BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                                1
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               SENATE ENERGY, UTILITIES AND COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE
                           MARTHA M. ESCUTIA, CHAIRWOMAN
            

            AB 1182 -  Calderon                          Hearing Date:   
            June 30, 2005                   A
            As Amended:  June 21, 2005         FISCAL                B

                                                                         
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                                     DESCRIPTION
             
             Current law  requires the California Public Utilities  
            Commission (CPUC) to annually publish a work plan  
            describing their major activities for the upcoming year.

             This bill  requires the CPUC to make the work plan available  
            on its website and to develop a program to electronically  
            disseminate updates to the workplan.

             Current regulations  permit regulated utilities to obtain  
            CPUC authorization to perform certain activities through an  
            informal mechanism using what's known as an "advice letter"  
            process.

             This bill  requires the CPUC to determine the feasibility of  
            submitting advice letters electronically.  If feasible, the  
            CPUC shall propose a plan within six months.

                                      BACKGROUND
             
            Routine activities of public utilities are generally  
            reviewed and approved by the CPUC through an advice letter  
            process.  This is a relatively informal process that is  
            dealt with at the staff level, though the advice letter  
            must ultimately be approved by the CPUC.  While the advice  
            letter process is intended to deal with uncontroversial  











            activities, the advice letters are available to be reviewed  
            by consumer advocates and competitors.  Because of the  
            volume of advice letters and inadequate staffing, the  
            Office of the Ratepayer Advocate does not review all advice  
            letter filings.

                                       COMMENTS

             Electronic advice letter filings will be more efficient for  
            utilities and should reduce their costs.  It also  
            potentially makes it easier to review advice letters as  
            they can be easily shared and posted.  Moreover, electronic  
            documents are easily searched for key words and phrases.   
            The benefits of electronic filing are many.
                                           







































                                   ASSEMBLY VOTES
             
            Assembly Floor                     (73-0)
            Assembly Appropriations Committee  (18-0)
            Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee(11-0)

                                      POSITIONS
             
             Sponsor:
             
            SBC

             Support:
             
            None on file

            Oppose:
             
            None on file

            

































            Randy Chinn 
            AB 1182 Analysis
            Hearing Date:  June 30, 2005