USA – CALIFORNIA LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Nora Sheriff, Gwenneth O’Hara, Robert Dato, Efrat Cogan, Samir Hafez and Antonio Carrejo, Buchalter
Buchalter 425 Market Street Suite 2900 San Francisco CA 94105 USA
Tel: +1 (415) 227 0900 Fax: +1 (415) 227 0770 Email: mpineda@buchalter.com Web: www.buchalter.com
1. Jurisdiction 1.1 General Rules or Specific Regimes? Since 1911, the California Constitution has given the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC or “The Commission” ) plenary authority over the matters it regulates. The Commission, one of the most powerful agencies in California, regulates more than USD50 billion annually of public utility services in the Energy, Transportation, Telecom - munication and Water industries. Specifically, the CPUC regulates investor-owned electric, natural gas, and water utilities, railroads, rail transit systems, passenger carriers (limou - sines, airport shuttles, charter and scheduled bus operators), transportation network com - panies (Uber and Lyft), autonomous vehicles, and telephone communications and broadband markets. Cities, counties, or other public entities may not regulate matters over which the legis - lature granted regulatory powers to the CPUC. If a charter city regulation and a CPUC order conflict, the latter prevails. California courts have held that the CPUC is “not an ordinary administrative agency, but a consti-
tutional body with broad legislative and judicial powers” . In addition, the CPUC has comprehen - sive regulatory authority under the Public Utilities Code to “do all things … which are necessary and convenient” . The Commission’s jurisdiction and regulatory control over public utilities is lib - erally construed by the courts, and the Commis - sion is given significant deference by the courts where its decisions are relevant to public utility regulation. Judicial review of decisions by the CPUC is limit - ed by California statute. Upon Commission issu - ance of a decision, judicial review of that deci - sion requires that parties seeking to challenge it appear at hearings, and first raise objections to the Commission directly (called “exhaustion of administrative remedies” ). Once administra - tive remedies are exhausted, if the party is still aggrieved, they may challenge the Commis - sion’s decision at the appellate level. While the process can differ depending on rules or stat - utes governing other public agencies and the particular statutory scheme under which they operate, judicial review of CPUC decisions is circumscribed by statute, as detailed more fully in 10. Grounds .
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