Bill Text: CA SB1195 | 2013-2014 | Regular Session | Amended

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

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Bill Title: State ballot pamphlet.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2014-08-11 - Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 187, Statutes of 2014. [SB1195 Detail]

Download: California-2013-SB1195-Amended.html

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BILL NUMBER: SB 1195	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  AUGUST 11, 2014
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  JUNE 18, 2014

INTRODUCED BY   Senator  Padilla   Steinberg


                        FEBRUARY 20, 2014

    An act to amend Sections 955.1 and 3440.1 of the Civil
Code, to amend Sections 63010, 63025.1, 63041.5, 63043, 63048.3,
63048.56, 63048.7, 63049.2, 63049.62, 64049.64, 63049.67, and 63071
of, and to repeal Article 4 (commencing with Section 63042) of
Chapter 2 of Division 1 of Title 6.7 of, the Government Code, to
amend Sections 331, 332.1, 337, 339, 341.5, 348, 349.5, 359, 364,
365, 369, 370, 371, 372, 374, 379, 394.5, 395, 399.2, 2827, 9600, and
9607 of, to repeal Sections 330, 335, 336, 338, 340, 341, 341.1,
341.2, 341.3, 341.4, 350, 355, 356, 361, 363, 367, 367.7, 368, 368.5,
373, 374.5, 375, 376, 390, 390.1, and 397 of, and to repeal Article
5.5 (commencing with Section 840) of Chapter 4 of Part 1 of Division
1 of, the Public Utilities Code, and to amend Section 31071.5 of the
Streets and Highways Code, relating to electricity.   An
act relating to elections, and declaring the urgency thereof, to
take effect immediately. 



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 1195, as amended,  Padilla   Steinberg
 .  Electrical restructuring.   State
ballot pamphlet.  
   Existing law requires the Secretary of State, for each statewide
election, to prepare and distribute a state ballot pamphlet
describing each statewide ballot measure and containing other
specified information. Existing law requires the Secretary of State
to provide the state ballot pamphlets to county elections officials
not less than 45 days before the election, and further requires that
the state ballot pamphlets be mailed to voters commencing not less
than 40 days before the election. In addition, existing law requires
that the Secretary of State furnish a copy of the state ballot
pamphlet to the Office of State Printing for preparation not less
than 40 days before the date the Secretary of State is required to
provide the pamphlets to the county elections officials.  
   This bill, for purposes of the November 4, 2014, statewide general
election, would instead require that the Secretary of State provide
the state ballot pamphlets to the county elections officials on the
43rd day before the election, and would require that the state ballot
pamphlets be mailed to voters commencing on the 38th day before the
election. In addition, this bill would require that the Secretary of
State furnish a copy of the state ballot pamphlet to the Office of
State Printing for preparation on the 40th day before the date the
Secretary of State is required to provide the pamphlets to the county
elections officials.  
   This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.  
   The existing restructuring of the electrical industry within the
Public Utilities Act provides for the establishment of an Independent
System Operator and a Power Exchange as nonprofit public benefit
corporations. Existing law requires the Independent System Operator,
within 6 months after receiving approval for its operation by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to provide a report to the
Legislature and the Electricity Oversight Board containing specified
matter.  
   This bill would repeal this reporting requirement. 

   Electrical restructuring makes legislative findings and
declarations in order to provide guidance to the Public Utilities
Commission in carrying out restructuring.  
   This bill repeals those legislative findings and declarations.
 
   In addition to establishing the Independent System Operator and
the Power Exchange, electrical restructuring established an
Electricity Oversight Board (Oversight Board) to oversee the
Independent System Operator and the Power Exchange in order to ensure
the success of electrical restructuring and to ensure a reliable
supply of electricity in the transition to a new market structure.
 
   This bill abolishes the Oversight Board and Power Exchange.
 
   Electrical restructuring states the intent of the Legislature that
individual customers not experience rate increases as a result of
the allocation of transition costs, as specified, and requires the
Public Utilities Commission to implement a methodology for
calculating certain Power Exchange energy credits.  

   This bill would repeal this provision.  
   Electrical restructuring required the commission to identify and
determine those costs and categories of costs for generation-related
assets and obligations that were being collected in
commission-approved rates on December 20, 1995, that might become
uneconomic as a result of a competitive generation market. Electrical
restructuring requires each electrical corporation to propose a cost
recovery plan to the commission for the recovery of the uneconomic
costs of an electrical corporation's generation-related assets and
obligations, requires that the plan contain specified matter, and
requires that the plan set rates for each customer class, rate
schedule, contract, or tariff option, at levels equal to the level as
shown on electric rate schedules as of June 10, 1996, provided that
rates for residential and small commercial customers be reduced so
that these customers receive rate reductions of no less than 10% for
1998 continuing through 2002. Electrical restructuring prohibits the
commission, upon the termination of the 10% rate reduction for
residential and small commercial customers, from subjecting those
residential and small commercial customers to any rate increase or
future rate obligations solely as a result of the termination of the
10% rate reduction. Electrical restructuring authorizes an electrical
corporation to apply to the commission for a determination that
certain transition costs, as defined, may be recovered through fixed
transition amounts, which constitute transition property, as defined,
and provides, until December 31, 2015, for the issuance of financing
orders by the commission, and provides for the issuance of rate
reduction bonds utilizing the California Infrastructure and Economic
Development Bank, to be repaid out of rates.  
   This bill would repeal these provisions.  
   Electrical restructuring requires the commission to establish an
effective mechanism that ensures recovery of specified transition
costs from all existing and future consumers in the service territory
in which the utility provided electricity services as of December
20, 1995, except that the costs shall not be recoverable for new
customer load or incremental load of an existing customer where the
load is being met through a direct transaction and the transaction
does not otherwise require the use of transmission or distribution
facilities owned by the utility.  
    This bill would provide that competition transition charges that
are authorized by the commission prior to January 1, 2015, continue
to apply to all existing and future consumers in the service
territory in which the utility provided electricity services as of
December 20, 1995, subject to the exception described above.
 
   Electrical restructuring directed the commission to authorize
direct transactions between electricity suppliers and end-use
customers, subject to implementation of nonbypassable charges, as
specified. Other provisions reference these charges as a
nonbypassable charge, while other provisions reference these charges
as an obligation to pay uneconomic costs, as specified. 

   This bill would replace the various references to the specified
statutory charges with "competition transition charges." 

   Electrical restructuring requires any electrical corporation
serving agricultural customers with multiple meters to conduct
research based on a statistically valid sample of those customers and
meters to determine the typical simultaneous peak load of those
customers and to report the results to those customers and the
commission by July 1, 2001. Electrical restructuring requires the
commission to consider the research results in setting future
electrical distribution rates for those customers.  

   This bill would repeal this provision.  
   Electrical restructuring requires the commission to allow recovery
of reasonable employee related transition costs incurred and
projected for severence, retraining, early retirement, outplacement,
and related expenses for the employees in order to mitigate potential
negative impacts on utility personnel directly affected by
restructuring.  
   This bill would repeal this provision.  
   Existing law requires, for an electric generating facility sold by
an electrical corporation in a transaction initiated prior to
December 31, 2001, and approved by the commission by December 31,
2002, that the selling utility contract with the purchaser for the
selling utility, an affiliate, or a successor corporation to operate
and maintain the facility for at least 2 years, and authorizes the
commission to require these conditions for transactions initiated on
or after January 1, 2002.  
   This bill would repeal this provision.  
   Existing law, enacted as part of restructuring, prescribes how
energy prices paid to nonutility electrical generators, known as
qualifying facilities under federal law, by an electrical corporation
based on the commission's "short run avoided cost energy methodology"
are to be determined, subject to applicable contractual terms.
Existing law authorizes a nonutility electrical generator using
renewable fuels that entered into a contract with an electrical
corporation prior to December 31, 2001, specifying fixed energy
prices for 5 years of electrical output to negotiate a contract of an
additional 5 years of fixed energy payments upon expiration of the
initial 5-year term, at a price to be determined by the commission.
 
   This bill would repeal this provision.  
   This bill would repeal a provision authorizing an electrical
corporation that was also a gas corporation that served fewer than
4,000,000 customers as of December 20, 1995, to file a rate cap
mechanism that includes a Fuel Price Index Mechanism, as specified,
which authorization became inoperative on December 31, 2001.
 
   This bill would strike references to these repealed statutes.

   Vote:  majority   2/3  . Appropriation:
no. Fiscal committee:  yes   no  .
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    All of the following shall apply to the
November 4, 2014, statewide general election:  
   (a) Notwithstanding Section 9082 of the Elections Code, the
Secretary of State shall furnish to the Office of State Printing copy
for preparation of the state ballot pamphlets on the 40th day prior
to the date for required delivery to the county elections officials
as provided in subdivision (c).  
   (b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a) of Section 9094 of the
Elections Code, the Secretary of State shall commence mailing the
state ballot pamphlets to the voters on the 38th day prior to the
election.  
   (c) Notwithstanding subdivision (b) of Section 9094 of the
Elections Code, the Secretary of State shall furnish state ballot
pamphlets to the county elections officials on the 43rd day prior to
the election, and the county elections officials shall commence
mailing the state ballot pamphlets to voters on the date specified in
subdivision (b). 
   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 Constitution and shall go
into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
 
   To ensure that the state ballot pamphlet for the November 4, 2014,
statewide general election accurately reflects the ballot measures
that will be submitted to the voters of the state at that election,
it is necessary that this act take immediate effect.  All matter
omitted in this version of the bill appears in the bill as amended
in the Assembly June 18, 2014. (JR11)