Public utilities: fines and penalties.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, as defined. The Public Utilities Act requires the commission to investigate the cause of all accidents occurring upon the property of any public utility or directly or indirectly arising from or connected with its maintenance or operation, resulting in loss of life or injury to person or property and requiring, in the judgment of the commission, investigation by it, and authorizes the commission to make any order or recommendation with respect to the investigation that it determines to be just and reasonable. The act provides that any public utility that violates any provision of the California Constitution or the act, or that fails or neglects to comply with any order, decision, decree, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission, where a penalty has not otherwise been provided, is subject to a penalty of not less than $500 and not more than $50,000 for each offense. Existing law requires that any fine or penalty imposed by the commission and collected from a public utility be paid to the State Treasury to the credit of the General Fund. The act includes provisions that are specific to gas corporations that involve safety standards for pipeline facilities or the transportation of gas in the state. This bill would revise the provisions that are specific to gas corporations that involve safety standards for pipeline facilities or the transportation of gas in the state to authorize the commission to order that all or a portion of a fine or penalty levied against a gas corporation in relation to a safety standard for pipeline facilities or the transportation of gas in the state be held in a separate account by the gas corporation to offset investments, expenses, or both for gas safety measures that would otherwise be recovered from the utility's customers. The bill would require the commission to set a rate of interest for these accounts. The bill would authorize the commission to audit these accounts. The bill would require that moneys ordered by the commission to be held in one of these accounts be used only for the purpose of offsetting investments, expenses, or both incurred by the gas corporation for gas safety measures, and only if the expenses would otherwise be recovered in rates from the utility's customers. This bill would provide for the repeal of those provisions on January 1, 2018. The bill would require that, upon the repeal of the provisions related to the separate accounts, any moneys not used for these purposes be paid to the General Fund. This bill would provide that, if the date of the repeal of those provisions is extended, any moneys in a separate account that have not been used for these purposes, 5 years after the date of their deposit into the separate account, be paid to the General Fund.