BILL NUMBER: SBX1 8	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Alarcon

                        JANUARY 18, 2001

   An act to amend Section 9601 of the Public Utilities Code,
relating to public utilities.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 8, as introduced, Alarcon.  Electric power: retail sales.
   (1) The Public Utilities Act prohibits a local publicly owned
electric utility or electrical corporation from selling electric
power to the retail customers of another local publicly owned
electric utility or electrical corporation unless the first utility
has agreed to let the second utility make sales of electric power to
the retail customers of the first utility.
   This bill would exempt from that prohibition a local publicly
owned electric utility or electrical corporation that proposes to
sell electric power to the current retail customers of another local
publicly owned electric utility or electrical corporation if certain
criteria are satisfied.  The bill would require a local publicly
owned electric utility or electrical corporation that proposes to
sell electricity to the retail customers of a local publicly owned
electric utility or electrical corporation in accordance that
exemption to give priority to new service areas that have a higher
percentage of low-income residential and small business customers as
compared with other potential service areas.  Since a violation of
the act is a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local
program by creating a new 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.
   Vote:  majority.  Appropriation:  no.  Fiscal committee:  yes.
State-mandated local program:  yes.


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


  SECTION 1.  Section 9601 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to
read:
   9601.  (a) Except with respect to supply options of the nature
specified in Section 218, with the exception of paragraph (3) of
subdivision (b) of that section, as it existed on December 20, 1995,
no person, corporation, electrical corporation, or local publicly
owned electric utility or other governmental entity other than a
retail customer's existing electric service provider as of December
20, 1995, shall provide partial or full electric service to a retail
customer of a local publicly owned electric utility unless the
customer first confirms in writing an obligation to pay, through
tariff or otherwise, to the utility currently providing electric
service, a nonbypassable generation-related severance fee or
transition charge established by the regulatory body for that
utility.  The severance fee or transition charge shall be paid
directly to the local publicly owned utility providing electricity
service in the service area in which the consumer is located.
   (b) Except as provided in subdivision (a) of Section 374, no local
publicly owned electric utility or other governmental entity shall
provide partial or full electric service to a retail customer of an
electrical corporation unless the customer of that electrical
corporation first confirms in writing an obligation to pay, through
tariff or otherwise, to the electrical corporation currently
providing electric service, a nonbypassable generation-related
transition charge established by the regulatory body for that
electrical corporation.  The charge shall be paid directly to the
electrical corporation providing electricity in the service area in
which the consumer is located.
   (c)  No  (1) Except as specified in paragraph
(2), no  local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation shall sell electric power to the retail customers of
another local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation unless the first utility has agreed to let the second
utility make sales of electric power to the retail customers of the
first utility. 
   (2) Paragraph (1) does not apply to a local publicly owned
electric utility or electrical corporation that proposes to sell
electric power to the current retail customers of another local
publicly owned electric utility or electrical corporation, if both of
the following criteria are satisfied:
   (A) The retail customers in the service area of the current local
publicly owned electric utility or electrical corporation agree to
switch to the local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation that proposes to sell electric power.
   (B) The local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation that proposes to sell electric power to the retail
customers of a local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation provides low-income public benefit programs that provide
benefits that are equal to or greater than those provided by the
current local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation.
   (3) A local publicly owned electric utility or electrical
corporation that proposes to sell electricity to the retail customers
of a local publicly owned electric utility or electrical corporation
in accordance with paragraph (2) shall give priority to new service
areas that have a higher percentage of low-income residential and
small business customers as compared with other potential service
areas. 
  SEC. 2.  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.