BILL NUMBER: AB 2669	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Maldonado

                        FEBRUARY 22, 2002

   An act to amend Section 829 of the Public Utilities Code, relating
to public utilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 2669, as introduced, Maldonado.  Public utilities: stocks and
security transactions.
   The Public Utilities Act generally exempts from provisions of that
act governing stocks and security transactions any person or
corporation that transacts no business subject to regulation under
the act, except performing services or delivering commodities for or
to public utilities or municipal or other public corporations
primarily for resale or use in serving the public. Notwithstanding
that general exemption, those provisions of the act governing stocks
and security transactions apply to any public utility if the Public
Utilities Commission finds that the application of those provisions
is required by the public interest.  The act authorizes the
commission to exempt any public utility or class of public utility
from those stock and security transaction provisions if it finds that
their application is not necessary in the public interest.
   This bill, except as specified, would exempt from those stock and
security transaction provisions a telephone corporation that is
regulated under a price-cap regulatory structure, as defined, unless
the corporation secures the financing by pledging a plant or assets.
   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  It is the intent of the Legislature that the amendments
to Section 829 of the Public Utilities Code made by the act adding
this section not hinder the commission's existing authority to
disallow imprudent expenses or capital expenditures of the utilities
under its jurisdiction, or the commission's authority to impute a
capital structure or cost of capital for utilities under its
jurisdiction.
  SEC. 2.  Section 829 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   829.   (a)  This article  shall  
does  not apply to  any   a  person or
corporation  which   that  transacts no
business subject to regulation under this part, except performing
services or delivering commodities for or to public utilities or
municipal or other public corporations primarily for resale or use in
serving the public or any portion thereof but shall  , 
nevertheless  ,  apply to any public utility if the
commission finds, in a proceeding to which the public utility is or
may become a party, that the application of this article is required
by the public interest.  
   (b) (1) The requirements in this article for commission approval
of utility financing do not apply to a telephone corporation that is
regulated under a price-cap regulatory structure if the corporation
does not pledge a plant or assets to secure the financing.  However,
this article shall continue to apply to any telephone corporation
that is also an electric or gas corporation that is a public utility,
as defined in Section 216.  The term "price-cap regulatory
structure," as used in this paragraph, is a system under which rates
are not set by means of a rate base or rate-of-return form of
regulation, but, instead, are limited by a maximum price that may be
charged for a specific service, or are not limited.
   (2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), a telephone corporation as
described in this subdivision shall remain subject to Section 817,
that provision of Section 820 regarding contracts, Section 824, those
provisions of Section 826 and subdivision (a) of Section 827 that
impose penalties for disobeying statutory and constitutional
requirements, and Section 830.
   (3) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the commission may reimpose any
or all of the requirements of this article for commission approval
of utility financing if the commission finds, in a proceeding to
which the public utility is or may become a party, that the
application of any or all of those requirements is required by the
public interest.  
   (c)  The commission may from time to time by order or rule,
and subject to  such   those  terms and
conditions  as   that  may be prescribed
 in the order or rule   therein  , exempt
any public utility or class of public utility from  the
provisions   this article, or any portion  of this
article  ,  if it finds that the application 
thereof   of this article  to  such
  a  public utility or class of public utility is
not necessary in the public interest.