BILL NUMBER: ABX1 3 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 29, 2001
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 21, 2001
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MARCH 5, 2001
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 27, 2001
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY FEBRUARY 16, 2001
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Members Wright and Shelley
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Romero)
JANUARY 9, 2001
An act to add Section 739.4 to the Public Utilities Code, relating
to public utilities, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take
effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 3, as amended, Wright. California Alternate Rates for Energy
or CARE program.
(1) Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to
establish a program of assistance to low-income electric and gas
customers, which is referred to as the California Alternate Rates for
Energy or CARE program.
This bill would require CARE program funds to be used to provide
any customer, as specified, who enrolls in the CARE program during a
specified period of time, the same one-time bill credit based on the
amount of each gas corporation's average CARE customer discount
applied during specified months.
This bill would require the commission to adopt
regulations, as prescribed, to deem a customer enrolled in the CARE
program after the effective date of the bill, but before August 1,
2001, to be enrolled as of that effective date, adjust
CARE program income requirements annually, as specified, to
impose certain requirements on electrical and gas corporations to
facilitate better penetration rates for the CARE program, and protect
low-income and senior households from unwarranted disconnection of
necessary electric and gas services, and to conduct targeted outreach
about the program. Because a violation of an order of the
commission is a crime under existing provisions of law, this bill
would create a state-mandated local program by expanding the
definition of a crime.
(2) 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.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) Commencing in the summer of 2000 and continuing to the
present, wholesale prices for electricity have skyrocketed in
California.
(2) Since November 2000, natural gas prices have increased
significantly.
(3) The extraordinarily high costs of electricity and natural gas
are threatening the economic well-being of the state.
(4) Low-income and senior households, who spend a disproportionate
portion of their income on energy costs, have been particularly
affected.
(5) The energy burden borne by low-income and senior customers is
greater than the energy burden of most other households in
California. California low-income households spend approximately 10
percent of their incomes on energy bills, compared to the average
energy burden of 2.9 percent for a median-income household.
(6) Under the California Alternate Rates for Energy program
(CARE), low-income customers are eligible to receive gas and electric
services at a discounted rate.
(b) It is therefore the intent of the Legislature to protect
low-income and senior customers from the impacts of skyrocketing
energy rates and to enact legislation to increase the CARE
penetration rate, to look at other means to expand the program to all
eligible low-income and low-income senior customers, and to
encourage energy conservation by all customer classes.
SEC. 2. Section 739.4 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
739.4. (a) The commission shall immediately adopt regulations to
deem a customer enrolled in the CARE program after the effective date
of the act that added this section, but before August 1, 2001, to be
enrolled as of that effective date, notwithstanding Sections 453,
532, and 734. The commission shall adopt the same income and
eligibility requirements for the CARE program as those of the
Universal Lifeline Telephone Service (ULTS) program as of the
effective date of the act adding this section, except for the
definition of a household. The commission shall adjust CARE
739.4. (a) Any customer who enrolls in the CARE program after the
effective date of this section, but before September 1, 2001, shall
receive the same one-time bill credit based on the amount of each gas
corporation's average CARE customer discount applied for each month
in October 2000 to March 2001, inclusive. The credit does not apply
to a customer who initiates service with a gas corporation after the
effective date of this section, and who has no prior history of
service with the gas corporation. CARE program funds shall be used
for the purpose of providing these credits. The commission shall
adjust CARE program income requirements annually to correspond
with those of the ULTS program.
(b) The commission shall require all electrical and gas utilities
through which CARE program rates are available to do all of the
following, in multilingual formats to the extent printed and recorded
information is provided, to facilitate better penetration rates for
the CARE program and to protect low-income and senior households from
unwarranted disconnection of necessary electric and gas services:
(1) Provide an outgoing message on all calls , where the
customer is seeking to establish service or is put on hold, to
customer service lines that briefly describes the CARE program in
standard language approved by the commission, and that provides a
phone number for customers to call to subscribe to the program or for
further information.
(2) Provide information to customers about the CARE program and
facilitate subscription to CARE, on all calls in which customers are
making payment arrangements, on all collections calls, and on all
calls for reconnection of service.
(3) (A) Provide information about the CARE program and
attempt to qualify customers encourage qualified
applicants to apply for CARE, and provide information about
individual payment arrangements and attempt to enroll customers in a
payment arrangement program, before effecting any disconnection of
service for nonpayment or inability to pay energy bills in full.
(B) (i) Offer individual payment arrangements to customers
, with priority given to customers that spend a
disproportionate portion of their income on energy costs and that are
disproportionately burdened by rising energy costs, as determined by
the commission. so that the customer is able to pay
amounts due over a reasonable period of time.
(ii) Prohibit the disconnection of customers that have made, and
are in compliance with, payment arrangements offered by an electric
or gas utility pursuant to this subparagraph.
(C) (i) Advise residential customers facing disconnection or who
contact the utility to make payment arrangements of the levelizing
payment program that allows them to pay a monthly average
rate bill based on 12 months usage.
(ii) Advise residential customers about enrollment in the
levelizing payment program in conjunction with completion of payment
arrangements, payment under terms of subparagraph (B), or at the
customer's request absent those arrangements.
(D) Nothing in this paragraph is intended to reduce the revenues
of any utility extending payment arrangements subject to the terms of
the paragraph.
(E) This paragraph shall become inoperative April 1, 2002.
(4) Provide information on customer bills, presented in a
conspicuous manner on a front facing page, that indicates that a
customer may be eligible for the CARE program. This notice shall be
provided quarterly in customer bills.
(c) The commission shall conduct targeted outreach about the
program using census block data to effectively target low-income and
senior households throughout the state.
(d) CARE program funds shall be used for the purposes of paragraph
(3) of subdivision (b) and outreach pursuant to subdivision (c).
The commission's costs for outreach pursuant to subdivision (c) may
not exceed five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) above the amount
that the commission currently expends on similar activities related
to the CARE program. Energy corporations may recover all reasonable
costs of implementing this act section
.
SEC. 3. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution because the
only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district
will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction,
eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime
or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government
Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of
Section 6 of Article XIIIB of the California Constitution.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
In order that low-income and senior customers be protected from
the extraordinarily high electricity and gas prices as soon as
possible, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.