Natural gas pipelines: safety.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to establish a system of accounts to be kept by public utilities and to prescribe the manner in which accounts are kept, the records and memorandum to be kept, as well as the receipts and expenditures of moneys, and any other forms, records, and memoranda that in the judgment of the commission may be necessary to carry out any of the provisions of the act. The act requires the commission to require a public utility to establish and maintain a reserve account reflecting any positive or negative balance whenever the commission authorizes any change in rates reflecting and passing specific changes in costs through to customers, and requires the commission to take any positive or negative balance remaining into account by appropriate adjustment or other action at the time of any subsequent rate adjustment. This bill would require, in any ratemaking proceeding in which the commission authorizes a gas corporation to recover expenses for the gas corporation's transmission pipeline integrity management program established pursuant to specified federal pipeline safety law or related capital expenditures for maintenance and repair of transmission pipelines, that the commission require the gas corporation to establish and maintain a balancing account for the recovery of those expenses. Existing law provides that any public utility that violates any provision of the California Constitution or the Public Utilities 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 $20,000 for each offense. This bill would increase the maximum amount of the penalty to $50,000. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because certain provisions of this bill are within the act and require action by the commission to implement its requirements, a violation of these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime. 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.