Bill Text: CA AB1403 | 2021-2022 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Emergency services.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Vetoed) 2022-02-03 - Consideration of Governor's veto stricken from file. [AB1403 Detail]

Download: California-2021-AB1403-Amended.html

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Amended  IN  Senate  June 09, 2021

Amended  IN  Assembly  April 08, 2021

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2021–2022 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 1403

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Introduced by Assembly Member Levine

February 19, 2021

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An act to amend Sections 8557 and 8558 of the Government Code, relating to emergency services, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1403, as amended, Levine. Emergency services.

Existing law, the California Emergency Services Act, authorizes the Governor to proclaim a state of emergency, and local officials and local governments to proclaim a local emergency, emergency when specified conditions of disaster or extreme peril to the safety of persons and property exist, and authorizes the Governor or the appropriate local government to exercise certain powers in response to that emergency. Existing law defines the terms term “state of emergency” and “local emergency” to mean a duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by, among other things, fire, storm, or riot.

This bill would additionally include a “deenergization event,” defined as a planned power outage, as specified, within those conditions constituting a state of emergency and a local emergency.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Digest Key

Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

 Section 8557 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 3201) of Part 1 of Division 4 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 which that has statewide, regional, or local impact.

(h) “Deenergization For purposes of this chapter, “deenergization event” means a planned power outage, undertaken by an electrical corporation, as defined in Section 218 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 Wildfire Safety Division, as set forth in Section 326 of the Public Utilities Code, the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, or any other agency with authority over electrical corporations. A deenergization event commences 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 ceases ends when the electrical corporation restores electrical services to all deenergized customers, or at such time as 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. 2.

 Section 8558 of the Government Code is amended to read:

8558.

 Three conditions or degrees of emergency are established by this chapter:

(a) “State of war emergency” means the condition that exists immediately, with or without a proclamation thereof by the Governor, whenever this state or nation is attacked by an enemy of the United States, or upon receipt by the state of a warning from the federal government indicating that such an enemy attack is probable or imminent.

(b) “State of emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the state caused by conditions such as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, cyberterrorism, deenergization event, sudden and severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy or conditions causing a “state of war emergency,” which, that, by reason of their magnitude, are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of any single county, city and county, or city and require the combined forces of a mutual aid region or regions to combat, or or, with respect to regulated energy utilities, a deenergization event or a sudden and severe energy shortage that requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission.

(c) “Local emergency” means the duly proclaimed existence of conditions of disaster or of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property within the territorial limits of a county, city and county, or city, caused by conditions such as air pollution, fire, flood, storm, epidemic, riot, drought, cyberterrorism, deenergization event, sudden and severe energy shortage, plant or animal infestation or disease, the Governor’s warning of an earthquake or volcanic prediction, or an earthquake, or other conditions, other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy, which are or are likely to be beyond the control of the services, personnel, equipment, and facilities of that political subdivision and require the combined forces of other political subdivisions to combat, or or, with respect to regulated energy utilities, a deenergization event or a sudden and severe energy shortage that requires extraordinary measures beyond the authority vested in the California Public Utilities Commission.

SEC. 3.

 This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

In order for state and local officials to address the public safety impacts of a prolonged wildfire season, and to mitigate the devastating effects thereof, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.