AB286 - Electricity: mandatory rate reduction.

Amended IN Assembly April 21, 2025 Amended IN Assembly March 17, 2025 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 286 Introduced by Assembly Member Gallagher January 22, 2025 An act to add Section 739.15 to the Public Utilities Code, relating to electricity. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 286, as amended, Gallagher. Electricity: mandatory rate reduction. Existing law vests the Public Utilities Commission with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law authorizes the commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility and requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable. This bill would require the commission to reduce generate a report outlining recommendations to decrease the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30%. 30% by January 1, 2027. The bill would require the commission, in making that reduction, those reduction recommendations, to take certain actions, as specified. Digest Key Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO Bill Text The people of the State of California do enact as follows: SECTION 1. Section 739.15 is added to the Public Utilities Code, to read: 739.15. (a) The commission shall reduce generate a report outlining recommendations to decrease the kilowatt-per-hour rate for electricity charged to ratepayers by not less than 30 percent. percent by January 1, 2027. (b) In making the reduction recommendations pursuant to subdivision (a), the commission shall do all of the following: (1) Review each public purpose program that is not cost effective, and evaluate each public purpose program that the commission has not yet evaluated for cost-effectiveness. (2) For purposes of the climate credit described in Section 748.5, consider adopting the suggestions made by the commission in its CPUC Response to Executive Order No. N-5-24 (February 18, 2025). (3) Pursuant to the commission’s authority under Section 314.6, audit costs claimed by an electrical corporation for implementing its wildfire mitigation plans and, to the extent those costs are unreasonable, reduce recommend reducing rates accordingly. (4) Evaluate each program listed in Table A-2 of the commission’s CPUC Response to Executive Order No. N-5-24 (February 18, 2025) for cost-effectiveness, if the commission has not yet evaluated the program for cost-effectiveness. For a program that the commission determines is not cost effective, eliminate, reform, or recommend action by the Legislature.