BILL NUMBER: ABX1 54 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Wright
FEBRUARY 14, 2001
An act to add Section 9601.5 to the Public Utilities Code,
relating to electricity, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take
effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 54, as introduced, Wright. Electricity: governmental entities
in Los Angeles County: contracts.
Existing law prohibits a city or municipally owned electric
utility from selling electric power to the retail customers of a
public utility unless the city or municipally owned electric utility
agrees to let the public utility make sales of electric power to its
retail customers. Existing law requires that a customer of a public
utility that purchases electricity through a direct transaction
contract pay certain generation-related transition charges.
This bill would permit specified governmental entities that are
served by the Southern California Edison Company within Los Angeles
County to purchase electricity for use in those areas from the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power. The bill would require that
the electricity be used only for facilities owned or leased by a
governmental entity that are used for governmental purposes. The
bill would prohibit reselling the electricity. The bill would not
require reciprocity of electrical sales be provided to the Southern
California Edison Company. The bill would exempt the sales from
specified generation-related transition charges.
This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as
an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) The ability of local agencies to secure stable and affordable
power is necessary to ensure that those agencies can provide
essential services such as health and public safety.
(b) The reality of rolling blackouts and higher electric costs for
those areas of local agencies served by investor-owned utilities
requires the state to assist local agencies.
(c) In some parts of the state there are local agencies in which
parts of the geographical area served by the local agency is served
by an investor-owned utility and the remaining parts are served by a
publicly owned utility that has surplus electrical generating
capacity.
(d) Allowing those local agencies to buy more of their electricity
from the publicly owned utility would reduce demand on the
investor-owned utility and help ensure reliable and affordable
electric power for the local agency.
SEC. 2. Section 9601.5 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to
read:
9601.5. (a) (1) This section is only applicable to the Los
Angeles Department of Water and Power and the governmental entities
described in subdivision (h).
(2) For purposes of this section, a "contract" means a contract
entered into pursuant to this section by a governmental entity
described in subdivision (h) and the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power.
(b) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, a governmental
entity may enter into a direct transaction contract for electricity
to be delivered for use within the geographical boundaries of the
County of Los Angeles in areas served by the Southern California
Edison Company. The electricity purchased may only be used for
facilities owned or leased by the governmental entity and used to
perform governmental services. The electricity may not be resold by
the governmental entity.
(c) This section may not be interpreted to require either a
governmental entity or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
to enter into a contract.
(d) The Southern California Edison Company shall distribute the
electricity provided by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
under a contract entered into pursuant to this section. The
distribution service shall be provided at a rate approved by the
commission that is cost-based. Sections 367, 368, 375, and 9602, and
subdivision (a) of Section 9601 are not applicable to the parties of
a contract or to the rate for distribution services.
(e) If there is a legal challenge to a contract by the Southern
California Edison Company based on a theory of vested rights under
former Section 19 of Article XI of the California Constitution, as it
read on January 1, 1911, and a court determines that there is a
vested right affected by the contract which requires payment to the
Southern California Edison Company by either the governmental entity
or the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for the right to
sell power in the service areas covered by the contract, then the
party which would have to make such payment may rescind the contract.
(f) A contract may not permit the Southern California Edison
Company to have a reciprocal right to sell electricity within the
service area of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The
fact of a contract does not give the Southern California Edison
Company a legal right to sell electricity to the retail customers of
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Subdivisions (b) and
(c) of Section 9601 are not applicable to a contract entered into
pursuant to this section.
(g) Upon termination of a contract entered into pursuant to this
section, the default provider of power shall be the Southern
California Edison Company.
(h) This section is only applicable to the following governmental
entities:
(1) The County of Los Angeles.
(2) The Los Angeles Unified School District.
(3) The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
(4) The Los Angeles County Office of Education.
(5) The Los Angeles Community College District.
SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that, because of the
unique circumstances applicable only to the County of Los Angeles, a
statute of general applicability cannot be enacted within the meaning
of subdivision (b) of Section 16 of Article IV of the California
Constitution. Therefore, this special statute is necessary.
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 to ensure that governmental agencies in Los Angeles
County have a stable and affordable supply of electricity to maintain
essential services and preserve the public health, safety and
welfare, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.