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Cal. PUC § 854.5

This is the official text of Cal. PUC § 854.5, part of California’s Public Utilities Code — regulates utilities such as electricity, gas, water, and transportation carriers.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

Official statutory text

(a) For purposes of this section, a “nonstate entity” means a company, corporation, partnership, firm, or other entity or group of entities, whether organized for profit or not for profit.

(b) The commission, by order, decision, motion, settlement, or other action, shall not establish a nonstate entity with any moneys other than those moneys that would otherwise belong to the public utility’s shareholders. A nonstate entity to be created with moneys from a public utility’s shareholders shall be subject to a 30-day review by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee prior to creation. This subdivision does not limit the authority of the commission to form an advisory committee or other body whose budget is subject to oversight by the commission and the Department of Finance.

(c) The commission shall not enter into a contract with a nonstate entity in which a person serves as an owner, director, or officer while serving as a commissioner. Any contract between the commission and a nonstate entity shall be void and cease to exist by operation of law, if a commissioner, who was a commissioner at the time the contract was awarded, entered into, or extended, becomes, on or after January 1, 2014, an owner, director, or officer of the nonstate entity while serving as a commissioner.

(d) Beginning June 1, 2014, a commissioner who acts as an owner, director, or officer of a nonstate entity that was established as a result of an order, decision, motion, settlement, or other action by the commission in which the commissioner participated, neglects his or her duty pursuant to Section 1 of Article XII of the California Constitution, and as a result the commissioner may be removed pursuant to that section by the Legislature, two-thirds of the membership of each house concurring.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.