BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                              1
          1





                SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
                               DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
          

          SB 168 -  Senate EU&C Committee                        Hearing  
          Date:  April 22, 2003                S
          As Proposed to be Amended               FISCAL           B
                                                                        
                                                                        1
                                                                        6
                                                                        8

                                      DESCRIPTION
           
           This bill  makes a number of technical and non-substantial  
          changes to the Public Utilities Code (PUC) and the Public  
          Resources Code (PRC).

                                      BACKGROUND
           
          This is the committee's annual code clean up measure.  With the  
          exception of the amendment to Section 445 of the Public  
          Utilities Code, all the provisions were recommended by the  
          California Energy Commission (CEC).

          The specific amendments and reasons are discussed below:

           Amendments to Section 445 of the Public Utilities Code turn  
            the CEC's quarterly report on renewable energy spending into  
            an annual report.

           Deleting Public Utilities Code Sections 9201 through 9203  
            removes obsolete provisions pertaining to an organization  
            called the California Utility Research Council that no longer  
            exists.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25401.2 (a)  
            corrects a reference.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25620.5 (e)  
            corrects grammatical errors.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25620.10  
            broadens the potential representation on an advisory board to  
            the Public Interest Energy Research program.











           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25619.5 fixes a  
            numbering error.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25519 (c)  
            clarifies existing law to allow local governments to rely on  
            the CEC staff's final  assessment  , rather than a final CEC  
             decision  , in fulfilling their responsibilities regarding  
            powerplant siting.  This will eliminate local government  
            uncertainty over which document to use.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25523(d)(1)  
            corrects a grammatical error and provides internal consistency  
            within the subdivision.

           The amendment to Public Resources Code Section 25525 corrects  
            a reference error. 

                                       COMMENTS
           
           Custom & Practice  .  The committee bill contains only technical  
          items that have no opposition and don't present a major policy  
          question.  Should any member of the committee object to any item  
          in the measure, it will be amended out of the bill.  No other  
          issues will be added to the bill without the consent of the  
          members of the committee.

                                       POSITIONS
           
          Sponsor:
           
          Author

           Support:
           
          None on file

           Oppose:
           
          None on file

          






























          Randy Chinn 
          SB 168 Analysis
          Hearing Date:  April 22, 2003