SB 797: Electric utility distribution and transmission system facilities: undergrounding and insulation.
The bill aims to improve the safety and reliability of the state's electric grid by requiring the Public Utilities Commission to form a working group to study the cost of undergrounding and insulating overhead electric utility distribution system facilities. The group's report is due by July 1, 2027, and will outline a plan for investing in undergrounding and insulating facilities or alternative measures to support electrical corporations. The goal is to reduce the risk of wildfires and ensure the efficient and cost-effective operation of the electric grid.
| Feb. 02, 2026 | Returned to Secretary of Senate pursuant to Joint Rule 56. |
| May. 23, 2025 | May 23 hearing: Held in committee and under submission. |
| May. 20, 2025 | Set for hearing May 23. |
| May. 19, 2025 | May 19 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file. |
| May. 09, 2025 | Set for hearing May 19. |
| Amended IN Senate May 06, 2025 |
| Amended IN Senate April 09, 2025 |
| Amended IN Senate March 26, 2025 |
| Introduced by Senator Choi |
February 21, 2025 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.
CEQA requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to prepare and develop, and for the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt, proposed guidelines for the implementation of CEQA by public agencies that are required to include a list of classes of projects that have been determined not to have a significant effect on the environment and exempts those classes of projects from CEQA, commonly known as categorical exemptions. Pursuant to its authority, the secretary has adopted a categorical exemption for the replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities where the new structure will be located on the same site as the structure replaced and will have substantially the same purpose and capacity as the structure replaced, including, but not limited to, conversion of overhead electric utility distribution system facilities to underground, as provided.
This bill, until the submission of a prescribed plan on how to most effectively invest in undergrounding and insulating overhead electric utility distribution system facilities or transmission system facilities, but no later than July 1, 2027, would exempt from CEQA a project for the conversion of those facilities to underground and the insulation of those facilities, unless the project is located in an environmentally sensitive area, as defined. Because a lead agency would be required to determine if a project qualifies for this exemption, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
(a)This division does not apply to a project for the conversion of overhead electric utility distribution system facilities or transmission system facilities to underground or the insulation of electric utility distribution system facilities or transmission system facilities, except that this division shall apply to the project if the project is located in an environmentally sensitive area, as defined in Section 30107.5.
(b)This section shall become inoperative upon submission of the plan pursuant to Section 279 of the Public Utilities Code, but no later than July 1, 2027, and as of January 1, 2028, is repealed.
SEC. 2.SECTION 1.
279.
(a) The commission shall form a working group to study the cost of undergrounding and insulating electric utility distribution system facilities or transmission system facilities, compile wildfire mitigation reports of electrical utilities, and provide the Legislature, on or before July 1, 2027, with a plan on how to most effectively invest in undergrounding and insulating those facilities or how to provide support to electrical corporations in order to prevent fires in lands classified as very high fire hazard severity zones, as defined in Section 51177 of the Government Code, in lands designated as Wildland Urban Interface Fire Areas, as described in Section 13108.5.1 of the Health and Safety Code, and in state forests, as defined in Section 4643 of the Public Resources Code.No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a local agency or school district has the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.