Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that establishes the Policy-Oriented and Wildfire Electric Reimbursement (POWER) Program in California.

Highlights:

• Repeals the California Wildfire Safety Division and the Wildfire Safety Advisory Board (Sec. 1-47).

• Establishes additional requirements and functions for the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety (Sec. 4).

• Establishes procedures relating to electrical corporations found not to comply with their approved wildfire mitigation plans (Sec. 6).

• Requires that the California Energy Commission prepare a program environmental impact report in consultation with relevant public agencies and specifies what the report must include (Sec. 10).

• Authorizes the commission to prepare a program EIR to analyze the development of facilities related to clean energy infrastructure and authorizes a public agency considering the approval of a specific facility to tier from that program EIR (Sec. 10).

• Reduces the minimum capital investment required over 5 years for commission certification from $250 million to $100 million and extends the application period through June 30, 2034 (Sec. 11-12).

• Requires certain additional information be included in applications filed for certification and requires that any supplemental information requested by the director be provided within 30 days (Sec. 13-14).

• Requires that the commission, the California Coastal Commission, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission develop a plan for timely consultation in regards to the expedited permitting process (Sec. 15).

• Establishes a presumption that a facility will have an overall net positive economic benefit to the local government if the energy storage system is proposed to be adjacent to a utility substation or gas power plant (Sec. 17).

• Establishes community foundations as community-based organizations for site certification requirements (Sec. 18).

• Requires that the commission pilot the use of permitting management software and establishes related reporting requirements (Sec. 19). 

• Requires the commission to submit quarterly reports to the Legislature and specifies what the reports must include (Sec. 20).  

• Establishes the Policy-Oriented and Wildfire Electric Reimbursement (POWER) Program and associated POWER Fund to reduce the costs to ratepayers through the reimbursement of electric utilities (Sec. 21).

• Requires that the commission follow certain technical and annual reporting requirements in the implementation of the POWER program (Sec. 21)

• Prohibits the commission from using the lesser of 3% of $5 million appropriated program funds for administrative and overhead costs (Sec. 21).

• Requires that the commission digitally publish the authorized and actual return on equity amounts and the authorized and actual mix of debt and equity capital for each large electrical corporation over the past 10 years (Sec. 26).

• Requires electrical and gas corporations to submit inflation-constrained rate case scenarios and prohibits proposed annual expenditures from exceeding the projected federal social security beneficiary cost-of-living adjustment (Sec. 27).

• Requires that the commission include both an explanation of rate increases and the amount that the increase will cost the average consumer on customers’ monthly bills (Sec. 28).

• Requires that the commission increase the size of credits allocated to the CARE and FERA programs and specifies that credits are to be excluded from the calculation of average effective program discounts (Sec. 30).

• Requires that the aforementioned credit be divided among and applied to customers’ bills during the months with the highest average electricity demand (Sec. 30).

• Requires the commission to implement a customer outreach plan to increase public awareness of the crediting of greenhouse gas allowance revenues (Sec. 30).

• Authorizes electrical corporations to request a financing order from the commission to recover the costs of energization projects through bond issuance through January 1, 2035, and establishes related technical requirements (Sec. 31).

• Prohibits electrical corporations from including the first $10 billion collectively spent on energization capital in their equity rate base and establishes a breakdown of costs (Sec. 35). 

• Establishes the California Clean Energy Infrastructure Authority as a public instrumentality of the state to lead the state’s efforts to transition to 100% clean energy (Sec. 36).

• Establishes the authority’s membership, structure, and responsibilities and authorizes related functions (Sec. 36).

• Requires that the authority enter into a lease or other agreement with an electrical corporation prior to the construction of electrical transmission infrastructure that will be located in the service territory of an electrical corporation with 250,000 or more customers (Sec. 36).

• Authorizes the authority to propose and plan for new electrical transmission infrastructure and prohibits the authority from developing electrical transmission infrastructure unless the applicable California balancing authority has approved the project (Sec. 36).

• Requires that the authority to adhere to relevant financial parameters and regulations (Sec. 36).

• Requires the California Department of Finance to monitor and oversee the authority’s operations and to annually report its findings and recommendations (Sec. 36).

• Establishes proprietary information obtained by the authority as confidential (Sec. 36).

• Requires the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to issue taxable or tax-exempt revenue bonds on behalf of the authority upon request (Sec. 36).

• Requires that the State Auditor conduct an annual financial and legal compliance audit of the authority (Sec. 36).

• Requires that the authority submit an annual report to the Legislature and specifies certain metrics that must be reported (Sec. 36).

• Reduces the frequency with which electrical corporations must submit wildfire mitigation plans from every 3 years to every 4 years and establishes additional details that plans must include (Sec. 38-44).

• Requires that electrical corporations prioritize the timeliness and cost-benefit of the risk mitigation strategies that existing law requires them to maintain (Sec. 38).

• Requires that the office conduct a wildfire-focused safety culture assessment of each electrical corporation at least once every 2 years (Sec. 38).

• Extends the period in which the California Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety must consider a wildfire mitigation plan from 3 to 9 months (Sec. 41)

• Prohibits electrical corporations from including the first $5 billion collectively spent on fire risk mitigation capital in their equity rate base (Sec. 42).

• Requires that electrical corporations submit a revised wildfire mitigation plan within 45 days of a denial from the California Public Utilities Commission and requires the commission to consider revised plans within 2 months (Sec. 42).

• Specifies that plans approved through the aforementioned program are exempt from requirements set forth by the California Environmental Quality Act (Sec. 45).

• Specifies that the board may make reasonable exceptions to the 90-day period in which they must issue certificates upon request (Sec. 46).

• Specifies that the aforementioned provisions shall take effect immediately (Sec. 50).

Full Bill Text