Wildland fire prevention: vegetation management.

Existing law establishes the Wildfire Safety Division within the Public Utilities Commission to, among other things, oversee and enforce electrical corporations' compliance with wildfire safety requirements. Existing law requires the division to approve or deny each wildfire mitigation plan and plan updates submitted by an electrical corporation. This bill would require an electrical corporation, within one month of the completion of a substantial portion of the vegetation management requirements in its wildfire mitigation plan, to notify the division of the completion. The bill would require the division to audit the completed work and would require the audit to specify any failure of the electrical corporation to fully comply with the vegetation management requirements. The bill would require the division to provide the audit to the electrical corporation and to provide the electrical corporation a reasonable time period to correct and eliminate deficiencies specified in the audit. The bill would authorize the division to engage an independent evaluator to conduct the audit. Within one year after the expiration of the time period to correct and eliminate deficiencies, the bill would require the independent evaluator to issue a report to the electrical corporation, the division, and the Safety and Enforcement Division of the commission specifically describing any failure of the electrical corporation to substantially comply with the substantial portion of the vegetation management requirements. This bill would require each electrical corporation to notify the commission of the date when it projects that it will have spent, or incurred obligations to spend, its entire annual revenue requirement for vegetation management not less than 30 days before that date. This bill would specify the qualifications for electrical line clearance tree trimmers performing work to comply with the vegetation management requirements in an electrical corporation's wildfire mitigation plan, and would require that qualified line clearance tree trimmers be paid no less than a specified prevailing wage rate.