20250SB__025493CHP INTRODUCED 2025-02-03 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-03-20 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-04-22 AMENDED_SENATE 2025-05-28 AMENDED_ASSEMBLY 2025-09-10 PASSED_ASSEMBLY 2025-09-13 PASSED_SENATE 2025-09-13 ENROLLED 2025-09-15 CHAPTERED 2025-09-19 APPROVED 2025-09-19 FILED 2025-09-19 2025 SB CHP CHP 0 Introduced by Senators Becker and Wahab and Assembly Member Petrie-Norris LEAD_AUTHOR SENATE Becker LEAD_AUTHOR SENATE Wahab LEAD_AUTHOR ASSEMBLY Petrie-Norris

An act to amend Sections 4216.1, 8557, 12100.110, 15472, 15473, 15475, 15475.1, 15475.2, 15475.6, and of, to add

Section 12100.111 and 12100.112 to, to add

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) to

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7 of, and to repeal Sections 15475.4 and 15475.5 of, the Government Code, to amend

Section 25545.1, 25545.2, 25545.4, 25545.5, 25545.6, 25545.7, 25545.7.2, 25545.7.6, 25545.8, 25545.9, 25545.10, and 25545.12, and to add

Article 7 (commencing with

Section 21159.30) to

Chapter 4.5 of Division of, the Public Resources Code, to amend Sections 326.1, 326.2, 850, 850.1, 934, 1701.8, 3280, 3292, 3310, 3380.1, 3380.2, 8385, 8386, 8386.1, 8386.2, 8386.3, 8386.4, 8386.5, 8387, 8388.5, and of, to amend the heading of

Part 6 (commencing with

Section 3280) of Division of, to add Sections 913.2 and 8386.10 to, to add

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 3299.100) to Part of Division of, to add and repeal Sections and of, to add and repeal

Chapter 4 (commencing with

Section 3298) and

Chapter 5 (commencing with

Section 3299) of Part of Division of, to repeal Sections and of, and to repeal and add

Section of, the Public Utilities Code, to amend Sections and of, and to add and repeal Sections 17053.40 and of, the Revenue and Taxation Code, and to amend Sections 351, 80506, 80524, 80540, and of, and to add and repeal

Section 80544.5 of, the Water Code, relating to energy, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. energy, making an appropriation therefor, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately Energy.

(1) Existing law establishes the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) within the Governor’s office and requires the office to serve the Governor as the lead entity for economic strategy and the marketing of California on issues relating to business development, private sector investment, and economic growth, as provided.

Existing law, the Bergeson-Peace Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Act (bank act), establishes the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) within GO-Biz, under the direction of an executive director and governed by, and its corporate power exercised by, a board of directors (bank board). Existing law, among other things, authorizes the bank to make loans, issue bonds, and provide financial assistance for various types of projects that qualify as economic development or public development facilities, as provided.

Existing law prohibits the financing of economic development facilities unless the bank determines that the financing or assistance meets specified public interest criteria.

Existing law, the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 (bond act), approved by the voters as Proposition at the November 5, 2024, statewide general election, authorizes the issuance of bonds in the amount of $10,000,000,000 pursuant to the State General Obligation Bond Law to finance projects for safe drinking water, drought, flood, and water resilience, wildfire and forest resilience, coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, biodiversity and nature-based climate solutions, climate-smart, sustainable, and resilient farms, ranches, and working lands, park creation and outdoor access, and clean air programs.

Existing law makes $850,000,000 of that amount available, upon appropriation of the Legislature, for clean energy projects, as provided. This bill would deem the financing of projects related to the clean energy projects funded by the bond act, as described above, to be in the public interest and eligible for financing by the I-Bank or by a special purpose trust established pursuant to the bank act and would, except as specified, require that any such financing be treated as financing of an economic development facility for purposes of the bank act.

The bill would authorize the I-Bank to provide any form of financial assistance, including issuing bonds, as provided. The bill would authorize the I-Bank to provide financial assistance under the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund Program to any eligible participating party, either directly or to a lending or financial institution, in connection with the financing or refinancing of an accelerator project, in accordance with an agreement or agreements between the I-Bank and the participating party, either as a sole lender or in participation or syndication with other lenders.

The bill would define various terms for these purposes. The bill would require that eligible projects for financing under these provisions meet specified conditions. The bill would require the I-Bank to prepare, and the bank board to approve, guidelines for the provision of financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program, and would exempt the accelerator financing plan and guidelines to administer the program from the rulemaking provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act.

Existing law creates the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Fund (bank fund) in the State Treasury for purposes of implementing the objectives and provisions of the bank act. Except as specified, existing law continuously appropriates all moneys in the bank fund for support of the I-Bank and for expenditure for the purposes stated in the bank act. This bill would provide that moneys in the bank fund are available for expenditure for California Transmission Accelerator financing, as described above, only upon appropriation by the Legislature.

The bill would create the Accelerator Revolving Fund within the State Treasury for the purpose of providing financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program. The bill would make the moneys in the fund, except as specified, continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal year, for the support of eligible entities, as defined, and available for expenditure for the above-described purposes. By establishing a continuously appropriated fund, the bill would make an appropriation.

(2) Existing law creates within Go-Biz the Energy Unit to accelerate the planning, financing, and execution of critical energy infrastructure projects, as specified.

This bill would require the Energy Unit to establish a Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator (accelerator), in coordination with certain entities, to develop a financing and development strategy for eligible transmission projects receiving California Transmission Accelerator financing, established by this bill’s provisions as described above, and would require the accelerator to take the necessary steps to accelerate the development and deployment of those projects to maximize ratepayer savings.

The bill would require the accelerator, before December 31, 2026, to coordinate the state’s ongoing activities related to transmission planning and development and to ensure accelerator projects meet specified criteria. The bill would also require the accelerator to evaluate the results of the Independent System Operator’s transmission planning process, to select which accelerator projects have the opportunity to receive public financing, and to develop a public-private partnership plan to develop financing options that maximize debt financing, among other things.

(3) The Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law allow various credits against the taxes imposed by those laws. This bill would allow a credit against those taxes for each taxable year beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and before January 1, 2036, in an amount equal to 20% of the qualified expenditures paid or incurred by the qualified taxpayer during the taxable year, not to exceed $20,000,000 per qualified taxpayer per taxable year.

The bill would define “qualified expenditures” for these purposes to mean costs paid or incurred for planning, design, engineering, permitting, construction, and equipment directly related to an eligible transmission project, as defined, or qualified wages, as defined, paid or incurred to employees of a qualified taxpayer that perform services directly related to the eligible transmission project. The bill would define “qualified taxpayer” for these purposes to mean a taxpayer that is a participating entity under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program, as described above.

If the credit allowed under these provisions is claimed by the qualified taxpayer, the bill would prohibit the taxpayer from earning a return on equity for the eligible transmission project for the portion of the project for which the credit is claimed. The bill would require the I-Bank to inform the Franchise Tax Board of any eligible transmission project that the bank approves for financial assistance and to provide any other information the Franchise Tax Board requires for administration of the credits allowed by the bill.

Existing law requires a bill authorizing a new tax expenditure to contain, among other things, specific goals the tax expenditure will achieve, detailed performance indicators, and data collection requirements. This bill would provide that this requirement does not apply to the credits allowed by the bill’s provisions.

(4) The California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority Act creates the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority.

The act authorizes the authority, before January 1, 2007, to establish, finance, purchase, lease, own, operate, acquire, or construct generating facilities and other projects and enterprises, or provide financial assistance for projects or programs by participating parties, to supplement private and public sector power supplies to ensure a sufficient and reliable supply of electricity for California’s consumers at just and reasonable rates, to finance programs for consumers and businesses to invest in cost-effective energy efficient appliances, renewable energy projects, and other programs that will reduce the demand for energy in California, to finance natural gas transportation and storage projects, to achieve an adequate energy reserve capacity in California, and to provide financing for owners of aged, inefficient, electric powerplants to perform necessary retrofits to improve the efficiency and environmental performances of those powerplants.

This bill would additionally authorize the authority to sponsor, finance, purchase, lease, own, operate, acquire, or construct new transmission projects, as defined. The bill would authorize the authority to seek financing assistance from any entity eligible to access the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund. Existing law authorizes the authority to incur indebtedness and to issue securities of any kind or class, at public or private sale by the Treasurer, and to renew the same, if the indebtedness is payable solely from revenues.

Existing law authorizes the authority to issue bonds, as specified, in an amount not to exceed $5,000,000,000, exclusive of any refunds. This bill would delete that $5,000,000,000 limit. Existing law prohibits the authority from financing or approving any new program, enterprise, or project on or after January 1, 2007, unless authority to approve such an activity is granted by statute enacted on or before January 1, 2007. This bill would repeal that provision.

(5) Existing law vests the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) with the exclusive jurisdiction to certify the construction of certain eligible facilities, as defined. Existing law prohibits a person from constructing such a facility unless that person obtains a certificate from the commission, as provided. Existing law authorizes a person proposing an eligible facility to file an application no later than June 30, 2029, for certification with the commission to certify a site and related facility, as provided.

This bill would extend the date that a person proposing an eligible facility is authorized to apply by to June 30, 2030. Existing law requires an application for a site and related facility to be in a form prescribed by the Energy Commission, contain specified information, and be further supported by other information as the Energy Commission may require to support the preparation of an environmental impact report and issuance of a certification.

Existing law requires the Energy Commission to review the application and make a determination of completeness within days of the submission of the application, and authorizes the executive director of the Energy Commission to require the applicant to submit additional information, documents, or data determined to be reasonably necessary to prepare the environmental impact report for the application, as provided.

This bill would explicitly authorize the Energy Commission to require certain supporting information to support the preparation of an environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration, and would make related conforming changes. The bill would require the application to include evidence that the applicant has sufficient real property rights to the proposed location to currently access, build, and operate the proposed facility.

The bill would instead authorize the executive director to require an applicant to submit missing information in the application before an application can be deemed complete and would require that any further requests by the executive director for missing information in response to additional information provided by the applicant be made within days, or as soon as practicable thereafter, of receipt of that information.

Existing law requires each person proposing to construct a thermal powerplant or electrical transmission line to submit to the Energy Commission a notice of intention to file an application for the certification of the site and related facility or facilities, requires the approval of the notice by the Energy Commission to be based upon specified findings, and requires an application for certification of the site and related facility to be filed with the Energy Commission.

Existing law requires, for the consideration of an application and the issuance of a certification, the Energy Commission to comply with the requirements to prepare a written decision after a public hearing on an application that includes specified things, including findings regarding the conformity of the proposed site and related facilities with standards adopted by the Energy Commission, as provided, and applies these requirements to an application for an eligible facility, as provided.

This bill would remove findings regarding the conformity of the proposed site and related facilities with standards adopted by the Energy Commission from that application requirement for an eligible facility. Existing law prohibits the Energy Commission from certifying a site and related facility unless the Energy Commission finds that the construction or operation of the facility will have an overall net positive economic benefit to the local government that would have had permitting authority over the site and related facility.

This bill would establish a rebuttable presumption that the construction or operation of the facility will have an overall net positive economic benefit to the local government that would have had permitting authority over the site and related facility.

Existing law prohibits the Energy Commission from certifying a site and related facility unless it finds that the applicant has entered into one or more legally binding and enforceable agreements with, or that benefit, a coalition of one or more community-based organizations, including, but not limited to, workforce development and training organizations, labor unions, social justice advocates, local governmental entities, and California Native American tribes. This bill would add community foundations to the list of community-based organizations described above.

Existing law, until July 1, 2025, provides that an agreement entered into for purposes of the above-described provisions does not require competitive bidding, or the review, consent, or approval of the Department of General Services or any other state department or agency and is not required to comply with certain contracting requirements. This bill would extend that exemption until July 1, 2027.

(6) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.

CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

CEQA authorizes a lead agency for a later project, if a prior EIR has been prepared and certified for a program, plan, policy, or ordinance, commonly known as a “program EIR,” to examine significant effects of the later project upon the environment by using a tiered EIR and provides that the tiered EIR is not required to examine effects that meet certain requirements. Existing law establishes a process for the certification of facilities related to clean energy infrastructure by the Energy Commission.

This bill would require the Energy Commission to prepare a program EIR to analyze the development of a class or classes of facility for which the Energy Commission has received an application under a specific certification program, as provided. The bill would authorize a public agency considering the approval of a specific facility that is within a class or classes of facility described in the program EIR prepared under these provisions to tier from that program EIR, as provided.

(7) Existing law generally requires an operator of a subsurface installation to become a member of, participate in, and share in the costs of, a regional notification center. Existing law requires a record of all notifications by an excavator or operator to the regional notification center to be maintained for a period of not less than years and available for inspection, as specified. Existing law requires an operator to maintain certain records on subsurface installations. Existing law establishes prescribed notification procedures for an excavator who discovers or damages a subsurface installation.

Existing law requires a regional notification center to quarterly provide notification records to the California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board and to provide notifications of damage to the board within business days of receipt at the regional notification center. This bill would require a regional notification center to facilitate the exchange of planning and design information for infrastructure projects, as described, and would require operators to participate in this exchange, as provided.

The bill would require a regional notification center, upon request, to notify a California Native American tribe of proposed excavations within the geographic area with which the tribe is traditionally and culturally affiliated.

The bill would require the California Underground Facilities Safe Excavation Board to report to the Legislature on the advantages, barriers, and funding options for the development of an internet web-based planning and design platform for accomplishing the exchange of planning and design information and for allowing tribes to view plans for projects and to communicate with plan submitters.

(8) Existing law requires electrical corporations to construct, maintain, and operate their electrical lines and equipment in a manner that will minimize the risk of catastrophic wildfire posed by those electrical lines and equipment. This bill would require those actions to take into account the time required to implement proposed mitigations and the amount of risk reduced for the cost and risk remaining.

(9) Existing law requires each electrical corporation to annually prepare and submit a wildfire mitigation plan that covers at least a 3-year period and authorizes the office to allow for annual submissions to be updates to the last approved comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan, but requires the electrical corporation to submit a comprehensive wildfire mitigation plan at least once every years for review.

Existing law requires wildfire mitigation plans to include, among other things, a list that identifies, describes, and prioritizes all wildfire risks, and drivers for those risks, throughout the electrical corporation’s service territory, and a description of the actions the electrical corporation will take to ensure its system will achieve the highest level of safety, reliability, and resiliency, as specified. This bill instead would require each electrical corporation to submit a wildfire mitigation plan to the office for review at least once every years.

The bill would require each electrical corporation, beginning January 1, 2027, to submit a preliminary wildfire mitigation plan to the office at the earliest date of one year before the filing of its general rate case application or concurrent with the filing of its Risk Assessment Mitigation Phase application with the Public Utilities Commission (PUC).

The bill would revise those wildfire mitigation plan requirements to, among other things, require the list to also include particular risks and risk drivers associated with the speed with which wildfire risk mitigation measures can and will be deployed by the electrical corporation and an estimate of cost-per-avoided ignition for each risk, or an explanation on why such a value could not be assigned to a particular risk, and require the presentation of certain cost-efficiency measures adopted by the PUC, as specified.

(10) Existing law requires the office to approve or deny each wildfire mitigation plan and update submitted by an electrical corporation within months of its submission. Existing law establishes procedures for the office to oversee compliance with an approved wildfire mitigation plan. Existing law requires the PUC to consider whether the cost of implementing an electrical corporation’s wildfire mitigation plan is just and reasonable in the electrical corporation’s general rate case application.

This bill instead would require the office to approve or deny a wildfire mitigation plan submitted by an electrical corporation within months of its submission. The bill would, for a general rate case application filed on or after January 1, 2027, require an electrical corporation to file the wildfire mitigation plan approved by the office or, if the plan has not been approved by the office, the preliminary wildfire plan filed with the office, and any applicable decision from the office, with the general rate case application.

The bill would require an electrical corporation, within days of the PUC’s decision on whether the cost of implementing the electrical corporation’s wildfire mitigation plan is just and reasonable in the electrical corporation’s general rate case or any PUC order modifying that decision, to submit to the office a revised wildfire mitigation plan that conforms to the PUC’s revenue authorization.

The bill would require the office to approve the revised wildfire mitigation plan within months of submission and would require the electrical corporation to file the approved revised wildfire mitigation plan as an information-only submittal with the PUC. The bill would revise and recast provisions related to the oversight by the office in the implementation of, and the enforcement by the PUC of, the finally approved wildfire mitigation plan.

(11) Existing law requires the PUC to establish an expedited utility distribution infrastructure undergrounding program for large electrical corporations. In order to participate in the program, existing law requires a large electrical corporation to submit to the office a distribution infrastructure undergrounding plan, as provided. Upon approval of the plan by the office, existing law requires the large electrical corporation to submit to the PUC an application requesting review and conditional approval of the plan’s costs and other specified information.

This bill would revise the provisions related to the expedited utility distribution infrastructure undergrounding program to, among other things, specify that the approval of a distribution infrastructure undergrounding plan is not a project for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act, as specified.

(12) Existing law requires the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board to annually make recommendations to the office on various topics, including the appropriate scope and process for assessing the safety culture of an electrical corporation. Existing law requires the office to annually issue an analysis and recommendation to the PUC on the recommendations provided by the board. Existing law requires the PUC to annually adopt and approve, among other things, a process for the office to conduct annual safety culture assessments for each electrical corporation. This bill would repeal those provisions.

(13) Existing law requires local publicly owned electric utilities and electrical cooperatives to annually prepare and submit to the board, on or before July of each year, wildfire mitigation plans. This bill instead would require, after January 1, 2026, local publicly owned electric utilities and electrical cooperatives to prepare and submit to the board wildfire mitigation plans at least once every years on a

schedule determined by the board.

(14) Existing law establishes the Wildfire Fund, administered by the Wildfire Fund Administrator, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to pay eligible claims, as defined, from participating electrical corporations arising from wildfires ignited on or after July 12, 2019, that are determined to be caused by the electrical corporation. Existing law requires each large electrical corporation, by certain dates, to notify the Public Utilities Commission of its election to participate in the fund by making a commitment to provide an initial contribution and annual contributions to the fund, as provided.

Existing law authorizes large electrical corporations providing the notification and commitment (participating electrical corporations) to seek payment from the fund to satisfy settled and finally adjudicated eligible claims. Existing law authorizes a participating electrical corporation to file an application with the commission to recover costs and expenses arising from a wildfire ignited on or after July 12, 2019, that is caused by the electrical corporation that the commission determines to be just and reasonable.

Existing law requires a participating electrical corporation, within months of the commission’s decision in the application for the recovery of costs and expenses arising from the wildfire, to reimburse the fund, as provided, for any payment of costs and expenses determined not to be just and reasonable. Existing law requires the commission to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its authority to require participating electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from their ratepayers to support the fund, including the payment of any bonds issued for the support of the fund, as provided.

The bill would authorize the Department of Water Resources to issue bonds, in an aggregate amount up to $10,000,000,000, as provided, to support the fund. This bill would require the administrator, on or before April 1, 2026, to prepare and submit to the Legislature and to the Governor, a report that evaluates and sets forth recommendations on new models or approaches that mitigate damage, accelerate recovery, and responsibly and equitably allocate the burdens from natural catastrophes, across stakeholders, to complement or replace the fund, as specified.

This bill would create the Continuation Account within the fund, which is separate and distinct from moneys in the fund, to be administered by the administrator, and would continuously appropriate moneys in the account for purposes of payment of eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or after the effective date of the bill, as provided, thereby making an appropriation. The bill would require each large electrical corporation, within days of the effective date of the bill, to provide to the commission a written notification of its election to participate, or not to participate, in the account.

The bill would specify that the election by participating electrical corporations to participate in the account constitutes an agreement of the large electrical corporations to certain matters, including a revision of how the large electrical corporations are required to reimburse the fund for any costs and expenses arising from a wildfire that are found not to be just and reasonable and limiting the obligation of the fund to provide payments for eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or before the effective date of the bill.

The bill would require the commission, if all participating electrical corporations have provided their election to participate in the account, to provide the administrator and other entities notification of their elections. The bill would authorize the administrator, on or after the date the commission provides the notification, but not later than December 31, 2028, to determine if additional annual contributions are needed, and to provide notification of its determination to the commission and the department.

The bill would require the commission, within days of receiving the notification from the administrator, to initiate a rulemaking proceeding to consider using its authority to require the large electrical corporations to collect a nonbypassable charge from ratepayers to support the account, including the payment of any bond issued for the support of the account, as provided. The bill would authorize the department to issue bonds, in an aggregate amount up to $9,000,000,000, as provided, to support the account.

The bill would, if the commission imposes the nonbypassable charge to support the account, require the large electrical corporations, from calendar years to 2045, inclusive, to provide to the administrator their annual contributions, as specified, for deposit into the account. The bill would, if the administrator determines that an additional contribution of $3,900,000,000 is needed to support the account, authorize the administrator to require the large electrical corporations to provided their proportionate share of that amount in equal installment payments over a 5-year period, as provided.

The bill would authorize a large electrical corporation to seek payment from the account to satisfy settled or finally adjudicated eligible claims arising from wildfires ignited on or after the effective date of the bill, as provided. The bill would require the large electrical corporations, within months of the commission’s decision in the application for the recovery of costs and expenses arising from the wildfire, to reimburse the fund, as provided, for any payment of costs and expenses determined not to be just and reasonable.

The bill would make the above provisions inoperative if one of the large electrical corporations elects not to participate in the account.

This bill would, except as provided, for an agreement by a property insurer to sell, assign, or transfer, in whole or in part, to a third-party entity, a right of subrogation, reimbursement, or recovery resulting from a wildfire that is ignited on or after the effective date of this act and that destroys 1,000 or more structures, require the property insurer to first offer to settle that right, on the same terms and conditions as the proposed agreement, to a large electrical corporation, if any, that provides electrical service to the service area in which the wildfire ignited.

The bill would require the large electrical corporation to accept or reject the offer or to reach agreement on mutually agreeable terms for the settlement of that right within days of the property insurer making the offer. The bill would, except as provided, require the agreement and exchange of information, including the offer made and other documentation related to the offer, to be subject to a nondisclosure agreement and would prohibit the disclosure of that information.

The bill would specify that the information provided to a public agency pursuant to law is not subject to public disclosure under the California Public Records Act or any other law.

(15) Existing law authorizes an electrical corporation to file an application requesting the commission to issue a financing order to authorize the recovery of certain costs and expenses, including those related to catastrophic wildfires, that are determined to be just and reasonable through the issuance of recovery bonds by the electrical corporations that are secured by a rate component, as provided.

This bill would, for a catastrophic wildfire that was ignited between January 1, 2025, and the effective date of the bill, authorize an electrical corporation, before filing an application for a determination of just and reasonableness of the settled or finally adjudicated claims associated with the catastrophic wildfire, to a file an application for a determination that those claims cannot be paid by the fund and for the issuance of a financing order in the amount of those claims. The bill would require the commission to issue a financing order if it makes certain determinations, as provided.

The bill would require a large electrical corporation, if it issues recovery bonds pursuant to the financing order, to file an application for a just and reasonableness determination for the costs and expenses included in the recovery bonds, as provided. The bill would authorize the commission to order a large electrical corporation to provide a credit to its ratepayers for any disallowed costs and expenses plus any cost and expense resulting from the inclusion of the disallowed costs and expenses in the recovery bonds. Existing law, until December 31, 2035, authorizes the commission to issue the financing order.

Existing law requires the commission to prohibit a large electrical corporation from including in its equity rate base its share for the first $5,000,000,000 expended in aggregate by large electrical corporations on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures, as provided, and authorizes those expenditures to be financed through the financing order.

This bill would, in addition to the amount of fire risk mitigation capital expenditure described above, require the commission to prohibit a large electrical corporation from including in its equity rate base its share of the first $6,000,000,000 expended in aggregate by large electrical corporations on fire risk mitigation capital expenditures approved by the commission on or after January 1, 2026.

The bill would authorize an electrical corporation’s share of the fire risk mitigation capital expenditures and the debt financing costs of these fire risk mitigation capital expenditures to be financed through a financing order, as specified. The bill would provide that these provisions do not apply to expenditures made after December 31, 2035.

(16) Existing law requires the PUC, by May of each year, to prepare and submit a written report to the Legislature with certain information, including information regarding electrical corporations’ utility costs and rate increases. This bill would require the report to include additional certain information on the transmission assets, distribution assets, and generation assets of each large electrical corporation, including information on the amount or ratebase for those assets with years of historical values and the total amount for return on equity and debt collected in the revenue requirement for those assets.

(17) Existing law requires the PUC to establish reasonable average and maximum target energization time periods, as defined, and a procedure for customers to report energization delays to the PUC, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to require an electrical corporation to take remedial actions necessary to achieve the PUC’s targets and would require all reports to be publicly available, among other reporting requirements.

This bill would require the PUC to evaluate and report to the Legislature on or before January 1, 2027, whether to require an electrical corporation to have an executive incentive compensation structure that includes incentive compensation based on meeting the above-described targets for all executive officers. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2027, the commission to establish an enforcement policy for the those targets that include penalties for not complying with the remedial actions, as specified.

This bill would require the PUC to require each electrical corporation to retain an independent third-party auditor to review the electrical corporation’s business practices and procedures for energizing new customers and how the electrical corporation is planning for demand growth, including new customer energizations.

The bill would require the third-party auditor to review specified factors and to evaluate the electrical corporation’s current and future energization performance and make recommendations as to whether the electrical corporation is adequately meeting and anticipating customer demand, adequately training and retaining an adequate workforce, and is funded at sufficient levels to meet forecasted demand growth. The bill would require the third-party auditor to report to the PUC on a biannual basis, as specified.

The bill would authorize the PUC to require an electrical corporation to take remedial actions necessary to address deficiencies identified in the report provided by the third-party auditor or to achieve the above-described targets. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2032.

(18) Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the PUC is a crime. Because certain of the above-described provisions would be part of the act and a violation of a PUC action implementing the above-described provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(19) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

(20) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(21) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. TWO_THIRDS YES YES YES YES YES NO NO NO NO NO The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (

a) Climate change is driving an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events globally and in California, including heatwaves, droughts, flooding, and a significant increase in the incidence and severity of catastrophic wildfires. These extreme weather events impose profound risks to public health, natural resources, infrastructure, and California’s economy. (

b) In California, wildfires have grown significantly more intense and destructive in recent years, with of the most destructive wildfires on record occurring in the last years. The wildfire season is already surpassing previous years in acreage burned and destruction. As of July 15, 2025, 4,195 wildfires had burned 201,295 acres, dramatically higher than the five-year average of 116,218 acres by this point in the year. For comparison, as of July 15, 2024, 3,629 wildfires had burned 77,925 acres. (

c) The risk to life and property from catastrophic fires has been aggravated by historical land use policies that place more people and property in the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Simultaneously, climate change has dramatically increased the number of acres in California considered high fire risk areas. Under the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s (CalFire’

s) recently updated fire hazard severity maps, 1,400,000 acres not previously classified as having high fire risk are now designated as high or very high fire hazard severity zones, reflecting the growing risk of wildfires across the state. (

d) Wildfire risk is destabilizing the homeowners’ insurance market, increasing the number of California homeowners who are unable to obtain insurance from admitted carriers. In response, beginning in 2022, the Department of Insurance undertook a series of actions to promote fire resilience, including new regulations to provide incentives for homeowners to harden homes and implement mitigation actions in their communities to reduce vulnerabilities to future wildfire losses. (

e) The risk of wildfires is also impacting utility rates. Utilities and their customers bear the immediate and long-term financial burden of infrastructure upgrades, wildfire prevention, and post-fire liabilities, driven in part by California’s application of inverse condemnation, which holds utilities liable for all damage caused by their equipment regardless of fault. (

f) In recognition of the potential impacts of climate change on California, the state has taken bold steps relating to, and made significant investments in, mitigation and adaptation. (

g) California is a national leader in both mitigating climate change and adapting to its impacts. The state has adopted ambitious, enforceable goals for decarbonization and reducing reliance on fossil fuels, including enactment of the California Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (Division 25.5 (commencing with

Section 38500) of the Health and Safety Code), which established the goal to reduce the statewide emissions of greenhouse gases to levels by and tasked the State Air Resources Board with developing a comprehensive plan to achieve this goal, and

Section 454.53 of the Public Utilities Code to transition California’s electrical grid to percent eligible renewable energy and zero-carbon resources by December 31, 2045. (

h) California has empowered local governments to reduce hazards and vulnerability to wildfires, including authorizing climate resilience districts to address local climate adaptation priorities and creating model defensible space laws that can be readily applied in local jurisdictions, among other actions. (

i) California also has taken significant steps to reduce the incidence and severity of utility-sparked wildfires. In 2019, the Legislature enacted Chapters and of the Statutes of 2019, which imposed comprehensive safety and accountability requirements on investor-owned utilities to incentivize those utilities to prioritize safety, invest in wildfire mitigation, and improve accountability for their roles in preventing catastrophic wildfires in California. (

j) Among other safety and accountability requirements, the legislation did all of the following:

(1) Created the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety with expertise to review and approve investor-owned utility wildfire mitigation plans and oversee mandated investor-owned utility safety requirements.

(2) Mandated electrical corporations to develop, and submit to the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety for evaluation and approval, wildfire mitigation plans to minimize the risk of their electrical equipment causing wildfires.

(3) Required executive compensation of electrical corporations to be tied to annual safety performance to align leadership incentives toward robust safety outcomes and promote public safety.

(4) Mandated each electrical corporation to have a safety committee on their board of directors with relevant safety experience to strengthen governance and oversight of safety matters within the electrical corporation.

(5) Imposed board-level reporting by electrical corporations to the Public Utilities Commission on safety issues to promote transparency and accountability at the highest levels of management of the electrical corporations.

(6) Implemented an annual safety culture assessment for each electrical corporation, performed initially by the Wildfire Safety Division and currently by the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, to ensure ongoing evaluation and improvement of safety practices and behaviors.

(7) Increased the Public Utilities Commission’s authority to impose penalties on electrical corporations for safety violations.

(8) Established the Wildfire Fund to stabilize electrical corporations, protect customers from wildfire liabilities, and expeditiously compensate fire victims, and incentivized electrical corporations to obtain annual safety certifications in order to fully access the Wildfire Fund. (

k) Despite these efforts and investments, in January 2025, during a period of unprecedented drought and winds up to miles per hour, the Eaton Fire in the communities of Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre, and the Palisades Fire in the Palisades community of the City of Los Angeles, unincorporated area of the County of Los Angeles, and the City of Malibu, erupted into urban conflagrations that took the lives of people and destroyed more than 15,000 structures. (

l) Those January wildfires also created significant uncertainty regarding the adequacy of the Wildfire Fund to protect against electrical corporation bankruptcy risks and undermined confidence in the financial stability of the state’s electrical corporations. The prospect that electrical corporations and their customers could be required to bear, on an ongoing basis, losses of the magnitude of those wildfires is unsustainable. (

m) Any financial instability of the state’s electrical corporations threatens to increase costs to ratepayers, worsening utility bill affordability, delaying timely payment of utility-caused wildfire victims’ claims, and delaying and undermining infrastructure investments necessary to ensure timely customer energization and electric grid decarbonization. (

n) The Wildfire Fund’s durability is being further compromised by hedge funds and other speculators seeking to profit from the fund. (

o) The destabilization of the energy sector caused by these events is part of a much larger financial disruption California is experiencing from climate change. As the impacts of climate change become more devastating and unpredictable, the capacity to insure against them is eroding. Neither ratepayers nor utility shareholders can bear the magnitude of damages California experienced during the January wildfires. Likewise, insurance markets have been destabilized in California, and across the country as a result of the increasing scale and uncertainty of disasters.

Home and auto insurance rates are increasing, and, in some areas, traditional insurance products are now completely unavailable. (

p) To address this emerging climate-fueled economic crisis, California must evaluate new models to equitably socialize risk that balance the state’s goals of providing Californians with safe, affordable, and reliable energy, maintaining progress toward the state’s climate goals, stabilizing the insurance markets to protect both insurance access and affordability, mitigating the incidence of and harm from wildfires and other disasters, and providing swift and fair compensation to those harmed. (

q) The comprehensive assessment set forth in this act should analyze and develop long-term reforms that protect access to insurance, reduce litigation costs, provide fair and expeditious compensation to claimants, support wildfire mitigation, safety, and community resilience, and ensure large electrical corporations are accountable for safety and also have the financial health to attract low-cost capital on behalf of ratepayers. (

r) As longer term solutions are developed, it is necessary to establish an interim framework to provide the Wildfire Fund with access to additional assets, if needed.

SEC.

Section 4216.1 of the Government Code is amended to read: 4216.1. (

a) Every operator of a subsurface installation, except the Department of Transportation, shall become a member of, participate in, and share in the costs of, a regional notification center. Operators of subsurface installations who are members of, participate in, and share in, the costs of a regional notification center, including, but not limited to, the Underground Service Alert—Northern California or the Underground Service Alert—Southern California are in compliance with this

section and

Section 4216.9. A regional notification center shall not charge a fee to a person for notifying the regional notification center to obtain a ticket or to renew a ticket. (b)

(1) A regional notification center shall facilitate the exchange of planning and design information for infrastructure projects, including, but not limited to, electrical infrastructure undergrounding projects, and every operator, except the Department of Transportation, shall participate in this information exchange. The board shall determine through regulation the appropriate timelines and standard processes associated with this information exchange, the information required to be shared, and the format in which it shall be shared, and any requirements that excavators and operators are required to fulfill to accomplish this information exchange.

(2) To facilitate the expedient and efficient implementation of electrical infrastructure undergrounding projects, the board shall determine through regulation whether and under what circumstances an excavator is required to notify the regional notification center more than two working days before the legal excavation start date and time, if the excavator is submitting a volume of concurrent notifications in excess of the capacity of the operators in the area to complete their responsibilities under paragraph (1) of subdivision (

a) of

Section 4216.3 within the minimum legal excavation start date and time. The board shall not implement regulations that would do either of the following: (

A) Restrict the ability of the excavator to submit a notification pursuant to subdivision (

b) of

Section 4216.2. (

B) Restrict the ability of the excavator to submit notifications for emergency excavations.

(3) On or before July 1, 2027, the board shall adopt regulations implementing paragraphs (1) and (2).

(4) Before implementing procedures to implement this subdivision, a regional notification center shall submit its proposed procedures to the board for review and approval, including before implementing any substantive changes to these procedures. The board shall engage with affected stakeholder groups and allow for public comment before approving the procedures.

(5) For purposes of this subdivision, “electrical infrastructure undergrounding project” includes, but is not limited to, undergrounding projects in an electrical corporation’s or local publicly owned electric utility’s distribution undergrounding and wildfire mitigation plans submitted pursuant to Sections 8386, 8387, and 8388.5 of the Public Utilities Code. (

c) Upon request by a federally recognized or nonfederally recognized California Native American tribe, a regional notification center shall notify the tribe of proposed excavations pursuant to subdivision (

b) of this

section and pursuant to subdivision (

b) of

Section 4216.2 within the geographic area with which the tribe is traditionally and culturally affiliated. (

d) The board shall report to the Legislature, as part of the report filed pursuant to

Section 4216.23, on the advantages, barriers, and funding options for the development of an internet web-based planning and design platform for accomplishing the communication processes identified in subdivision (

b) and for allowing tribes to view plans for projects and to communicate with plan submitters.

SEC. 3.

Section of the Government Code is amended to read: 8557. (a) “State agency” means any department, division, independent establishment, or agency of the executive branch of the state government. (b) “Political subdivision” includes any city, city and county, county, district, or other local governmental agency or public agency authorized by law. (c) “Governing body” means the legislative body, trustees, or directors of a political subdivision. (d) “Chief executive” means that individual authorized by law to act for the governing body of a political subdivision. (e) “Disaster council” and “disaster service worker” have the meaning prescribed in

Chapter 1 (commencing with

Section 3200) of Part of Division of the Labor Code. (f) “Public facility” means any facility of the state or a political subdivision, which facility is owned, operated, or maintained, or any combination thereof, through moneys derived by taxation or assessment. (g) “Sudden and severe energy shortage” means a rapid, unforeseen shortage of energy, resulting from, but not limited to, events such as an embargo, sabotage, or natural disasters, and that has a statewide, regional, or local impact. (

h) For purposes of this chapter, a “deenergization event” means a planned power outage, undertaken by an electrical corporation, as defined in

Section of the Public Utilities Code, to reduce the risk of wildfires caused by utility equipment, pursuant to Public Utilities Commission Resolution ESRB-8 and any decisions issued by the commission, the former Wildfire Safety Division, as set forth in former

Section of the Public Utilities Code, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, or any other agency with authority over electrical corporations.

A deenergization event begins when an electrical corporation provides notice to any state agency or political subdivision of the potential need to initiate a planned deenergization of the electrical grid, and ends when the electrical corporation restores electrical services to all deenergized customers, or when the electrical corporation cancels the deenergization event for some or all of its affected customers, and rescinds the notice of the potential need to initiate the deenergization event. A deenergization event does not include any planned outages in connection with regular utility work.

SEC.

Section 12100.110 of the Government Code is amended to read: 12100.110. (

a) The Energy Unit is hereby created within the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. (

b) The Governor shall appoint a deputy director who shall have direct authority over the Energy Unit and serve at the pleasure of the Governor. (

c) The purpose of the Energy Unit is to accelerate the planning, financing, and execution of critical energy infrastructure projects that are necessary for the state to reach its climate, energy, and sustainability policy goals. (

d) The Energy Unit shall work with energy project developers and load-serving entities, as defined in

Section of the Public Utilities Code, to identify barriers to construction and development of critical energy infrastructure projects and to make recommendations to relevant state agencies and local governments on how to overcome those barriers. (

e) The Energy Unit shall create a working group that includes local and federal partners to address land use issues related to critical energy infrastructure projects. (

f) In organizing and managing the Energy Unit, the deputy director shall establish and implement a process to coordinate between the state’s climate and energy agencies in order to identify the critical energy infrastructure projects that will form the operational mandate of the Energy Unit. (

g) In operating the Energy Unit, the deputy director shall cooperate with local, regional, federal, and California public and private businesses and investors to eliminate barriers to the completion of critical energy infrastructure projects. (

h) The Energy Unit, in coordination with the Public Utilities Commission, the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, the Independent System Operator, the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, and other agencies and external parties as appropriate and necessary, shall establish a Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator to develop a financing and development strategy for eligible transmission projects to receive California Transmission Accelerator financing under

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) of

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7. The accelerator shall take the necessary steps within its purview to accelerate the development and deployment of those projects to maximize ratepayer savings. (

i) The Energy Unit’s work shall complement, not conflict with, efforts by the state’s climate and energy agencies. (

j) This section, and the Energy Unit’s implementation of this section, does not change the regulatory authority of the state’s climate and energy agencies. (k)

(1) On or before February of each year, the Energy Unit shall annually submit a report to the relevant policy and fiscal committees of the Legislature that includes all of the following information: (

A) The infrastructure priorities identified for purposes of the prior calendar year. (

B) The constituencies coordinated with in order to advance those infrastructure priorities in the prior calendar year. (

C) The strategies implemented and steps taken to address barriers to and advance critical energy infrastructure projects in the prior calendar year. (

D) Any recommendations to the Legislature that would accelerate the Energy Unit’s progress.

(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to this subdivision shall be submitted in compliance with

Section 9795.

SEC.

Section 12100.111 is added to the Government Code , to read: 12100.111. (

a) The Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator established pursuant to

Section 12100.110 shall coordinate, as soon as practicable after the effective date of this

section but no later than December 31, 2026, the state’s ongoing activities related to transmission planning and development, in order to minimize duplicative efforts and efficiently achieve the objectives of this

section and

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) of

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7. The accelerator shall sequence its activities in identifying and developing eligible transmission projects in a manner consistent with the Independent System Operator’s procedures and requirements and shall provide maximum transparency. Core objectives of the accelerator shall be to drive efficiencies in state transmission development efforts, coordinate existing workstreams to maximize effectiveness, and minimize duplicative activity across all relevant venues. (

b) The accelerator shall ensure that the accelerator projects meet the following criteria:

(1) Have at least one interconnection point within the Independent System Operator balancing authority area.

(2) The applicant or its affiliates have previously completed a transmission project in the state.

(3) Support new high voltage transmission facilities that are subject to the competitive solicitation process administered by the Independent System Operator that are consistent with the state’s reliability and greenhouse gas policy objectives.

(4) Reduce its cost recovery requests by the amount of savings achieved through tax credits received under Sections and of the Revenue and Taxation Code.

(5) Commit to requesting a revenue requirement at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that reflects only its actual capital structure and the actual cost of capital to minimize the costs collected through the transmission access charge.

(6) Financial considerations, as determined by the accelerator.

(7) Consistency with state policy as determined by the state agencies coordinating with the accelerator. (

c) The accelerator shall evaluate the results of the Independent System Operator’s transmission planning process and shall select which accelerator projects have the opportunity to receive public financing using the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund established under

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) of

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7. The selection of accelerator projects under this

section shall happen within days of the release of the Independent System Operator’s Transmission Planning Process document that identifies competitive transmission projects. (

d) The accelerator shall maintain a list of qualified public entities interested in participating in eligible transmission projects. (

e) The accelerator shall continuously monitor project development performance and engage to support effective implementation using all appropriate powers and authorities available to the accelerator and coordinating agencies. These actions may include, but are not limited to, all of the following:

(1) Engaging local public and private actors relevant to project development success.

(2) Supporting efforts of the project applicant to secure necessary permits and other relevant authorities.

(3) Leveraging state incentives and supply chain facilitation services to ensure timely and cost-effective acquisition of physical components of the project. (

f) For purposes of this section, the

definitions in

Section 63049.71 shall apply.

SEC.

Section 12100.112 is added to the Government Code , to read: 12100.112. (

a) The accelerator shall develop a public-private partnership plan to develop financing options that maximize debt financing to reduce overall capital costs and facilitate public-private partnership development of eligible transmission projects to achieve ratepayer savings. (

b) The plan shall do both of the following:

(1) Evaluate the role of the accelerator to identify and develop public-private partnerships and matching participating parties with public sponsors, including, but not limited to, the accelerator designating a public entity to support the implementation of eligible transmission projects under

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) of

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7 before the Independent System Operator receives bids and determines the outcome of the competitive bidding process.

(2) Effectuate eligible transmission project development that is consistent with the Independent System Operator’s procedures and requirements. (

c) The accelerator shall submit its public private partnership plan to the Legislature on or before July 1, 2027. (

d) For purposes of this section, the

definitions in

Section 63049.71 shall apply.

SEC. 7.

Section of the Government Code is amended to read: 15472. For purposes of this part, all of the following

definitions apply: (a) “Commission” means the Public Utilities Commission. (b) “Director” means the Director of the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. (c) “Electrical corporation” has the same meaning as set forth in

Section of the Public Utilities Code. (d) “Office” means Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety.

SEC. 8.

Section of the Government Code is amended to read: 15473. (

a) There is in state government, within the Natural Resources Agency, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. The office shall be under the supervision of the Director of the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, who shall have all rights and powers of a head of an office as provided by this code. (

b) The director shall be appointed by, and hold office at the pleasure of, the Governor. The appointment of the director is subject to confirmation by the Senate.

(1) The director shall receive an annual salary as set forth in

Section 11552.

(2) The Governor may appoint a deputy director of the office. The deputy director shall hold office at the pleasure of the Governor. (

c) In carrying out the provisions of this part, the director may:

(1) Cooperate and contract with public and private agencies for the performance of acts, the rendition of services, and the affording of facilities as may be necessary and proper.

(2) Do other acts and things as may be necessary and incidental to the exercise of powers and the discharge of duties conferred or imposed by the provisions of this part, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (

A) Employ and prescribe duties of staff members as necessary to carry out the duties of the office. (

B) Conduct investigations in any part of the state, compel information, and hold hearings, public meetings, or workshops as necessary to carry out the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the office, consistent with the exercise of its authority pursuant to this part and

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 8385) of Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, or other statutes pertaining to the office. (

C) Adopt, amend, and repeal regulations as necessary to carry out the powers, duties, and responsibilities of the office, consistent with

Section 15475. The adoption, amendment, or repeal of regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare. (

D) Require a regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction to file an incident report with the office concerning any matter regulated by the office concerning a regulated entity’s infrastructure. (

d) The director and deputy director may administer oaths, certify to all official acts, serve warrants, and issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers, including computer modeling, programs, maps, geographic information systems data, and other digital records, waybills, books, accounts, documents, and testimony in any inquiry, investigation, or hearing in any part of the state. (

e) The director has the power of a head of a department pursuant to

Article 2 (commencing with

Section 11180) of

Chapter of

Part 1.

SEC. 9.

Section of the Government Code is amended to read: 15475. (

a) The office may compel information and conduct investigations. In carrying out its duties, powers, and responsibilities pursuant to this part and

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 8385) of Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, or other statutes pertaining to the office, the following powers, duties, and responsibilities vested in the office are acknowledged and confirmed:

(1) The office shall adopt, amend, or repeal emergency regulations to implement this

part in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (Chapter 3.5 (commencing with

Section 11340) of

Part 1). The adoption, amendment, or repeal of these regulations shall be deemed to be an emergency for the purpose of

Section 11342.545 and shall be considered by the Office of Administrative Law as necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare.

(2) The office may require information and data, including monitoring, verification of every regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction and any business that is a subsidiary or affiliate of a regulated entity with respect to or that may influence any matter concerning wildfire safety, or that is necessary or useful for the office to perform and exercise its duties, powers, and responsibilities.

(3) The office shall provide for the confidentiality of records, the protection of proprietary information, and the protection of the reasonable expectation of customers of public utilities in the privacy of customer-specific records maintained by the regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction.

As the successor entity to the former Wildfire Safety Division, the office shall continue to have access to and transfer any confidential information received by the former Wildfire Safety Division under the authority of the Public Utilities Commission to the office consistent with appropriate protections to maintain the confidentiality of that information. The office and the Public Utilities Commission shall agree upon provisions for the transfer of that information.

(4) The office may require the production, within this state, at a time and place as it designates, of any books, accounts, papers, records, including computer modeling, programs, and other digital records, kept by a regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction in any office or place within this state, or, at its option, verified copies in lieu thereof, so that an examination thereof may be made by the office or under its direction to the extent the production of the records relates to an investigation that falls within the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the office.

(5) The office and persons employed by the office, may, at any time, inspect the accounts, books, papers, and documents, including any digital information, of any regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction. The office and any of its designees or employees authorized to administer oaths may examine under oath any officer, agent, or employee of a regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction in relation to its business and affairs concerning matters within the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the office.

This subdivision also applies to inspections of the accounts, books, papers, and documents of any business that is a subsidiary or affiliate, or a corporation that holds a controlling interest in a regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction.

(6) Each regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction shall cooperate fully with the office in any investigation conducted consistent with this section, regardless of pending litigation or other investigations, including, but not limited to, those that may be related to investigations conducted by the Public Utilities Commission, or the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The office and the Public Utilities Commission will cooperate and coordinate consistent with the memorandum of understanding required by

Section 15476.

(7) Every regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction shall furnish to the office, in the form and detail as the office prescribes, all tabulations, computations, and other information required for the office to perform its duties, powers, and responsibilities, and shall make specific answers to all questions submitted by the office. Every regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction receiving from the office any blanks with directions to fill them shall answer fully and correctly each question propounded to it, and if it is unable to answer any question, it shall give a good and sufficient reason for that failure.

(8) Every regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction shall furnish those reports to the office at the time and in the form as the office may require in which the regulated entity shall specifically answer all questions propounded by the office. The office may require any entity under the office’s jurisdiction to file reports or periodic special reports, or both, concerning any matter about which the office is authorized by any law to inquire or to keep itself informed, or that it is required to enforce. All reports shall be under oath when required by the office.

(9) The office and persons employed by or acting on behalf of the office may enter and inspect the property, records, and equipment of any regulated entity under the office’s jurisdiction at any time and anywhere within the state. Any member of the inspection party may use whatever measurement and evaluation devices, including, but not limited to, photographic equipment and temperature measurement devices, that are determined to be necessary. Documentation of the inspection shall be the property of the office. This paragraph is not a limitation upon the authority of any agency to inspect pursuant to any other law.

(10) The office and persons employed by or acting on behalf of the office may inspect at any time and anywhere within the state, all regulated entities’ properties and equipment for purposes of carrying out the duties, powers, and responsibilities of the former Wildfire Safety Division as set forth in this part or

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 8385) of Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code, which are vested in the office as the division’s successor, or other statute pertaining to the office. (

b) The office shall do all of the following:

(1) Oversee electrical corporations’ performance with wildfire safety pursuant to

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 8385) of Division 4.1 of the Public Utilities Code.

(2) Develop performance metrics to achieve maximum feasible risk reduction to be used to develop the wildfire mitigation plan and evaluate an electrical corporation’s performance relative to the implementation of that plan. For this purpose, “maximum feasible” means capable of being accomplished in a successful manner within a reasonable period of time, taking into account economic, environmental, legal, social, and technological factors.

(3) Develop a field audit and performance oversight program to assess wildfire mitigation plan implementation by each electrical corporation.

(4) Support efforts to assess and analyze fire weather data and other atmospheric conditions that could lead to catastrophic wildfires and to reduce the likelihood and severity of wildfire incidents that could endanger the safety of persons, properties, and the environment within the state.

(5) Retain appropriate staff that includes experts in wildfire, weather, climate change, emergency response, and other relevant subject matters.

(6) Review, as necessary, in coordination with the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board and necessary commission staff, safety requirements for electrical transmission and distribution infrastructure and infrastructure and equipment attached to that electrical infrastructure, and provide recommendations to the commission to address the dynamic risk of climate change and to mitigate wildfire risk.

SEC.

Section 15475.1 of the Government Code is amended to read: 15475.1. (

a) The office’s primary objective is to ensure that regulated entities under the office’s jurisdiction are reducing wildfire risk and adhering to their approved wildfire mitigation plans. (

b) The office shall assess and evaluate electrical corporations’ performance of the mitigation activities and strategies outlined in the wildfire mitigation plans. The office shall assess whether electrical corporations deviate from their plans and evaluate the strength and quality of their performance relative to the plan.

SEC.

Section 15475.2 of the Government Code is amended to read: 15475.2. (a)

(1) The office may issue a notice of nonperformance to direct an electrical corporation to correct any nonperformance with the approved wildfire mitigation plan.

(2) The notice of nonperformance shall identify deficiencies and may prescribe corrective actions and timelines.

(3) The notice of nonperformance shall be posted on the office’s internet website and shall be served electronically on the electrical corporation. (

b) The office shall adopt guidelines pursuant to

Section 15475.6 setting forth the policies and procedures for administering the duties of this section.

SEC.

Section 15475.4 of the Government Code is repealed.

SEC.

Section 15475.5 of the Government Code is repealed.

SEC.

Section 15475.6 of the Government Code is amended to read: 15475.6. (a)

(1) The office shall adopt guidelines setting forth the requirements, format, timing, and any other matters required to exercise its powers, perform its duties, and meet its responsibilities described in this part and Sections 326.1 and 326.2 of, and

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 8385) of Division 4.1 of, the Public Utilities Code.

(2) Before adopting guidelines, the office shall hold at least one public meeting or workshop and allow all interested stakeholders and members of the public an opportunity to comment. Not less than days’ public notice shall be given of any meetings or workshops required by this section. (

b) Substantive changes to the guidelines shall not be adopted without at least days’ written notice to the public and opportunity to comment. This notice period may run concurrently with the meeting notice requirements in subdivision (a). If a substantive change is made after the 30-day public comment period and before the adoption of the guidelines, the full text of the resulting guidelines, with the change clearly indicated, shall be made available to the public for comments for at least days before the office adopts the guidelines. (

c) The Any guidelines adopted pursuant to this

section are exempt from the requirements of

Chapter 3.5 (commencing with

Section 11340) of Part of Division of Title 2. Any duly adopted rules or guidelines in effect and used by the former Wildfire Safety Division as of July 1, 2021, shall remain valid and in effect as to the office pending the adoption of new or amended guidelines by the office pursuant to this section.

SEC.

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) is added to

Chapter of Division of Title 6.7 of the Government Code , to read: 10.5. California Transmission Accelerator Financing 63049.71. The following

definitions contained in this

section are in addition to the

definitions contained in

Section and together with the

definitions contained in that

section shall govern the construction of this article, unless the context requires otherwise: (a) “Accelerator financing plan” means a report by the bank for accelerator projects identified in subdivision (

e) of

Section 63049.73.

The accelerator financing plan shall be based on the bank’s direct consultation with the accelerator. (b) “California Transmission Accelerator project” or “accelerator project” means any building, structure, equipment, infrastructure, or other improvement within this state, or financing the general needs, including working capital, of any participating party for operations or activities within this state that are consistent with, and intended to, develop transmission projects for the public benefit to further California’s clean energy goals and to reduce or offset ratepayer costs. (c) “California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund” or “Accelerator Revolving Fund” means any revolving fund by that name created under, and administered pursuant to, this

article to provide financial assistance for eligible transmission projects. (d) “California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund Program” or “Accelerator Revolving Fund Program” means the program authorized by this

article to administer the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund and to provide financial assistance for eligible transmission projects, to be administered by the bank pursuant to this

article and any guidelines adopted by the accelerator. (e) “Eligible transmission project” means a project as described in subdivision (

f) of

Section 63049.73, selected by the accelerator, and approved by the bank for financial assistance pursuant to subdivision (

i) of

Section 63049.73. (f) “Funded without return on equity,” as that term is used in

Section of the Public Resources Code, means, solely for the portion of a project funded by the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund provided by this article, that no return on equity shall be generated and distributed to shareholders. (g) (1) “Participating party” has the same meaning as defined in

Section and includes an eligible applicant, as that term is used in

Chapter 1 (commencing with

Section 90000) of Division of the Public Resources Code.

(2) For purposes of providing financial assistance to projects related to

Chapter 9 (commencing with

Section 94500) of Division of the Public Resources Code, the participating party shall be limited to eligible applicants as defined in

Chapter of Division of the Public Resources Code. (h) “Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator” or “accelerator” means the Transmission Infrastructure Accelerator established pursuant to

Section 12100.110 of the Government Code. 63049.72. (

a) The financing of projects related to

Chapter 9 (commencing with

Section 94500) of Division of the Public Resources Code shall be deemed to be in the public interest and eligible for financing by the bank or by a special purpose trust established pursuant to this division. That financing shall be treated as financing of an economic development facility for purposes of this division, except that

Article 3 (commencing with

Section 63040) and

Article 5 (commencing with

Section 63043) shall not apply to any financing under this article. The bank shall consider an eligible transmission project for financing upon filing of an application by an appropriate participating party following the selection of the project by the accelerator. The review may be concurrent with the Public Utilities Commission’s processing of an application for the pertinent financing. Nothing in this division grants the bank authority over matters that are within the jurisdiction of the Public Utilities Commission. (

b) The bank may provide any form of financial assistance, including issuing bonds pursuant to

Chapter 5 (commencing with

Section 63070), and may loan the proceeds of those bonds, deposit the proceeds into a separate account in the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund, or use the proceeds to refund bonds previously issued under this article. Bond proceeds may also be used to fund necessary reserves, capitalized interest, credit enhancement costs, or costs of issuance. (

c) Bonds issued under this

article shall not be deemed to constitute a debt or liability of the state or of any political subdivision thereof or a pledge of the faith and credit of the state or of any political subdivision, other than the bank, but shall be payable solely from either or both the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund or other revenues and assets securing the bonds. All bonds issued under this

article shall contain on the face of the bonds a statement to that effect. 63049.73. (

a) The bank is hereby authorized and empowered to provide financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program to any eligible participating party, either directly or to a lending or financial institution, in connection with the financing or refinancing of an accelerator project, in accordance with an agreement or agreements between the bank and the participating party, either as a sole lender or in participation or syndication with other lenders. (

b) Chapter 3.5 (commencing with

Section 11340) of Part of Division of Title shall not apply to any accelerator financing plan or any guidelines adopted by the bank pursuant to subdivision (

i) in connection with the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program. (c)

(1) Repayments of financing made under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program shall be deposited into the appropriate account created within the Accelerator Revolving Fund.

(2) The bank may establish separate accounts for accelerator projects within the Accelerator Revolving Fund. (d) (1) (

A) The bank shall meet and confer with the accelerator for accelerator projects. (B) (

i) The bank shall respond to requests from the accelerator and collaborating agencies to evaluate and consult on the credit and financial aspects of eligible accelerator projects. (ii) Final authority to provide financial support to an accelerator project shall reside with the accelerator, and the accelerator shall direct the bank, at its discretion, to effectuate approved financing in the form and at the terms the accelerator deems optimal, consistent with the objectives and requirements contained in

Section 12100.111.

(2) Consultation on a potential transmission project shall not constitute approval of that project by the Public Utilities Commission or the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission under their decisionmaking authority, to the extent that authority exists under other law.

(3) Consultation on, or evaluation of, a transmission project by the bank shall not indicate the bank’s approval. (

e) The accelerator financing shall set forth conditions, including, but not limited to, the following:

(1) Priority shall be given to transmission projects with public sponsors partnering with private entities.

(2) Actions to maximum savings to ratepayers, as determined by the accelerator and its coordinating entities, by minimizing equity in the capital structure, minimizing return on equity, and reducing tax obligations through the use of public ownership structures, to the fullest extent possible, consistent with project risk and viability.

(3) Actions to collaborate with prospective participating parties to inform bid proposals for the Independent System Operator competitive solicitation process. (

f) All financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program approved by the bank board shall be consistent with the applicable accelerator financing plan then in effect, and may include the necessary technical cost elements of transmission infrastructure, including, but not limited to, environmental planning, permitting, and preconstruction costs for a project. (

g) The bank shall inform the Franchise Tax Board of any accelerator projects that are approved by bank for financial assistance pursuant to subdivision (

h) and shall provide any other information the Franchise Tax Board requires for administration of the tax credits under Sections 17053.40 and of the Revenue and Taxation Code. (h)

(1) The bank shall prepare, and the bank board shall approve, guidelines for the provision of financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program for eligible transmission projects selected by the accelerator. The bank board’s approval of any financial assistance for an accelerator project shall take into consideration those guidelines, together with the applicable accelerator financing plan currently in effect.

The guidelines shall include, as factors for determining whether to approve the provision of financial assistance, the ability of the participating party potentially receiving financial assistance to satisfy any obligation incurred and the return of capital to the Accelerator Revolving Fund.

(2) The bank board may consider additional factors when determining whether to approve financial assistance for an accelerator project, taking into consideration the relevant accelerator financing plan.

(3) The bank shall consider applications for financial assistance by eligible transmission projects selected by the accelerator as they are received, on an ongoing basis, if there are available moneys remaining within the Accelerator Revolving Fund to provide that financial assistance. The bank board’s determination of whether to approve applications for financial assistance shall be based on the accelerator financing plan and the guidelines in effect at the time the bank received the application.

(4) A participating party shall comply with the terms and conditions that control the use of the funds provided, if any. (

i) The bank shall provide financial assistance only for an accelerator project that both the accelerator selected and the bank board has approved. (

j) The bank is hereby authorized to enter into an agreement with the accelerator to operate a program to provide financial assistance to any eligible participating party, either directly or to a lending or financial institution, in connection with the financing or refinancing of an eligible project, in accordance with the agreement or agreements. Information shared among consulting agencies and the bank, or between any consulting agency and the bank, shall not constitute the waiver of any exemption under the California Public Records Act (Division 10 (commencing with

Section 7920.000) of Title 1) applicable to each entity. (k)

(1) This

section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2031, and as of that date is repealed.

(2) Any project approved for financing by the Bank pursuant to this

section before January 1, 2031, shall have its financing terms remain in force for the duration of the contract. 63049.74. (

a) There is hereby created the California Transmission Accelerator Revolving Fund in the State Treasury for the purpose of providing financial assistance under the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program in accordance with this article. (

b) The Accelerator Revolving Fund shall be eligible to receive funding from other sources determined by the Legislature. (

c) Revenues of, and all other income collected by, participating entities to support the Accelerator Revolving Fund Program shall be deposited into the Accelerator Revolving Fund. (

d) Proceeds of revenue bonds issued pursuant to this division

article shall be deposited into the Accelerator Revolving Fund. (e)

(1) Eligible entities may pledge any or all of the moneys in the Accelerator Revolving Fund as security for payment of the principal of, and interest on, any particular issuance of bonds issued for the purposes of this article.

(2) The bank may use any or all of the moneys in the Accelerator Revolving Fund to retain or purchase for retention or sale, subordinated bonds issued by the bank, by a special purpose trust, or by a sponsor, all in connection with the purposes of this article. (f)

(1) Notwithstanding

Section 13340, moneys, except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), in the Accelerator Revolving Fund are continuously appropriated, without regard to fiscal year, for the support of eligible entities and shall be available for expenditure for the purposes as stated in this article.

(2) Moneys in the Accelerator Revolving Fund received pursuant to a federal appropriation are available for expenditure only upon appropriation by the Legislature.

(3) Moneys in the Accelerator Revolving Fund shall be available for expenditure to support administrative costs only upon appropriation by the Legislature.

SEC. 16.

Section of the Government Code is amended to read: 63050. (

a) There is hereby created in the State Treasury the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank Fund for the purpose of implementing the objectives and provisions of this division. Within the fund there shall also be established a Sponsor Revenue Bond Account, a Participating Party Revenue Bond Account, a State Infrastructure Revolving Account, and additional accounts and subaccounts that the bank may establish from time to time. (

b) Notwithstanding

Section and except as provided in subdivisions (

c) and (d), all moneys in the infrastructure bank fund are continuously appropriated without regard to fiscal years for the support of the bank and shall be available for expenditure for the purposes stated in this division. (

c) Moneys in the infrastructure bank fund shall be available for expenditure for general administration only upon appropriation by the Legislature. This subdivision shall not limit the authority of the bank to expend funds directly related to the servicing of approved debt. Moneys in the fund shall be available for the purpose of general administration of the authority only upon appropriation by the Legislature, but not more than percent of any bond proceeds administered by the authority may be expended to cover the costs of issuance, as that terminology is defined under

Section 147 (

G) of the Internal Revenue Code. (

d) Moneys in the infrastructure bank fund shall be available for expenditure for California Transmission Accelerator financing under

Article 10.5 (commencing with

Section 63049.71) of

Chapter only upon appropriation by the Legislature. (

e) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, not more than percent of the financing annually approved by the executive director that utilizes state funds from the infrastructure bank fund may be expended upon educational facilities, environmental mitigation measures, and parks and recreational facilities. (

f) The executive director may transfer funds between the infrastructure bank fund and the guarantee trust fund when appropriate to accomplish the financing objectives of this division.

SEC.

Article 7 (commencing with

Section 21159.30) is added to

Chapter 4.5 of Division of the Public Resources Code , to read: 7. Program Environmental Impact Report for Clean Infrastructure Projects 21159.30. The Legislature finds and declares that it is in the interest of the state to ensure that California’s environmental review processes are streamlined and optimized to ensure the most efficient process to approve clean infrastructure projects in a manner that does not weaken environmental protections or public participation. 21159.31. For purposes of this article, the following

definitions apply: (a) “Energy Commission” means the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission. (b) “Facility” has the same meaning as set forth in subdivision (

b) of

Section 25545, except for paragraph (4). 21159.32. (

a) The Energy Commission shall prepare a program environmental impact report to analyze the development of a class or classes of facility for which the Energy Commission has received an application under the certification program established by

Chapter 6.2 (commencing with

Section 25545) of Division 15. (

b) The program environmental impact report shall comply with all requirements of this division, and shall contain all of the following:

(1) A description of the class or classes of facility being analyzed.

(2) A description of potential project locations.

(3) An analysis, to the extent feasible, of the potential environmental impacts of developing the class or classes of facility identified in paragraph (1).

(4) A description of potentially feasible mitigation measures to avoid or minimize the impacts identified in paragraph (3).

(5) An identification of trustee and potential responsible agencies with regulatory authority over the class or classes of facility identified in paragraph (1).

(6) An analysis of cumulative impacts and project alternatives. (

c) The Energy Commission shall consult with the public agencies identified in paragraph (5) of subdivision (

b) in conducting the analysis of environmental impacts and identification of potentially feasible mitigation measures and alternatives. (

d) The development of a class or classes of facility constitutes a program for the purposes of

Section 21094. 21159.33. A public agency considering approval of a specific facility that is within the class or classes of facility described in the program environmental impact report prepared pursuant to

Section 21159.32 may tier from that program environmental impact report pursuant to

Section only if the project meets the requirements of Sections 25545.3.3 and 25545.3.5.

SEC.

Section 25545.1 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.1. (

a) A person proposing an eligible facility may file an application no later than June 30, 2030, for certification with the commission to certify a site and related facility in accordance with this chapter, including a person who has an application for certification or small powerplant exemption filed with the commission pursuant to

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 25500) pending as of June 30, 2022. Upon receipt of the application, the commission shall have the exclusive power to certify the site and related facility, whether the application proposes a new site and related facility or a change or addition to an existing facility. This

section does not modify the Public Utilities Commission’s jurisdiction, including the issuance of a certificate of public convenience and necessity under

Chapter 5 (commencing with

Section 1001) of Part of Division of the Public Utilities Code for a facility that is proposed by a utility regulated by the Public Utilities Commission. (b)

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the issuance of a certificate by the commission for a site and related facility pursuant to this

chapter shall be in lieu of any permit, certificate, or similar document required by any state, local, or regional agency, or federal agency to the extent permitted by federal law, for the use of the site and related facilities, and shall supersede any applicable statute, ordinance, or regulation of any state, local, or regional agency, or federal agency to the extent permitted by federal law. (2) Paragraph (1) does not supersede the authority of the State Lands Commission to require leases and receive lease revenues, if applicable, or the authority of the California Coastal Commission, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the State Water Resources Control Board, or the applicable regional water quality control boards.

(3) For facilities described in paragraph (4) of subdivision (

b) of

Section 25545, this subdivision does not supersede the authority of local air quality management districts or the Department of Toxic Substances Control. (

c) The Legislature finds and declares that this

section addresses a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair as that term is used in

Section of

Article XI of the California Constitution. Therefore, this

section applies to all cities, including charter cities.

SEC.

Section 25545.2 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.2. An application for a site and related facility submitted pursuant to this

chapter shall be in a form prescribed by the commission and shall contain all of the information required by

Section and be further supported by other information as the commission may require, including, but not limited to, the informational requirements in

Section of Title of the California Code of Regulations, to support the preparation of an environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration and issuance of a certification. The application shall include evidence that the applicant has sufficient real property rights to the proposed location to currently access, build, and operate the proposed facility.

SEC.

Section 25545.4 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.4. (

a) Within days of the submission of the application, the commission shall review the application and make a determination of completeness. (b)

(1) The executive director may require the applicant to submit missing information in the application before an application can be deemed complete. The executive director shall transmit the request for additional information within days of the submission of the application. Any further requests by the executive director for missing information in response to additional information provided by the applicant shall be made within days, or as soon as practicable thereafter, of receipt of that information.

(2) The commission shall establish clear project developer permit application requirements. (

c) An application is deemed completed as follows:

(1) Thirty days after the submission of the application, if the executive director does not require the submission of missing information pursuant to subdivision (b).

(2) Immediately upon a written statement from the executive director accepting all missing information requested pursuant to subdivision (b), if the executive director requires the submission of missing information pursuant to subdivision (b). (

d) After the application is deemed complete, the executive director may request additional information from the applicant as follows:

(1) To address comments by public agencies on the scope and content of the information that is required to be included in an environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration for certification. The applicant shall provide to the commission the requested information within days of receiving the request.

(2) If, at any time during the review of an application, the executive director determines that additional information is reasonably necessary to complete the staff assessment.

(3) The applicant shall provide to the commission the information requested pursuant to this subdivision within days of receiving the request. Receipt of requested information by the commission beyond the 30-day due date may extend the 270-day period in paragraph (1) of subdivision (

e) by a period equivalent to the delay. (e)

(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), no later than days after the application is deemed complete, or as soon as practicable thereafter, the commission shall determine whether to certify the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration and to issue a certificate for the site and related facilities pursuant to this chapter.

(2) Notwithstanding paragraph (1), the time to certify the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration or issue a certificate for the site and related facilities pursuant to this

chapter may be extended if one or more of the following occurs: (

A) The commission is required to recirculate the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration pursuant to

Section 15088.5 of Title of the California Code of Regulations. (

B) Substantial changes are proposed in the project that may involve new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects. (

C) Substantial changes occur with respect to the circumstances under which the project is undertaken that may involve new significant environmental effects or a substantial increase in the severity of previously identified significant effects. (

D) New information of substantial importance, which was not known and could not have been known with the exercise of reasonable diligence before the commission publishes the notice of availability pursuant to

Section 25545.7.6, is submitted that may require additional analysis and consideration. (

E) The commission, in consultation with the Department of Fish and Wildlife or the State Water Resources Control Board, if applicable, determines that additional time is necessary to obtain information and conduct surveys, including due to seasonal constraints. (

F) The applicant files into the docket a written request that demonstrates a reasonable need for extending the time to certify the environmental impact report or issue a certificate for the site and related facilities pursuant to this chapter.

(3) Following the occurrence of any circumstance described in paragraph (2), the executive director may establish a new

schedule for staff to complete its review of the application that extends the 270-day period in paragraph (1) by a period attributable to the employment of paragraph (2).

SEC.

Section 25545.5 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.5. (

a) On or before September 28, 2022, the commission shall, in coordination with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, develop a plan that ensures timely and effective consultation between the commission and the Department of Fish and Wildlife with respect to any proposed commission findings and actions to authorize the taking of endangered, threatened, and candidate species pursuant to the California Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with

Section 2050) of Division of the Fish and Game Code) or impacts to fish and wildlife resources pursuant to

Section of the Fish and Game Code. The commission shall also consult with the Department of Fish and Wildlife with respect to any proposed commission findings and actions regarding potential impacts to fish, wildlife, and plant resources and the habitats upon which they depend. The plan shall include a process to ensure that all such taking and impacts are consistent with

Chapter 6 (commencing with

Section 1600) of Division of, and

Chapter 1.5 (commencing with

Section 2050) of Division of, the Fish and Game Code. (

b) On or before September 28, 2022, the commission shall, in coordination with the State Water Resources Control Board, develop a plan that ensures timely and effective consultation between the commission and the State Water Resources Control Board and the applicable regional water quality control board with respect to any proposed commission findings and actions related to discharges of waste that could affect the quality of waters of the state. The plan shall include provisions to ensure that all discharges are consistent with all applicable provisions of Division 7 (commencing with

Section 13000) of the Water Code. (

c) The commission shall, in coordination with the Department of Toxic Substances Control, develop a plan on or before September 28, 2022, that ensures timely and effective consultation between the commission and the Department of Toxic Substances Control with respect to any proposed commission findings and actions related to hazardous waste control laws. (d)

(1) For sites and related facilities located in the geographic jurisdiction of the California Coastal Commission or the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the commission shall consult with the applicable agency to coordinate processing and sequencing of the applications to expedite the permitting process of those agencies. In areas of the coastal zone covered by a certified local coastal program, the California Coastal Commission shall assume coastal development review authority, using the certified local coastal program as guidance.

In the Suisun Marsh Secondary Management Area and the portions of the Primary Management Area with a local protection program, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission shall assume permitting authority for processing and issuing marsh development permits using the local protection programs as guidance.

(2) The California Coastal Commission, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the State Water Resources Control Board, the applicable regional water quality control boards, the applicable local air quality management districts, or the Department of Toxic Substances Control, as applicable, shall take final action on the eligible facility within days after the certification by the commission of the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration for the site and related facilities, if the applicant has filed a complete, final application for a permit or waste discharge requirement, as applicable, with those agencies before the certification of the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration.

SEC.

Section 25545.6 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.6. Notwithstanding any other law, an application submitted pursuant to this

chapter shall be reviewed by commission staff. The executive director shall prepare a recommendation for the commission’s consideration at a publicly noticed meeting on whether to certify an environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration and issue a certificate for the site and related facilities pursuant to this chapter.

SEC.

Section 25545.7 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.7. (

a) The commission is the lead agency for purposes of the California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with

Section 21000)) and, except as provided in this chapter, shall prepare an environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration pursuant to Division 13 (commencing with

Section 21000). (

b) The regulatory program that implements this

chapter is not a certified regulatory program under

Section 21080.5. (

c) The commission may prepare an initial study pursuant to

Section of Title of the California Code of Regulations to help identify the significant effects of an action taken pursuant to this chapter.

SEC.

Section 25545.7.2 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.7.2. The commission shall conduct public outreach to solicit input on an application to identify the range of actions, alternatives, mitigation measures, and significant effects to be analyzed in depth in the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration as follows: (

a) Within three days after the application is deemed complete pursuant to

Section 25545.4, the commission shall issue a notice of preparation, if applicable, pursuant to

Section of Title of the California Code of Regulations. (b)

(1) No sooner than days and no later than days after the application is deemed complete pursuant to

Section 25545.4, the commission shall conduct a public informational meeting as close as practicable to the proposed site. The commission shall provide notice of the informational meeting at least days before the meeting. The notice shall be sent electronically to all persons who have requested to receive a notice from the commission on action related to certification pursuant to this

chapter and to all persons who the commission’s executive director, in consultation with the public advisor of the commission, determines to be concerned with the application. The informational meeting shall provide all of the following: (

A) Information on the proposed site and related facility from the applicant and from commission staff. (

B) Information on how to participate in the commission’s review of the application. (

C) A reasonable opportunity for the public to comment on the application.

(2) No sooner than days after the application is deemed complete pursuant to

Section 25545.4 and, if applicable, no later than days after the issuance of the notice of availability pursuant to

section 25545.7.6, the commission shall conduct a public workshop in the community nearest to the proposed site. The commission shall provide the notice in the same manner as required for the notice of the informational meeting pursuant to paragraph (1).

(3) Not later than days after the issuance of the notice of preparation, the commission shall conduct a public scoping meeting pursuant to subdivision (

c) of

Section of Title of the California Code of Regulations as close as practicable to the proposed site. (

c) The commission may conduct the informational meeting at the same time as the scoping meeting.

SEC.

Section 25545.7.6 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.7.6. (

a) No sooner than days and no later than days after the issuance of the notice of availability of the draft environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration, the commission shall hold at least one public meeting on the draft environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration as close as practicable to the proposed site. (

b) Notwithstanding subdivision (

a) of

Section 21091, the public review and comment period for the draft environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration for an application shall be at least days. (

c) No sooner than days after the completion of the final environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration, the commission shall consider the certification of the environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration, or negative declaration of the application at a public meeting. (

d) This

chapter does not limit the commission from holding additional public meetings.

SEC.

Section 25545.8 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.8. (

a) For the consideration of an application and the issuance of a certification under this chapter, the commission shall comply with the requirements of subdivisions (a), (e), (g), and (h), inclusive, of

Section 25523. (

b) Subdivisions (f), (g), (j), and (

k) of

Section and Sections and apply to an application submitted pursuant to this chapter.

SEC.

Section 25545.9 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.9. (

a) The commission shall not certify a site and related facility under this

chapter unless the commission finds that the construction or operation of the facility will have an overall net positive economic benefit to the local government that would have had permitting authority over the site and related facility. For purposes of this section, economic benefits may include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

(1) Employment growth.

(2) Housing development.

(3) Infrastructure and environmental improvements.

(4) Assistance to public schools and education.

(5) Assistance to public safety agencies and departments.

(6) Property taxes and sales and use tax revenues. (

b) There shall be a rebuttable presumption that the construction or operation of the facility will have an overall net positive economic benefit to the local government that would have had permitting authority over the site and related facility.

SEC.

Section 25545.10 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.10. (

a) The commission shall not certify a site and related facility under this

chapter unless the commission finds that the applicant has entered into one or more legally binding and enforceable agreements with, or that benefit, a coalition of one or more community-based organizations, such as workforce development and training organizations, labor unions, social justice advocates, community foundations, local governmental entities, California Native American tribes, or other organizations that represent community interests, where there is mutual benefit to the parties to the agreement.

The topics and specific terms in the community benefits agreements may vary and may include workforce development, job quality, and job access provisions that include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

(1) Terms of employment, such as wages and benefits, employment status, workplace health and safety, scheduling, and career advancement opportunities.

(2) Worker recruitment, screening, and hiring strategies and practices, targeted hiring planning and execution, investment in workforce training and education, and worker voice and representation in decisionmaking affecting employment and training.

(3) Establishing a high road training partnership, as defined in

Section of the Unemployment Insurance Code. (

b) The topics and specific terms in the community benefits agreement may also include, but not be limited to, funding for or providing specific community improvements or amenities such as park and playground equipment, urban greening, enhanced safety crossings, paving roads and bike paths, and annual contributions to a nonprofit or community-based organization or a community foundation that awards grants to organizations delivering community-based services and amenities. (

c) The topics and specific terms in agreements with California Native American tribes may include, but not be limited to, cultural preservation and revitalization programs, joint management and stewardship agreements, open-space preservation agreements, repatriation and reparations agreements, and other compensatory mitigation programs.

SEC.

Section 25545.12 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read: 25545.12. (

a) Regulations adopted to implement this chapter, or any amendment to those regulations, shall be adopted by the commission in accordance with

Chapter 3.5 (commencing with

Section 11340) of Part of Division of Title of the Government Code. The adoption of these regulations shall be considered by the Office of Administrative Law as an emergency, and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare. Notwithstanding any other of law, the emergency regulations adopted to implement this

chapter shall remain in effect until amended by the commission. (b)

(1) Notwithstanding any other law, until July 1, 2027, an agreement entered into for purposes of this

chapter shall not require competitive bidding, or the review, consent, or approval of the Department of General Services or any other state department or agency and is not required to comply with the requirements of the State Contracting Manual, the Public Contract Code, or the personal services contracting requirements of

Article 4 (commencing with

Section 19130) of

Chapter of Part of Division of Title of the Government Code.

(2) If the commission enters into an agreement with a local government pursuant to this subdivision, the commission may advance funds to the local government for purposes of the agreement.

SEC.

Section 326.1 of the Public Utilities Code is amended to read: 326.1. (

a) There is hereby established the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board. The board shall advise the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety established pursuant to

Section of the Government Code. (

b) The board shall consist of seven members. Five members shall be appointed by the Governor, one member shall be appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, and one member shall be appointed by the Senate Committee on Rules. The members of the board shall serve four-year staggered terms. The initial members of the board shall be appointed by January 1, 2020. The Governor shall designate three of the initial members who shall serve two-year terms.

Members of the board shall be selected from industry experts, academics, and persons with labor and workforce safety experience or other relevant qualifications and shall represent a cross-section of relevant expertise including, at all times, at least three members experienced in the safe operation, design, and engineering of electrical infrastructure. (

c) The board shall meet at least quarterly and alternate meeting locations between northern, central, and southern California, when feasible. (

d) Members of the board who are not salaried state service employees shall be eligible for reasonable compensation, not to exceed a per diem of four hundred dollars ($400), for attendance at board meetings. (

e) All reasonable costs incurred by the board, including staffing, travel at state travel reimbursement rates, and administrative costs, shall be reimbursed through the Public Utilities Commission Utilities Reimbursement Account provided for in

Section and shall be part of the budget of the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety. The office shall consult with the board in the preparation of this portion of the office’s proposed annual budget. (

f) Communications by the board, its staff, and individual members of the board are not subject to the commission’s ex parte rules set forth in

Article 1 (commencing with

Section 1701) of

Chapter 9. SE