Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011, within the Public Utilities Act, designates the commission as the state authority responsible for regulating and enforcing intrastate gas pipeline transportation and pipeline facilities pursuant to federal law, including the development, submission, and administration of a state pipeline safety program certification for natural gas pipelines. The Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 2011 requires each gas corporation to prepare and submit to the commission a proposed comprehensive pressure testing implementation plan for all intrastate transmission lines to either pressure test those lines or to replace all segments of intrastate transmission lines that were not pressure tested or that lack sufficient details related to performance of pressure testing. The comprehensive pressure testing implementation plan is required to include a timeline for completion that is as soon as practicable, and includes interim safety enhancement measures, including increased patrols and leak surveys, pressure reductions, prioritization of pressure testing for critical pipelines that must run at or near maximum allowable operating pressure values that result in hoop stress levels at or above 30% of specified minimum yield stress, and any other measure that the commission determines will enhance public safety during the implementation period. Use of engineering-based assumptions are authorized to determine maximum allowable operating pressure in the absence of complete records, but only as an interim measure until all the lines have been tested or replaced, in order to allow the gas system to continue to operate. This bill would prohibit a gas corporation from determining the maximum allowable operating pressure of an intrastate transmission line or segment of an intrastate transmission line using the highest actual operating pressure the line or segment was subject to during the 5-year period preceding July 1, 1970, pursuant to a specified federal regulation, and would require that the maximum allowable operating pressure be determined pursuant to rules or orders of the commission. 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 the provisions of this bill would be a part of the Public Utilities Act and because a violation of an order or decision of the commission implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill 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.