Bill Text: CA AB1331 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: California Alternate Rates for Energy program: income verification.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Failed) 2016-02-01 - From committee: Filed with the Chief Clerk pursuant to Joint Rule 56. [AB1331 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB1331-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 1331 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Obernolte
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to amend Section 739.1 of the Public Utilities Code,
relating to energy.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1331, as introduced, Obernolte. California Alternate Rates for
Energy program: income verification.
Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory
authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations
and gas corporations, as defined. Existing law authorizes the
commission to fix the rates and charges for every public utility, and
requires that those rates and charges be just and reasonable.
Existing law requires the commission to establish a program of
assistance to low-income electric and gas customers with annual
household incomes that are no greater than 200% of the federal
poverty guidelines, referred to as the California Alternate Rates for
Energy or CARE program.
This bill would provide that CARE program participants who fail to
respond to an income verification request shall be permanently
barred from self-certified reenrollment in the CARE program.
Under existing law, a violation of the Public Utilities Act or any
order, decision, rule, direction, demand, or requirement of the
commission is a crime.
Because the provisions of this bill would be a part of the act and
because a violation of an order or decision of the commission
implementing its requirements would be a crime, the bill would impose
a state-mandated local program by creating a new crime.
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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 739.1 of the Public Utilities Code is amended
to read:
739.1. (a) The commission shall continue a program of assistance
to low-income electric and gas customers with annual household
incomes that are no greater than 200 percent of the federal poverty
guideline levels, the cost of which shall not be borne solely by any
single class of customer. For one-person households, program
eligibility shall be based on two-person household guideline levels.
The program shall be referred to as the California Alternate Rates
for Energy or CARE program. The commission shall ensure that the
level of discount for low-income electric and gas customers correctly
reflects the level of need.
(b) The commission shall establish rates for CARE program
participants, subject to both of the following:
(1) That the commission ensure that low-income ratepayers are not
jeopardized or overburdened by monthly energy expenditures, pursuant
to subdivision (b) of Section 382.
(2) That the level of the discount for low-income electricity and
gas ratepayers correctly reflects the level of need as determined by
the needs assessment conducted pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section
382.
(c) In establishing CARE discounts for an electrical corporation
with 100,000 or more customer accounts in California, the commission
shall ensure all of the following:
(1) The average effective CARE discount shall not be less than 30
percent or more than 35 percent of the revenues that would have been
produced for the same billed usage by non-CARE customers. The average
effective discount determined by the commission shall reflect any
charges not paid by CARE customers, including payments for the
California Solar Initiative, payments for the self-generation
incentive program made pursuant to Section 379.6, payment of the
separate rate component to fund the CARE program made pursuant to
subdivision (a) of Section 381, payments made to the Department of
Water Resources pursuant to Division 27 (commencing with Section
80000) of the Water Code, and any discount in a fixed charge. The
average effective CARE discount shall be calculated as a weighted
average of the CARE discounts provided to individual customers.
(2) If an electrical corporation provides an average effective
CARE discount in excess of the maximum percentage specified in
paragraph (1), the electrical corporation shall not reduce, on an
annual basis, the average effective CARE discount by more than a
reasonable percentage decrease below the discount in effect on
January 1, 2013, or that the electrical corporation had been
authorized to place in effect by that date.
(3) The entire discount shall be provided in the form of a
reduction in the overall bill for the eligible CARE customer.
(d) The commission shall work with electrical and gas corporations
to establish penetration goals. The commission shall authorize
recovery of all administrative costs associated with the
implementation of the CARE program that the commission determines to
be reasonable, through a balancing account mechanism. Administrative
costs shall include, but are not limited to, outreach, marketing,
regulatory compliance, certification and verification, billing,
measurement and evaluation, and capital improvements and upgrades to
communications and processing equipment.
(e) The commission shall examine methods to improve CARE
enrollment and participation. This examination shall include, but
need not be limited to, comparing information from CARE and the
Universal Lifeline Telephone Service (ULTS) to determine the most
effective means of utilizing that information to increase CARE
enrollment, automatic enrollment of ULTS customers who are eligible
for the CARE program, customer privacy issues, and alternative
mechanisms for outreach to potential enrollees. The commission shall
ensure that a customer consents prior to
before enrollment. The commission shall consult with interested
parties, including ULTS providers, to develop the best methods of
informing ULTS customers about other available low-income programs,
as well as the best mechanism for telephone providers to recover
reasonable costs incurred pursuant to this section.
(f) (1) The commission shall improve the CARE application process
by cooperating with other entities and representatives of California
government, including the California Health and Human Services Agency
and the Secretary of California Health and Human Services, to ensure
that all gas and electric customers eligible for public assistance
programs in California that reside within the service territory of an
electrical corporation or gas corporation, are enrolled in the CARE
program. The commission may determine that gas and electric customers
are categorically eligible for CARE assistance if they are enrolled
in other public assistance programs with substantially the same
income eligibility requirements as the CARE program. To the extent
practicable, the commission shall develop a CARE application process
using the existing ULTS application process as a model. The
commission shall work with electrical and gas corporations and the
Low-Income Oversight Board established in Section 382.1 to meet the
low-income objectives in this section. CARE program
participants who fail to respond to an income verification request
shall be permanently barred from self-certified re
enrollment in the CARE program.
(2) The commission shall ensure that an electrical corporation or
gas corporation with a commission-approved program to provide
discounts based upon economic need in addition to the CARE program,
including a Family Electric Rate Assistance program, utilize a single
application form, to enable an applicant to alternatively apply for
any assistance program for which the applicant may be eligible. It is
the intent of the Legislature to allow applicants under one program,
that may not be eligible under that program, but that may be
eligible under an alternative assistance program based upon economic
need, to complete a single application for any commission-approved
assistance program offered by the public utility.
(g) It is the intent of the Legislature that the commission ensure
CARE program participants receive affordable electric and gas
service that does not impose an unfair economic burden on those
participants.
(h) The commission's program of assistance to low-income electric
and gas customers shall, as soon as practicable, include nonprofit
group living facilities specified by the commission, if the
commission finds that the residents in these facilities substantially
meet the commission's low-income eligibility requirements and there
is a feasible process for certifying that the assistance shall be
used for the direct benefit, such as improved quality of care or
improved food service, of the low-income residents in the facilities.
The commission shall authorize utilities to offer discounts to
eligible facilities licensed or permitted by appropriate state or
local agencies, and to facilities, including women's shelters,
hospices, and homeless shelters, that may not have a license or
permit but provide other proof satisfactory to the utility that they
are eligible to participate in the program.
(i) (1) In addition to existing assessments of eligibility, an
electrical corporation may require proof of income eligibility for
those CARE program participants whose electricity usage, in any
monthly or other billing period, exceeds 400 percent of baseline
usage. The authority of an electrical corporation to require proof of
income eligibility is not limited by the means by which the CARE
program participant enrolled in the program, including if the
participant was automatically enrolled in the CARE program because of
participation in a governmental assistance program. If a CARE
program participant's electricity usage exceeds 400 percent of
baseline usage, the electrical corporation may require the CARE
program participant to participate in the Energy Savings Assistance
Program (ESAP), which includes a residential energy assessment, in
order to provide the CARE program participant with information and
assistance in reducing his or her energy usage. Continued
participation in the CARE program may be conditioned upon the CARE
program participant agreeing to participate in ESAP within 45 days of
notice being given by the electrical corporation pursuant to this
paragraph. The electrical corporation may require the CARE program
participant to notify the utility of whether the residence is rented,
and if so, a means by which to contact the landlord, and the
electrical corporation may share any evaluation and recommendation
relative to the residential structure that is made as part of an
energy assessment, with the landlord of the CARE program participant.
Requirements imposed pursuant to this paragraph shall be consistent
with procedures adopted by the commission.
(2) If a CARE program participant's electricity usage exceeds 600
percent of baseline usage, the electrical corporation shall require
the CARE program participant to participate in ESAP, which includes a
residential energy assessment, in order to provide the CARE program
participant with information and assistance in reducing his or her
energy usage. Continued participation in the CARE program shall be
conditioned upon the CARE program participant agreeing to participate
in ESAP within 45 days of a notice made by the electrical
corporation pursuant to this paragraph. The electrical corporation
may require the CARE program participant to notify the utility of
whether the residence is rented, and if so, a means by which to
contact the landlord, and the electrical corporation may share any
evaluation and recommendation relative to the residential structure
that is made as part of an energy assessment, with the landlord of
the CARE program participant. Following the completion of the energy
assessment, if the CARE program participant's electricity usage
continues to exceed 600 percent of baseline usage, the electrical
corporation may remove the CARE program participant from the program
if the removal is consistent with procedures adopted by the
commission. Nothing in this paragraph shall prevent a CARE program
participant with electricity usage exceeding 600 percent of baseline
usage from participating in an appeals process with the electrical
corporation to determine whether the participant's usage levels are
legitimate.
(3) A CARE program participant in a rental residence shall not be
removed from the program in situations where the landlord is
nonresponsive when contacted by the electrical corporation or does
not provide for ESAP participation.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
