AB 551: Public Utilities Commission.

Existing law requires the Public Utilities Commission to submit amendments, revisions, or modifications of its Rules of Practice and Procedure to the Office of Administrative Law for prior review, but exempts from that requirement general orders, resolutions, or other substantive regulations.

This bill would clarify that regulations and guidelines related to the California Environmental Quality Act are also exempt from that requirement.

Existing law prohibits an electrical corporation from beginning the construction of, among other things, a line, plant, or system, or of any extension thereof, without having first obtained from the commission a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity require or will require that construction. Under existing law, the extension, expansion, upgrade, or other modification of an existing electrical transmission facility, including transmission lines and substations, does not require a certificate that the present or future public convenience and necessity requires or will require its construction.

This bill would authorize the commission to adopt specified successor guidelines at a publicly noticed meeting to address its receipt and review of and actions on applications for the construction of electrical transmission facilities, as described, subject to its regulatory jurisdiction, as provided. The bill would prohibit a cause of action arising out of an executive director disposition of a protest to a specified notice of proposed construction deemed exempt from the requirement to submit an application for a permit or certificate for electrical transmission facilities from accruing in any court to any entity or person unless the entity or person has filed an application to the commission for a rehearing within 10 days after the date of issuance of the disposition. The bill would require the commission to issue its decision and order on rehearing within 90 days after the filing of that application.