BILL ANALYSIS 1
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SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
DEBRA BOWEN, CHAIRWOMAN
SB 1488 - Bowen Hearing Date:
March 23, 2004 S
As Introduced: February 19, 2004 FISCAL B
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DESCRIPTION
Existing law requires public utilities to furnish to the California
Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) information necessary for the
CPUC to carry out its regulatory duties.
Existing law establishes a presumption against public disclosure by
providing that no information furnished by a public utility, or its
subsidiary, affiliate or holding company, shall be made public
unless a provision of the Public Utilities Act or the CPUC requires
it to be made public.
This bill would change the presumption to favor public disclosure by
providing that all information furnished by a public utility, or its
subsidiary, affiliate or holding company, shall be made public
unless a provision of the Public Utilities Act or the CPUC requires
it to be withheld.
BACKGROUND
Unlike other state agencies, the CPUC operates under a statute which
makes public access to much of the information in its proceedings
the exception, rather than the rule.
The statute (Section 583 of the Public Utilities Code) has its
origins in a law enacted in 1915. Notwithstanding the subsequent
"open government" reforms in California, such as the California
Public Records Act (PRA), enacted in 1968, the statutory standard
for public access to utility filings held by the CPUC has not
fundamentally changed since 1915.
Under the PRA, every person has a right to inspect and obtain copies
of all state and local government documents and records not exempt
from disclosure. Among the categories of records exempt from
disclosure are corporate financial records and proprietary
information, including trade secrets. The PRA also specifically
provides that information held by the CPUC which is deemed
confidential under Section 583 is not required to be disclosed.
In January, the Legislature adopted SCA 1 (Burton), which proposes
to make access to records and public meetings of government
officials and agencies a constitutional right of each citizen. To
be enacted, SCA 1 also must be approved by the voters and is pending
on the November 2004 statewide ballot. If enacted, SCA 1 would not
repeal or nullify Section 583, or any other existing law which
creates an exception to the right of access to public records.
This bill aligns Section 583 with the PRA and SCA 1 by changing the
presumption that utility information held by the CPUC is
confidential to a presumption that it is public. The CPUC may
protect legitimately confidential information by affirmatively
deciding that it should not be disclosed. As noted above, financial
records and proprietary information are also exempt from disclosure
under the PRA.
COMMENTS
1.Standards to govern CPUC decisions may be needed. This bill
permits the CPUC to decide to withhold utility-furnished
information from the public, but does not specify what criteria
the CPUC must apply in making such decisions. Corporate financial
records and proprietary information constitute a significant share
of the information ordinarily provided to the CPUC by the
utilities it regulates. The PRA suggests it's appropriate to
shield this type of information from public disclosure.
A model may be drawn from the California Energy Commission (CEC),
which collects information from utilities and other energy
companies. The CEC is subject to statutory standards (Section
25322 of the Public Resources Code) which govern its decisions on
confidentiality of information. For example, the CEC may
designate by regulation certain categories of information as
confidential or decide to withhold information pursuant to a
balancing test ("On the facts of the particular case, the public
interest served by not disclosing the information clearly
outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of the
information."). Section 25322 also specifies how the CEC must
handle public requests for disclosure of information designated as
confidential.
The author and the committee may wish to consider whether similar
standards would be appropriate for the CPUC. In particular,
administration of the bill's standard would be eased by permitting
the CPUC to designate as confidential specific categories of
information routinely received from utilities.
2.Double referral. This bill has also been referred to the Senate
Judiciary Committee.
POSITIONS
Sponsor:
Author
Support:
Clean Power Campaign
Environment California
Oppose:
AT&T
California Association of Competitive Telecommunications Companies
California Cable & Telecommunications Association
Pac West
SBC California
Sprint Communications Company
Lawrence Lingbloom
SB 1488 Analysis
Hearing Date: March 23, 2004