(1) Existing law establishes the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) and requires the Energy Commission to nominate, and the Governor to appoint, an attorney admitted to the practice of law to serve as a public advisor to the Energy Commission, as specified. This bill would eliminate the requirement that the public advisor be an attorney. (2) Existing law provides for the establishment of an Independent System Operator, referred to as the ISO, as an incorporated nonprofit public benefit corporation. The ISO is required to ensure efficient use and reliable operation of the transmission grid consistent with achieving certain planning and operating criteria. Existing law establishes the Electricity Oversight Board to, among other duties, oversee the Independent System Operator and the Power Exchange. This bill would abolish the Electricity Oversight Board and would make various conforming changes. (3) Existing law establishes a Power Exchange as a nonprofit public benefit corporation to provide an efficient competitive auction, open on a nondiscriminatory basis to all suppliers of electricity, that meets the loads of all of its customers at efficient prices. This bill would abolish the Power Exchange and would make various conforming changes. (4) Existing law, the Energy Conservation Assistance Act of 1979, requires the Energy Commission to provide grants and loans to local governments and public institutions to maximize energy use savings, expand installation of energy storage systems, and expand the availability of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Existing law creates various continuously appropriated accounts for purposes of the act. Existing law repeals the act on January 1, 2028. This bill would, instead, repeal the Energy Conservation Assistance Act of 1979 on January 1, 2038. By extending the operation of those continuously appropriated accounts, the bill would make an appropriation. (5) Existing law requires the Energy Commission, on or before March 1, to annually publish on its internet website and report to the budget and relevant policy committees of the Legislature specific information about specified clean energy programs, including the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program. This bill would expand that reporting requirement to also include additional information about the Equitable Building Decarbonization Program, including its progress, status, budget, and impacts, as provided. (6) Existing law requires the PUC to continue the Family Electric Rate Assistance program (FERA) to provide a discount to residential customers of the state's 3 largest electrical corporations consisting of households with total household annual gross income levels between 200% and 250% of the federal poverty guideline level. Existing law requires the PUC, on or before March 1 of each year, to require the state's 3 largest electrical corporations to report on their efforts to enroll customers in the FERA program and requires the PUC to review those reports on or before June 1 of each year. This bill would, instead, require the PUC, on or before May 1 of each year, to require the state's 3 largest electrical corporations to report on their efforts to enroll customers in the FERA program and require the PUC to review those reports on or before December 1 of each year. (7) Existing law defines an "electrical cooperative" to mean any private corporation or association organized for the purposes of transmitting or distributing electricity exclusively to its stockholders or members at cost. Existing law specifies that every electrical cooperative is subject to the Public Utilities Act, except as specified. This bill would exempt an electrical cooperative from any provision of the Public Utilities Act that becomes effective after January 1, 2027, that does not expressly provide that it applies to an electrical cooperative. (8) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act, or of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC, is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill would be part of the act, and a violation of a PUC action implementing its requirements would be a crime, 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 a specified reason.
Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to appoint a chief internal auditor who holds office at the pleasure of the commission. Existing law makes the chief internal auditor responsible for the oversight of the internal audit unit. Existing law requires the chief internal auditor to plan, initiate, and perform audits of key financial, management, operational, and information technology functions within the commission to improve accountability and transparency to executive and state management, and to report their findings and recommendations directly to an audit subcommittee of the commission. This bill would instead require the Governor to appoint an Inspector General, subject to Senate confirmation, to be responsible for the oversight of the internal audit unit and would instead require the Inspector General to plan, initiate, and perform audits of key financial, management, operational, and information technology functions within the commission to improve accountability and transparency to executive and state management. The bill would also require the Inspector General to ensure, among other things, that the commission administers funds and programs in a prescribed manner, fulfills mandated requirements, develops an annual audit plan, administers an effective enterprise risk management program, and monitors reporting compliance. The bill would provide for the appointment and removal of the Inspector General, as specified. The bill would authorize the Inspector General to access and examine all records, files, documents, accounts, reports, correspondence, or other property of the commission and public utilities, and would require other entities that are regulated by the commission and participate in programs administered by the commission, upon request of the Inspector General, to provide or make available to the Inspector General for examination all relevant records, files, documents, accounts, reports, correspondence, or other property pertaining to participation in those programs, as specified. The bill would require the Inspector General to report specified information to the Governor and the Legislature, as provided.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law requires the Wildfire Fund Administrator, in consultation with the commission and other entities, to prepare and submit to the Legislature and the Governor a report that evaluates and sets forth recommendations on new models or approaches that mitigate damage, accelerate recovery, and responsibly and equitable allocate burdens from natural catastrophes, including catastrophic wildfires, across stakeholders, as provided. This bill would require the commission, on or before January 1, 2028, to generate a report assessing the verified restitution shortfalls for victims of wildfires caused by electrical corporations occurring before July 12, 2019, and to recommend restitution mechanisms for electrical corporations to address restitution shortfalls, as provided. The bill would require the commission, in developing the restitution mechanisms, to ensure, among other things, that the verified restitution shortfalls are consistently and fairly paid to ensure full compensation is issued in a timely manner.
Under existing law, the purpose of the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority Act is to advance the state's goals of reducing the levels of greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the deployment of sustainable and renewable energy sources, implementing measures that increase the efficiency of the use of energy, creating high quality employment opportunities, and lessening the state's dependence on fossil fuels and to that end to provide an alternative method of financing in providing and promoting the establishment of facilities utilizing alternative methods and sources of energy and facilities needed for the development and commercialization of advanced transportation technologies. Existing law establishes the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to carry out that purpose. Existing Public Utilities Commission decisions established the California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing program, administered by the authority and funded through charges collected by specified electrical corporations and gas corporations from their ratepayers. This bill would require the authority to administer the GoGreen Program, previously known as the California Hub for Energy Efficiency Financing program, and would authorize the authority to use moneys collected from the ratepayers of electrical and gas corporations, as directed by the commission, and other available funding sources, consistent with the program's purposes. The bill would require the program to provide financing assistance to participating lenders to support residents in financing eligible energy efficiency and decarbonization measures at costs that are competitive with or below market rates. The bill would authorize the authority to receive, administer, and deploy additional moneys from federal, state, local, or private sources to support and expand the GoGreen Program, if those moneys are used in a manner consistent with the program's goals and the parameters of the funding source. The bill would create the GoGreen Program Fund in the State Treasury and would make all moneys in the fund available, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to the authority for expenditure, as provided.
Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission to require electrical corporations and gas corporations to perform home weatherization services, as described, for low-income customers if the commission determines that a significant need for those services exists in the corporation's service territory, taking into consideration both the cost-effectiveness of the services and the policy of reducing the hardships facing low-income households, as specified. This bill would require the commission to take into consideration the cost-effectiveness of the services as a whole and to require electrical corporations and gas corporations, in performing those home weatherization services, to prioritize integration of health, safety, and indoor air quality improvement measures necessary to enable whole-home improvements, coordinated delivery across fuel types and housing types, conditions, and tenancy structures, and program design that allows for tenant-level benefits where upgrades occur in rental properties, while preserving flexibility in program design. The bill would authorize the commission to consider nonenergy benefits when establishing priorities for program design. The bill would require the commission to ensure that weatherization program costs do not result in undue cost burdens for ratepayers. The bill would require the commission to require electrical and gas corporations to report on measurable household affordability outcomes, as specified. The bill would require the commission to ensure meaningful public and stakeholder input on the design and implementation of these low-income programs, as provided. The bill would require the commission to ensure that diverse contracting requirements are consistent with specified plans submitted to the commission and certain guidelines. The bill would revise the definition of "weatherization" for these purposes, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because a violation of a commission action implementing the bill's requirements would be a crime, this 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 a specified reason.
