Public Utilities Commission: railroads: natural gas pipelines: safety.

Existing law provides that the Public Utilities Commission has certain responsibilities for the inspection, surveillance, and investigation of the rights-of-way, facilities, equipment, and operations of railroads, including public mass transit guideways, and for enforcement of state and federal laws, regulations, orders, and directives relative to rail safety. The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 designates the commission as the state authority responsible for regulating and enforcing federal law with respect to intrastate gas pipeline transportation and pipeline facilities. When the federal National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) submits a safety recommendation letter concerning gas pipeline safety to the commission, the act requires the commission, within 90 days, to provide the NTSB with a formal written response to each recommendation, as specified. When the NTSB issues a safety recommendation letter concerning any commission-regulated gas pipeline facility to the United States Department of Transportation, the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) , a gas corporation, or to the commission, or the PHMSA issues an advisory bulletin concerning any commission-regulated gas pipeline facility, the act requires the commission to determine if implementation of the recommendation or advisory is appropriate and requires the commission, in that case, to issue orders or adopt rules to implement the safety recommendations or advisory as soon as practical and to consider whether specified alternatives exist to address the safety issue that the recommendation or advisory addresses. The act additionally requires the commission to include a detailed description of any action taken on the recommendations or advisory in a specified annual report to the Legislature. This bill would enact similar provisions applicable to NTSB safety recommendations and Federal Transit Administration (FTA) safety advisories concerning rail facilities. With respect to natural gas pipelines, if the commission receives a correspondence from the NTSB that indicates that a recommendation of the NTSB has been closed following an action that the NTSB finds unacceptable, the bill would require this fact to be noted in the annual report submitted to the Legislature. Under existing law, a violation of an order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the commission is a crime. Because this bill would require the commission to issue orders or adopt rules to implement any safety recommendation of the NTSB and safety advisories of the FTA relative to rail facilities that the commission determines to be appropriate, and a violation of those orders or rules 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.