Lawmaker Seeks To Dissolve California Utilities Regulator
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California lawmaker said Wednesday that he will seek to bypass Gov. Jerry Brown and ask voters to break apart California's utilities regulator following allegations of wrongdoing.
Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, said the California Public Utilities Commission as it is currently known would cease to exist in 2018 if voters approve his plan. The PUC has been a profound disappointment to residents and lawmakers in recent years, Gatto said.
"In recent history the PUC has been riddled with questions about the commission's ability to regulate with the people's best interest in mind," Assemblyman Marc Levine, a San Rafael Democrat and joint author of the measure, said at the conference. "The public sentiment is that the PUC works for big-money interests."
The proposal is the latest response to allegations that the commission is too cozy with the companies it regulates. It has been accused of being too slow to act on a massive gas leak at Porter Ranch in Southern California.
Gov. Jerry Brown last year vetoed six separate bills that sought reforms to the agency. Gatto's proposal would require approval from two-thirds of lawmakers, but not Brown's signature, to appear on the 2016 ballot.
The measure, which Gatto said he would formally introduce when he secures Senate support, would strip the commission of its constitutional protections and reallocate certain regulatory duties to other agencies such as the Department of Transportation or California Highway Patrol.
One agency would continue to oversee electricity and gas but with new transparency requirements.
"We would not stop regulating any different utilities but it would be spread out and probably renamed and reconstituted," Gatto said.
The PUC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.
Gatto did not release details or the text of his proposal Wednesday. He said the measure would leave the question of how exactly to dissolve the PUC to the 2017-2018 California Legislature.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.