html
| Assembly Bill No. 1879 |
| CHAPTER 481 |
An act to add Section 2775.7 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to gas corporations, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
[
Approved by
Governor
September 18, 2018.
Filed with
Secretary of State
September 18, 2018.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1879, Santiago.
Gas corporation: service connections.
Under existing law the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations.
This bill would require the Public Utilities Commission, if it determines that a moratorium on new natural gas service connections is necessary to prevent substantial and imminent harm or to ensure gas system reliability, to provide a report to specified policy committees of the
Legislature and the affected gas corporation stating the necessity for the action. The bill would require the report to the policy committees to contain certain information. The bill would require a gas corporation, upon receiving a report from the commission that an action is pending to suspend new gas service connections, to immediately notify potential or current customers that may experience a service impact as a result of the proposed suspension. The bill would require the commission to present to the policy committees, at specified yearly information hearings, the status of the natural gas service connections and efforts to provide natural gas supply.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.
Digest Key
Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NOBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 2775.7 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read:2775.7.
(a) (1) If the commission determines that a moratorium on new natural gas service connections is necessary to prevent substantial and imminent harm or to ensure gas system reliability, the commission shall state the necessity for the action in a report provided to all of the following entities:(A) The Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy.
(B) The Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications.
(C) All affected gas corporations.
(2) The commission shall include in the report to the policy committees of the
Legislature specified in paragraph (1) factual findings supporting the need to propose a moratorium on new natural gas service connections. The report shall include, but is not limited to, all of the following:
(A) The number of pending gas service connection applications with each affected gas corporation.
(B) The estimated gas load deferred under the proposed moratorium.
(C) The system constraints that led to the proposed moratorium.
(D) Alternative actions considered to address the proposed need for a moratorium, including increasing or restoring natural gas transmission and storage infrastructure, and the reason those actions were not taken or were insufficient.
(E) The process for a
customer to request an exemption from the moratorium.
(b) When a gas corporation receives notification from the commission that an action is pending to suspend new gas service connections, the gas corporation shall immediately notify any known potential or current customers that may experience a service impact as a result of the proposed suspension.
(c) The commission shall, at the yearly informational hearings pursuant to Section 321.6, present to the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy and the Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications the status of natural gas service connections and efforts to provide natural gas supply.
SEC. 2.
This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:To ensure that proper legislative oversight is provided for decisions by the Public Utilities Commission to impose a moratorium on new natural gas service connections, it is
necessary for this measure to take effect immediately.
