SB 1165 (Wright)

  • SB 1165 – Is a bill that would allow California’s schools to be eligible to participate in the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) Intervenor Compensation Program. Schools may only be reimbursed if they qualify under the specific parameters of the program.
  • The Intervenor program was created so that the CPUC Commissioners would have input on utility issues before them from significantly impacted groups and so that financial status would not determine whether a customer with critical information to the decision-making process be barred from participation.
  • If schools are unable to participate formally due to financial burden, Commissioners will not be fully informed of the fiscal impact to communities and students across the state.
  • We agree with the analysis that participation is costly, time-consuming and expensive.

More Applicants?

  • The discussion about schools rushing in to do this and causing more of a workload issue and financial burden on utilities may be answered by the fact that participating entities cannot be duplicative or they will not be compensated under the rules. Existing statutes sought to avoid redundancy between participating parties.
  • We believe the analysis stated it well that “Eligibility does not Equal Reward.”
  • School boards must vote to allow this participation. One of the most highly scrutinized governing bodies will not vote to devote staff time and resources to a proceeding unless the district has a tangible, significant interest in the proceeding, like jeopardizing their budgets through a change that could impact their solar investments or safeguarding the health and safety of their students.

Why are schools different from other Governmental entities?

  • No ability to raise taxes or fees. Cities and water districts may also municipalize and take over district energy services. Schools are unable to do this – nor can they use school facility bond funds for this purpose – therefore, any dollar they use must come from their general funds which are, at this moment, completely dried up.
  • For the input that would be received that is like no other and the fact that schools cannot use state and local taxpayer dollars for this purpose we believe this change is warranted.

Cost?

  • Last year, according to the CPUC, the cost of the entire program with reimbursement to 24 intervenors was $4.5 million. See list attached.
  • Compare that to the income of the IOU utilities and you will see why we believe that this is a small change that will make an important difference in terms of important information that should be made available to the CPUC.