The Public Utilities Act provides that whenever any common carrier, toll bridge corporation, pipeline corporation, gas corporation, electrical corporation, telephone corporation, telegraph corporation, water corporation, sewer system corporation, or heat corporation performs a service for, or delivers a commodity to, the public or any portion of the public for which any compensation or payment is received, that entity is a public utility subject to the jurisdiction, control, and regulation of the Public Utilities Commission and the provisions of the act. The act provides that the ownership or operation of a facility that sells compressed natural gas at retail to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, and the selling of compressed natural gas at retail from that facility to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, does not make the corporation or person a public utility solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale. This bill would additionally provide that the ownership or operation of a facility that sells hydrogen at retail to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, and the selling of hydrogen at retail from that facility to the public for use only as a motor vehicle fuel, does not make the corporation or person a public utility solely because of that ownership, operation, or sale.
Sponsored bills
Existing law categorizes controlled substances into 5 schedules and restrictions on those contained in Schedule I. Existing law, subject to exceptions, makes it an offense to, among other things, transport marijuana, phencyclidine, as specified, and mushrooms containing certain controlled substances, as provided. This bill would instead define "transport" for those purposes to mean to transport for sale.
Existing law authorizes an adult to give an individual health care instruction and to appoint an attorney to make health care decisions for that individual in the event of his or her incapacity pursuant to a power of attorney for health care. This bill would enact the End of Life Option Act authorizing an adult who meets certain qualifications, and who has been determined by his or her attending physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, as defined, to make a request for a drug prescribed pursuant to these provisions for the purpose of ending his or her life. The bill would establish the procedures for making these requests. The bill would also establish the forms to request an aid-in-dying drug and, under specified circumstances, an interpreter declaration to be signed subject to penalty of perjury, thereby creating a crime and imposing state-mandated local program. This bill would require specified information to be documented in the individual's medical record, including, among other things, all oral and written requests for an aid-in-dying drug. This bill would prohibit a provision in a contract, will, or other agreement from being conditioned upon or affected by a person making or rescinding a request for the above-described drug. The bill would prohibit the sale, procurement, or issuance of any life, health, or annuity policy, health care service plan, contract, or health benefit plan, or the rate charged for any policy or plan contract, from being conditioned upon or affected by the request. The bill would prohibit an insurance carrier from providing any information in communications made to an individual about the availability of an aid-in-dying drug absent a request by the individual or his or her attending physician at the behest of the individual. The bill would also prohibit any communication from containing both the denial of treatment and information as to the availability of aid-in-dying drug coverage. This bill would provide immunity from civil, criminal, administrative, employment, or contractual liability or professional disciplinary action for participating in good faith compliance with the act, and would specify that the immunities and prohibitions on sanctions of a health care provider are solely reserved for conduct provided for by the bill. The bill would make participation in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions voluntary, and would make health care providers immune from liability for refusing to engage in activities authorized pursuant to its provisions. The bill would authorize a health care provider to prohibit its employees, independent contractors, or other persons or entities, including other health care providers, from participating in activities under the act while on the premises owned or under the management or direct control of that prohibiting health care provider, or while acting within the course and scope of any employment by, or contract with, the prohibiting health care provider. This bill would make it a felony to knowingly alter or forge a request for drugs to end an individual's life without his or her authorization or to conceal or destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request for a drug, if it is done with the intent or effect of causing the individual's death. The bill would make it a felony to knowingly coerce or exert undue influence on an individual to request a drug for the purpose of ending his or her life or to destroy a withdrawal or rescission of a request. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions is to be construed to authorize ending a patient's life by lethal injection, mercy killing, or active euthanasia, and would provide that action taken in accordance with the act shall not constitute, among other things, suicide or homicide. This bill would require the State Public Health Officer to adopt regulations establishing additional reporting requirements for physicians and pharmacists to determine the use of, and compliance with, the act, and would require the State Public Health Officer to annually review a sample of certain records and the State Department of Public Health to make a statistical report of the information collected. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect. 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.
This measure would proclaim and acknowledge the month of June 2015 and June of every year thereafter as Elder and Vulnerable Adult Abuse Awareness Month.
This measure would urge Congress and the President of the United States to expand the Humanitarian Resettlement Program to allow disabled veteran officers of the South Vietnamese Army currently living in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to enter the United States.
The measure would express the intent and commitment of the state to enter into a sister state relationship with the Province of Santa Fe, Argentina.
This measure would urge the President of the United States and Congress to permanently safeguard the currently unprotected North Fork of the Smith River watershed in Oregon from any mining activities that would have the potential impacts on water supplies, economies, or the environment in California's portion of the Smith River watershed.
Existing law, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996, an initiative measure enacted by the approval of Proposition 215 at the November 6, 1996, statewide general election, authorizes the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Existing law enacted by the Legislature requires the establishment of a program for the issuance of identification cards to qualified patients so that they may lawfully use marijuana for medical purposes. Existing law, the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, regulates the making and distribution of organ donations. This bill would prohibit a hospital, physician and surgeon, procurement organization, or other person from determining the ultimate recipient of an anatomical gift based solely upon a potential recipient's status as a qualified patient, as specified, or based solely upon a positive test for the use of medical marijuana by a potential recipient who is a qualified patient, except to the extent that the qualified patient's use of medical marijuana has been found by a physician and surgeon, following a case-by-case evaluation of the potential recipient, to be medically significant to the provision of the anatomical gift. The bill would provide that these provisions shall not be deemed to require referrals or recommendations for, or the performance of, medically inappropriate organ transplants.
Existing law relating to property transfers specifies certain documents as allowable forms of identification for a credible witness, who, by oath or affirmation, attests to the identity of an individual executing a written instrument in the presence of, and acknowledged by, a notary public. Existing law provides that an inmate identification card that is current or has been issued within 5 years by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation if the inmate is in custody in prison is an allowable form of identification. This bill would also make any form of inmate identification that is current or has been issued within 5 years by a sheriff's department, if the inmate is in custody in a local detention facility, an allowable form of identification for a credible witness to prove the identity of an individual who executes a written instrument.