Sacramento – Today, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson (D-Sacramento) introduced Assembly Bill 1541. The bill would subject the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to the state’s Public Records Act, make information submitted by utilities to the CPUC available for public review and bring the CPUC into line with the policy and practice of other public agencies in California.
“The CPUC is charged with the critical role of regulating and overseeing safety of the natural gas system as well as protecting Californians from tragedies like San Bruno and Rancho Cordova,” said Assemblymember Dickinson, Chair of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review. “This bill would bring transparency and accountability to the CPUC with the primary goal of protecting public safety and increasing oversight.”
The state's Public Records Act currently allows the CPUC wide latitude to establish a policy for public access to its records. Contrary to the intent of the Public Records Act, the CPUC presumes all documents are confidential unless it expressly acts to share documents with the public.
Following the natural gas explosions in Rancho Cordova and San Bruno, consumer advocacy organizations and the Legislature had to steadily pressure the CPUC to release information pertaining to accident investigations and public safety. Many of these documents subsequently showed a culture of cutting corners at gas utility companies that put the public at risk, and egregious lapses in oversight of utility companies by the CPUC.
“I convened a legislative hearing last year to try to gather information from the CPUC and provide oversight on the gas pipeline explosions. It is unacceptable that the Legislature should have to convene an investigative hearing in order to obtain information and records on the public safety procedures of state agencies; the public should have this information readily available to them,” said Dickinson.
AB 1541 would require the CPUC to comply with the intent of the Public Records Act, so that the public be guaranteed access to government documents, unless the information meets specified criteria, such as endangering the public by its release.
On August 17, 2011, Assemblymember Roger Dickinson convened a hearing of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review to discuss the California Public Utilities Commission’s oversight of California’s natural gas pipelines. The committee explored what the CPUC had done to try to prevent the explosions in Rancho Cordova and San Bruno, how and when the CPUC responded to these disasters, and what changes it has instituted to its oversight practices as a result of these disasters.
On December 24, 2008 a gas pipeline explosion occurred in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova, killing one person and injuring five others. On September 9, 2010 a gas pipeline explosion in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno killed eight people, injured more than 50 people and destroyed 37 homes.
Contact: Taryn Kinney, (916) 319-2009
