Public utilities: information: confidentiality.

The Public Utilities Act prohibits the commission or an officer or employee of the commission from disclosing any information furnished to the commission by a public utility, a subsidiary, an affiliate, or a corporation holding a controlling interest in a public utility, unless the information is specifically required to be open to public inspection under the act, except on order of the commission or a commissioner in the course of a hearing or proceeding. Existing law makes a disclosure of nonpublic information by a present or former officer or employee of the commission a misdemeanor. This bill would instead require the information to be open to public inspection unless federal or state law or an order of the commission based on a specified finding requires the information to be closed to inspection, or the withholding of that information is ordered by the commission, a commissioner, or an administrative law judge in the course of a hearing or proceeding. The bill would authorize a public utility, a subsidiary or affiliate of a public utility, or a corporation holding a controlling interest in a public utility providing information to request the commission to withhold from public disclosure all or a portion of the information provided. The bill would establish mechanisms for resolving claims of confidentiality in the event the commission does not agree with one or more claims of confidentiality. The bill would make it a misdemeanor for a present or former officer or employee of the commission to divulge any information that is exempt from public disclosure, as determined by the commission.