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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-20</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Gallagher</ns0:AuthorText>
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<ns0:Name>Gallagher</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title>An act to add Section 739.14 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity.</ns0:Title>
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<ns0:Subject>Electricity: rate reduction: report.</ns0:Subject>
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<html:p>Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would require the commission to generate a report outlining recommendations to decrease the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30% by January 1, 2028. The bill would require the commission, in making those rate-reduction recommendations, to take certain actions, including to review, and evaluate the cost effectiveness of, certain public purposes programs and to audit electrical corporation wildfire mitigation plan costs, as specified.
The bill would require the commission to also include in its report an assessment of verified restitution shortfalls for victims of wildfires caused by electrical corporations occurring before July 12, 2019. The bill would further require the commission to recommend mechanisms for electrical corporations to address those shortfalls, as provided.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
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Section 739.14 is added to the
<ns0:DocName>Public Utilities Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:Num>739.14.</ns0:Num>
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(a)
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The commission shall generate a report outlining recommendations to decrease the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30 percent by January 1, 2028.
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(b)
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In making the rate reduction recommendations pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission shall do all of the following:
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(1)
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Review each public purpose program that is not cost effective, and evaluate each public purpose program that the commission has not yet evaluated for cost-effectiveness.
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(2)
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For purposes of the climate credit described in Section 748.5, consider adopting the suggestions made by the commission in its CPUC Response to Executive Order No. N-5-24 (February 18, 2025).
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(3)
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Pursuant to the commission’s authority under Section 314.6, audit costs claimed by an electrical corporation for implementing its wildfire mitigation plans and, to the extent those costs are unreasonable, recommend reducing rates accordingly.
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(4)
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Evaluate each program listed in Table A-2 of the commission’s CPUC Response to Executive Order No. N-5-24 (February 18, 2025) for cost-effectiveness, if the commission has not yet evaluated the program for cost-effectiveness. For a program that the commission determines is not
cost effective, eliminate, reform, or recommend action by the Legislature.
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(c)
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In addition to the rate reduction recommendations required pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission shall include in the report an assessment of verified restitution shortfalls for victims of wildfires caused by electrical corporations occurring before July 12, 2019, and recommend mechanisms for electrical corporations to address those shortfalls to ensure victims are fully and fairly compensated in a timely manner while supporting long-term rate stability. The recommendations shall not include any measures that authorize rate recovery for restitution payments.
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