(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) “Agency” or “office” means the Office of Emergency Services.
(2) “Previous fiscal year” means the fiscal year immediately prior to the current fiscal year.
(3) “Utility” means an “electrical corporation” as defined in Section 218 of the Public Utilities Code, and “utilities” means more than one electrical corporation.
(b) (1) State and local costs to carry out activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code that are not reimbursed by federal funds shall be borne by utilities operating nuclear powerplants with a generating capacity of 50 megawatts or more.
(2) The Public Utilities Commission shall develop and transmit to the office an equitable method of assessing the utilities operating the powerplants for their reasonable pro rata share of state agency costs specified in paragraph (1).
(3) Each local government involved shall submit a statement of its costs specified in paragraph (1), as required, to the office.
(4) Upon each utility’s notification by the office, from time to time, of the amount of its share of the actual or anticipated state and local agency costs, the utility shall pay this amount to the Controller for deposit in the Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account, which is continued in existence, for allocation by the Controller, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to carry out activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code. The Controller shall pay from this account the state and local costs relative to carrying out this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, upon certification thereof by the office.
(5) Upon appropriation by the Legislature, the Controller may disburse up to 80 percent of a fiscal year allocation from the Nuclear Planning Assessment Special Account, in advance, for anticipated local expenses, as certified by the agency pursuant to paragraph (4). The office shall review program expenditures related to the balance of funds in the account and the Controller shall pay the portion, or the entire balance, of the account, based upon those approved expenditures.
(c) (1) The total annual disbursement of state costs from the utilities operating the nuclear powerplants within the state for activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum funding levels established in this section, subject to subdivisions (e) and (f), to be shared equally among the utilities.
(2) Of the annual amount of two million forty-seven thousand dollars ($2,047,000) for the 2009–10 fiscal year, the sum of one million ninety-four thousand dollars ($1,094,000) shall be for support of the office for activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code, and the sum of nine hundred fifty-three thousand dollars ($953,000) shall be for support of the State Department of Public Health for activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code.
(d) (1) The total annual disbursement for each fiscal year, commencing July 1, 2009, of local costs from the utilities shall not exceed the lesser of the actual costs or the maximum funding levels established in this section, in support of activities pursuant to this section and Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 114650) of Part 9 of Division 104 of the Health and Safety Code. The maximum annual amount available for disbursement for local costs, subject to subdivisions (e) and (f), shall, for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009, be one million seven hundred thirty-two thousand dollars ($1,732,000) for the Diablo Canyon site and one million six hundred thousand dollars ($1,600,000) for the San Onofre site.
(2) The amounts paid by the utilities under this section shall be allowed for ratemaking purposes by the Public Utilities Commission.
(e) (1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the amounts available for disbursement for state and local costs as specified in this section shall be adjusted and compounded each fiscal year by the percentage increase in the California Consumer Price Index of the previous fiscal year.
(2) For the Diablo Canyon site, the amounts available for disbursement for state and local costs as specified in this section shall be adjusted and compounded each fiscal year by the larger of the percentage change in the prevailing wage for San Luis Obispo County employees, not to exceed 5 percent, or the percentage increase in the California Consumer Price Index from the previous fiscal year.
(f) Through the inoperative date specified in subdivision (g), the amounts available for disbursement for state and local costs as specified in this section shall be cumulative biennially. Any unexpended funds from a year shall be carried over for one year. The funds carried over from the previous year may be expended when the current year’s funding cap is exceeded.
(g) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2019, and, as of January 1, 2020, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute, which becomes effective on or before July 1, 2019, deletes or extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.
(h) Upon inoperation of this section, any amounts remaining in the special account shall be refunded pro rata to the utilities contributing thereto, to be credited to the utility’s ratepayers.
(Amended by Stats. 2013, Ch. 352, Sec. 172. (AB 1317) Effective September 26, 2013. Operative July 1, 2013, by Sec. 543 of Ch. 352. Inoperative July 1, 2019. Repealed as of January 1, 2020, by its own provisions in subd. (g). See same-numbered (and related) section added by Stats. 2015, Ch. 399.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018