Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations and electrical corporations, while local publicly owned electric utilities are under the direction of their governing boards. Existing law establishes a surcharge on all natural gas consumed in the state to fund certain low-income assistance programs, cost-effective energy efficiency and conservation activities, and public interest research and development. Under existing law, the surcharge is in addition to any other charges for natural gas sold or transported for consumption, as defined, in this state. Existing law exempts from the surcharge gas customers within the service territories of municipalities, districts, or public agencies that offer specified services or programs, as specified. Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act, or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC, is a crime.

The Energy Resources Surcharge Law imposes a surcharge on consumers for the consumption of electricity purchased from an electric utility, which includes an electrical corporation and local publicly owned electric utility, at a rate annually fixed by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission), not to exceed a surcharge rate cap of $0.0003 per kilowatthour. Existing law requires electric utilities to collect the surcharge from consumers, and requires electric utilities, and any consumers who have not had the surcharge collected by an electric utility, to file a return with specified information. Under existing law, a violation of the Energy Resources Surcharge Law is a crime.

This bill would impose surcharges, on and after January 1, 2027, on natural gas consumed by a data center, as defined, or a person that consumes natural gas to produce electricity primarily for a data center, at an unspecified rate, and on electricity consumed by a data center that is purchased from an electric utility, which includes an electrical corporation and local publicly owned electric utility, at an unspecified rate. The bill would specify that the above-described surcharges apply to persons that meet specified criteria, including, among other things, that during any single month beginning January 1, 2027, the person purchased natural gas from a gas corporation, or electricity from an electric utility, that was wholly or partially consumed by a data center. The bill would require a gas corporation and electric utility to collect the applicable surcharge from each data center, except as provided. The bill would authorize a person to apply to a gas corporation or electric utility, as applicable, for an exemption from a surcharge, as specified.

This bill would require all revenues, interest, and penalties derived from the above-described surcharges to be deposited into the Data Center Excess Energy Usage Surcharge Fund, which the bill would create in the State Treasury. The bill would continuously appropriate moneys in the fund collected from local publicly owned electric utility territory to the Energy Commission to establish a Low-Income Rate Assistance Program Account, and moneys in the fund collected from electrical corporation territory to the Public Utilities Commission to establish a Low-Income Rate Assistance Program, as provided.

This bill would include a change in state statute that would result in a taxpayer paying a higher tax within the meaning of Section 3 of Article XIII A of the California Constitution, and thus would require for passage the approval of 2 3 of the membership of each house of the Legislature.