Public Utilities Commission: policies: ratepayers' interest.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical and gas corporations. Existing law requires the commission, in cooperation with the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the State Air Resources Board, air quality management districts and air pollution control districts, regulated electrical and gas corporations, and the motor vehicle industry, to evaluate and implement policies to promote the development of equipment and infrastructure needed to facilitate the use of electric power and natural gas to fuel low-emission vehicles. Existing law requires those policies to ensure that the costs and expenses of those programs are not passed through to electric or gas ratepayers unless the commission finds and determines that those programs are in the ratepayers' interest, as that term is defined. This bill would revise the definition of what is the ratepayer's interest and require that activities that benefit ratepayers be measured by the program's impact on rates and costs and benefits of the program from the perspective of ratepayers, determined by calculating a benefit versus cost ratio greater than one on a total portfolio basis.