BILL NUMBER: AB 42INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Blakeslee DECEMBER 1, 2008 An act relating to electricity, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 42, as introduced, Blakeslee. Electricity: Pacific Gas and Electric Company: seismic fault: survey. Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities including electrical corporations, as defined. Existing law requires the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) to conduct various assessments and forecasts on energy industry supply, production, transportation, delivery and distribution, demand, and prices. This bill would require Pacific Gas and Electric Company to utilize the Energy Commission to conduct a three-dimensional imaging survey to map the fault characteristics in the vicinity of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant that could potentially disrupt the reliable operation of the electrical grid and impact customer rates as a result of a seismic event. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) In issuing decision 07-03-044, the Public Utilities Commission authorized an expenditure of sixteen million eight hundred thousand dollars ($16,800,000) of ratepayer funds to explore the feasibility of relicensing the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. (b) The Public Utilities Commission, regarding the expenditure of those funds, said that Pacific Gas and Electric Company should defer, to the extent feasible, its work, its own study, and associated spending, until after the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission (Energy Commission) issues its findings and conclusions, and that Pacific Gas and Electric Company should incorporate the findings and recommendations of the Energy Commission study in its own work. (c) The Energy Commission's recommendations from its study found that Pacific Gas and Electric Company should use three-dimensional geophysical seismic reflection mapping and other advanced techniques to explore fault zones near Diablo Canyon. (d) The July 2007 magnitude 6.8 Japan Sea earthquake located 16 kilometers from Toyota Electric Power Company's Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant shut down the facility at a cost of some hundreds of millions of dollars per month. (e) In November 2008, the United States Geological Survey identified a previously unidentified offshore fault approximately one kilometer west of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant with an estimated ability to generate a magnitude 6.5 earthquake. SEC. 2. (a) Pacific Gas and Electric Company shall utilize the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission to conduct a three-dimensional imaging survey to map the fault characteristics in the vicinity of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant that could potentially disrupt the reliable operation of the electrical grid and impact customer rates as a result of a seismic event. The imaging survey shall be used to identify any facility retrofits necessary to avoid potential adverse impacts of a seismic event on the reliability of the electrical grid. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to enact legislation to appropriate sixteen million eight hundred thousand dollars ($16,800,000) authorized by the Public Utilities Commission for the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant relicensing feasibility study, to pay for the survey. 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 Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order to complete a seismic study relating to Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant as soon as possible in order to protect electricity customers, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.