Legislative Advocacy
Nossaman's in-house legislative advocates in Sacramento provide services to many of our water industry clients, including legislative advocacy, legislative monitoring utilizing state-of-the-art computer programs, legislative legal research, analysis and drafting, advice regarding campaign contribution programs, attendance at legislative hearings, representation in State Board proceedings, briefings and other public hearings and meetings, public affairs consulting and association management services.
We have successfully sponsored legislation in the fields, among others, of condemnation, "rebuttable presumption" defense, comparable sales and court valuation, rate case processing, service territory protection, reinvestment of gain on sale of assets, acquisition of municipal utilities and full price rate base valuation (rather than depreciated cost).
We have been involved with many bills that have pertained to water law and water utilities issues, including:
- SB 989 (Sher) - Chapter 812, Statutes of 1999; and AB 592 - Chapter 814, Statutes of 1997 - Addresses remedies for water suppliers whose wells have been contaminated by MTBE.
- SB 779 (Calderon) - Chapter 886, Statutes of 1998; and SB 960 - Chapter 856, Statutes of 1996 – Reforms processes and procedures at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
- AB 2815 (Moore) - Chapter 549, Statutes of 1992 - Establishes guidelines for the CPUC for use in its rate cases involving water utilities.
- SB 129 (Kelley) - Chapter 406, Statutes of 1993 - Establishes procedures for the CPUC in its adoption of rates for the sale of recycled water.
- SB 1017 (McCorquodale) - Chapter 609, Statutes of 1994 - Requires the CPUC to allow a water utility to recover in its rates the costs of implementing best water management plans.
- SB 1456 (Rosenthal) - Chapter 1156, Statutes of 1994 - A bill born of the Northridge earthquake, this measure requires the CPUC to establish catastrophic event memorandum accounts for utilities whose plants have been damaged by a catastrophic event, to ensure that the utilities can recover the costs of plant repair.
- AB 2544 (Calderon) - Chapter including the addition 905, Statutes of 2000 – Makes significant changes to the San Gabriel Valley Water Quality Authority Act.
- AB 378 (Calderon) - Chapter 332, Statutes of 2001 – Authorizes a regional board to contract with a water agency to perform investigations of existing or threatened groundwater pollution or nuisance.
- AB 2838 (Canciamilla) – Chapter 1147, Statutes of 2002 – Requires CPUC to complete certain water company rate cases within specified time period; otherwise, requires allowance of interim rates.