The California Constitution establishes the Public Utilities Commission consisting of 5 members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. Existing law prohibits an executive of a public utility from serving as a member of the commission within 2 years after leaving the employment of the public utility.
This bill would require that 4 members of the commission represent the geographic locations of the 4 State Board of Equalization districts, existing as of January 1, 2026, and one member be an at-large member with expertise in nongovernmental public advocacy or public interest law and with a nongovernmental background, as specified. The bill would prohibit an elected member of, or an employee of, the Legislature or an employee of the executive branch from serving as a member of the commission within one year after leaving the position as an elected member or employee.
This bill would authorize each house of the Legislature to appoint a liaison officer to appear in proceedings before the commission, as provided.
Existing law requires the president of the commission to appear annually before the appropriate policy committees of the Senate and the Assembly to present certain information. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for public utilities, and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
This bill would require the president of the commission to appear annually before those committees to present information related to rates affordability and ratesetting cases decided by, or pending before, the commission.
Existing law requires the commission to report annually to the Legislature on the timeliness in resolving cases, including the number of orders issued extending the statutory deadline.
This bill would specify that the above information includes the number of cases in which the commission failed to issue a decision within the statutory deadline. The bill would require the commission, within 15 days of adopting a final decision on a ratesetting case, to submit to the Legislature a report containing certain information regarding the ratesetting case.

Statutes affected:
AB13: 913 PUC
12/02/24 - Introduced: 913 PUC
02/24/25 - Amended Assembly: 301 PUC, 301 PUC, 303 PUC, 303 PUC, 910.1 PUC, 910.1 PUC, 913 PUC
03/17/25 - Amended Assembly: 301 PUC, 303 PUC, 910.1 PUC