Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications

We're holding our committee hearing on the O Street Building here in room 1200. I would ask members to come as quick as possible so we can establish a quorum. Again, we only have one bill today, and our author is here. He's ready to go. Senator Padilla, he'll be presenting SB 619. Senator, when you're ready, you may begin.

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members. Pleased to be back with SB 619. The Assembly amendments on this bill would give transmission project applicants the option to have the CEC act as a lead agency with respect to CEQA review, instead of the PUC, which would enable them to focus on its core analysis and significantly accelerate the permitting and entitlement process here. As you know, the PUC is primarily responsible for looking at convenience and necessity under an existing statute.

The Assembly amendment corrects an oversight as well, I think an important one. In building, it also was overlooked in AB 205, which was the baseline and inspiration for this bill, which now allows the CEC as an agency to recover reasonable costs for the permitting application process. The bill has had no no votes, has passed the Assembly 78 to 0. It is one of those unusual creatures that has the support of both the NRDC and the Chamber of Commerce. And I would respectfully ask for an aye vote.

Great. Are there primary witnesses in support? Okay, you'll have two minutes. If you have two primary witnesses, you'll have two minutes each. You may begin.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members. My name is Marc Joseph. I'm testifying on behalf of the Coalition of California Utility Employees. This bill is about the big transmission projects that now get and deserve to get a full EIR and complete CEQA review, and a full review of the ratepayer protections that are necessary. This is transmission which we need to meet our climate goals.

Under this bill, these projects will continue to get exactly the same CEQA review as before, and exactly the same ratepayer protection review as before. The only thing that changes is which agency prepares the EIR. The way things work now, a utility will file with the PUC an application for a permit. The PUC then evaluates the need, the cost, and several other factors to determine whether to grant the permit. It also prepares an EIR for the project.

What we've seen is that when the PUC prepares an EIR, and according to your analysis, it takes, on average, 29 months. Meanwhile, the rest of the PUC's evaluation, the ratepayer protection, may take twelve months or maybe a little longer, and we've seen that it may be done long before the EIR is finished.

This bill would instead give the utility the option to use the Energy Commission's AB 205 process, where the Energy Commission would prepare the EIR in nine months and in parallel with the PUC's normal process. Then the Energy Commission would send the EIR over to the PUC. So why do this? The Energy Commission is really good at environmental review of energy projects. We should take advantage of its decades of experience and expertise.

And this way the PUC can issue its final decision as soon as it finishes the non-CEQA review. This could shave a couple of years off the overall process without compromising the CEQA review at all or compromising the ratepayer protection review at all. Again, this does not change the scope of the CEQA review, it just changes the venue. This is a pragmatic bill which will help get needed transmission projects built years sooner. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. White, are you?

Mr. Chairman and members. John White with the Clean Power Campaign. We also support this bill for the reasons stated by Mr. Joseph. We think transmission is important not just for meeting clean energy goals, but for reliability. As we increase our electric demands with building and transportation electrification, as well as data centers and Bitcoin and alternative intelligence, all of these are going to drive load growth. And without enough transmission, as soon as we need it, we'll fall behind. So we support the bill and ask for your aye vote.

Are there other witnesses here in the room? Just state your name and your organization and your position, please.

Adam Smith, Southern California Edison. Strong support.

Thank you. Any other witnesses here in room 1200 in support? Now let's move to opposition. Are there any witnesses here this morning in opposition? Seeing none. Moderator, let's go to our phone lines and see if there's witnesses in support of opposition of SB 619.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For those who wish to speak in support or opposition to this bill, please press one, then zero. At this time, press one, then zero. Mr. Chair, we have at least one caller who's signaled that they wish to speak. Just a moment, please. And we will now go to line ten. Your line is now open.

Good morning, this is Brandon Ebeck with Pacific Gas and Electric in support. Thank you.

Moderator, are there any additional?

There is no one else who's signaled that they wish to speak.

All right, we'll give it another minute. Let's see if there's anyone else. If not, we'll bring it back to the committee.

Mr. Chair, do we have a quorum?

All right, let's bring it back to the committee. Committee, do you have any members have any questions for the author regarding this measure? No?

I'll ask a question.

Okay, sure.

So, we allowed the CEC to actually permit windmills. So this doesn't give them any extra power. They still have to go through the same process. It's just going to be, hopefully, a quicker process. That's really what the goal of this bill is.

Mr. Chairman, Senator. What this does is build on AB 205 by creating an alternative entitlement process that as sort of would expedite that process for transmission projects. The alternative application process that's available from AB 205. This bill expands the ability for larger general energy transmission projects to also utilize and take advantage of this process. The prior legislation constrained that to smaller-scale projects with less qualifiers. This would open this up to a bigger class of transmission applications.

But there is no exempting the environmental review. That's my point. I want to make sure that we...

To be clear, there is no exemption around CEQA. It's just simply who acts as lead agency.

Consultant, let's establish a quorum. Please call the role.

Bradford. Here. Bradford, here. Dahle. Dahle, here. Ashby. Ashby, here. Becker. Caballero. Dodd. Dodd, here. Durazo. Durazo, here. Eggman. Eggman, here. Gonzalez. Grove. Gonzalez, here. Sorry. Grove. McGuire. Min. Min, here. Newman. Rubio. Seyarto. Seyarto, here. Skinner. Skinner, here. Stern. Stern, here. Wilk.

A quorum has been established. We have a motion by Vice Chair Dahle. It's a do pass to the Senate floor. Consultant, please call the role on SB 619.

SB 619, that the Assembly amendments be concurred in. Bradford. Aye. Bradford, aye. Dahle. Aye. Dahle, aye. Ashby. Aye. Ashby, aye. Becker. Caballero. Dodd. Aye. Dodd, aye. Durazo. Aye. Durazo, aye. Eggman. Aye. Eggman, aye. Gonzalez. Grove. McGuire. Min. Aye. Min, aye. Newman. Rubio. Seyarto. Aye. Seyarto, aye. Skinner. Aye. Skinner, aye. Stern. Aye. Stern, aye. Wilk.

Members, that concludes our work. Senator Padilla, that bill is out. You have ten votes. We'll leave the roll open for absent members to add on. But, members, we're finished for today, and we'll leave the roll open for what, another ten minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm generous. Exactly. So we're going to ask the members to make their way down as quick as possible to be added on. Thank you. Consultant, you can open the roll on SB 619 for absent members.

Becker. Aye. Becker, aye.

Thank you.

You're very late. We're going to open a call for absent members to add on.

SB 619 that the Assembly amendments be concurred in. Gonzalez. Aye. Gonzalez, aye. Grove. McGuire. Newman. Rubio. Wilk. Aye. Wilk, aye.

SB 619 that the Assembly amendments be concurred in. Rubio. Aye. Rubio, aye.

14. 14-0 so it's out.

SB 619 is out 14-0. That concludes the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. We stand adjourned. Thank you very much. Thank you, ladies.

Thank you.