Bill Text: CA ACA11 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Public Utilities Commission.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [ACA11 Detail]
Download: California-2015-ACA11-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: ACA 11 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 27, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Gatto, Gonzalez, Levine,
and Wilk
(Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Dababneh and Roger
Hernández)
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Bigelow, Brough, and Dahle)
MARCH 9, 2016
A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California
an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by adding Section 10
to Article XII thereof, and by repealing and adding Article XII
thereof, relating to public utilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
ACA 11, as amended, Gatto. Public Utilities Commission.
The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities
Commission, with jurisdiction over all public utilities. The
California Constitution grants the commission certain general powers
over all public utilities, subject to control by the Legislature,
and, among other things, authorizes the Legislature, unlimited by the
other provisions of the Constitution, to confer additional authority
and jurisdiction upon the commission that is cognate and germane to
the regulation of public utilities, to establish the manner and scope
of review of commission action in a court of record, and to enable
the commission to fix just compensation for utility property taken by
eminent domain. The Public Utilities Act and other provisions of the
Public Utilities Code set forth the structure, funding, and
responsibilities of the commission.
This measure would authorize the Legislature to reallocate or
reassign all or a portion of the functions of the commission to other
state agencies, departments, boards, or other entities, consistent
with specified purposes. The measure would direct the Legislature to
adopt appropriate structures to provide greater accountability for
the public utilities of the state and provide the necessary guidance
to the commission to focus its regulatory efforts on safety,
reliability, and ratesetting and to implement statutorily authorized
programs for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
This measure would repeal the provisions of the California
Constitution pertaining to the commission effective January 1, 2019,
while specifying that a statute that was valid at the time the
statute was enacted is not invalid by virtue of the repeal of those
constitutional provisions.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
WHEREAS, The 21st century has brought about many changes to
technology and to the delivery of services and necessities that were
unforeseeable in 1911 when the "Railroad Commission" was enshrined in
the California Constitution; and
WHEREAS, The 1946 constitutional amendment that renamed the
Railroad Commission as the Public Utilities Commission, and gave it
added authority over our natural gas, electrical, telephone, and
water companies, was also the product of a different era, when these
utilities and common carriers were grouped together in the hopes that
one regulatory body could best regulate services used by the public
on a daily basis; and
WHEREAS, The commission has taken the position that its authority
can only be expanded, which has resulted in an ever-growing
bureaucracy that now has jurisdiction over not only gas, electrical,
telecommunications, water utilities, and railroads, but also
hot-air balloons, moving companies, moving companies
and ride-sharing applications; and
WHEREAS, In the over one hundred years since its establishment,
the industries under the oversight of the commission have grown and
evolved in ways that have rendered the current structure of the
commission inefficient and obsolete, leaving Californians without the
oversight and regulatory protections that we need, particularly in
matters involving workforce and public safety; and
WHEREAS, Recent events have caused grave concern around our state
and have highlighted the ineffectiveness of the current system,
specifically, in the Bay Area, the tragic San Bruno pipeline
explosion, which took many lives; in the Central Valley and
Sacramento, the significant concerns about the oil trains that
traverse those regions; in San Diego and Orange County, the serious
concerns about San Onofre and nuclear waste storage; and in Los
Angeles County, the fact that thousands of residents had to flee
their homes because of a gas leak of unprecedented size, which
greatly polluted our state's air and caused many to worry about the
efficacy of the safety and inspection programs designed to stop
catastrophes like it; and
WHEREAS, Despite these failures to protect the public, our
electrical, gas, water, and telephone rates have continued to rise;
and
WHEREAS, The commission has also suffered from ethical lapses,
notably the failure to report ex parte communications, and the
closeness of commission personnel to the entities they are supposed
to regulate; and
WHEREAS, The people of California would be better served with more
nimble, focused, and specialized regulators, whose actions would
result in far greater accountability; and
WHEREAS, The Legislature should be forced to rethink the manner in
which utilities, common carriers, and other related entities are
regulated, and to create new structures that would enable regulators
to focus on safety, reliability, and affordability of essential
services, consumer protections for nonessential services, and
protecting and preserving our environment; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the
Legislature of the State of California at its 2015-16 Regular Session
commencing on the first day of December 2014, two-thirds of the
membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the people of
the State of California that the Constitution of the State be
amended as follows:
First-- This measure shall be known and may be cited as the Public
Utility Reform Act of 2016.
Second-- That Section 10 is added to Article XII thereof, to read:
SEC. 10. (a) (1) Notwithstanding Section 4, after the date the
measure adding this section is enacted, the Legislature has the
power and authority to reallocate or reassign all or a portion of the
functions of the Public Utilities Commission to other state
agencies, departments, boards, or other entities it may create.
(2) The Legislature's reallocation or reassignment of these
functions shall be in furtherance of consumer protection, public
health, environmental protection, increased transparency, public
access, and preserving the ability of third parties to advocate for
and intervene on behalf of those that need their advocacy.
(b) The Legislature shall adopt appropriate structures to provide
greater accountability for the public utilities of this state and
shall provide the necessary guidance to focus regulatory efforts on
safety, reliability, and ratesetting and to implement statutorily
authorized programs for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.
Third-- That Article XII is repealed effective January 1, 2019.
Fourth-- That Article XII is added thereto, effective January 1,
2019, to read:
ARTICLE XII
PUBLIC UTILITIES
SECTION 1. A statute that was valid at the time of its
enactment is not invalid by virtue of the repeal of the former
Article XII by the measure that added this article.
