A bill purporting to give the public more access to gas and electric company safety records in California could do just the opposite, opponents say.
The legislation, proposed by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, would eliminate the ability of utility companies to unilaterally declare documents secret, instead giving authority over decisions to the state Public Utilities Commission. But opponents say it also would create broad categories of information that’s off limits to the public.
The bill is one of two proposals introduced in the Legislature after the San Francisco Chronicle detailed the state law empowering utilities to keep records secret. The second bill, which would have expanded disclosure requirements, passed in the state Senate but did not emerge from an Assembly committee.