Gas corporations: safety performance metrics: rate incentive program.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. Existing law, the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011, among other things, prohibits a gas corporation from recovering any fine or penalty in any rate approved by the commission. This bill would require the commission to perform an analysis of benchmark data and adopt safety performance metrics for pipeline safety that consider specified principles. The bill would require the commission to evaluate a gas corporation's safety performance using those metrics and would authorize the commission to implement a rate incentive program that could contain penalties based on safety performance.