republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20092010/ab-698.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Utility property."
description: "Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities and can establish its own procedures, subject to statutory limitations or directions and constitutional requirements of due process. The existing Public Utilities Act prohibits, with certain exemptions, any public utility other than a common carrier by railroad, from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of or encumbering the whole or any part of specified property necessary or useful in the performance of the public utility's duties to the public, without first having either secured an order from the commission authorizing it to do so for qualified transactions valued above $5,000,000, or for qualified transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less, having filed an advice letter and obtained a resolution from the commission authorizing it to do so. Existing law requires the commission to determine the types of transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less that qualify for advice letter handling. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that transactions with monetary values that materially impact a public utility's rate base, or transactions that would trigger the commission's review responsibilities under the California Environmental Quality Act, should not qualify for expedited advice letter review."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010"
identifier: "AB 698"
citation: "California AB 698 (20092010)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Utility property."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Skinner"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2009-02-26"
last_action: "2009-10-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b152d6aa-2ed2-4859-8b13-edd5f7c2e793"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698"
source_hash: "dd1dc5733f40fb410571f8c5ac4953db66c4df0fde35f162426d5f4859288f00"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 698 (20092010) — Utility property.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities and can establish its own procedures, subject to statutory limitations or directions and constitutional requirements of due process. The existing Public Utilities Act prohibits, with certain exemptions, any public utility other than a common carrier by railroad, from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of or encumbering the whole or any part of specified property necessary or useful in the performance of the public utility's duties to the public, without first having either secured an order from the commission authorizing it to do so for qualified transactions valued above $5,000,000, or for qualified transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less, having filed an advice letter and obtained a resolution from the commission authorizing it to do so. Existing law requires the commission to determine the types of transactions valued at $5,000,000 or less that qualify for advice letter handling. Existing law states the intent of the Legislature that transactions with monetary values that materially impact a public utility's rate base, or transactions that would trigger the commission's review responsibilities under the California Environmental Quality Act, should not qualify for expedited advice letter review.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/26/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698&version=20090AB69899INT)
2. **04/02/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698&version=20090AB69898AMD)
3. **04/21/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698&version=20090AB69897AMD)
4. **10/11/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698&version=20090AB69895CHP)
5. **AB698** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698)
6. **08/27/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB698&version=20090AB69896ENR)

## Votes

- Special Consent #15 AB698 Skinner — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB 698 SKINNER Consent Calendar Second Day Regular Session — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be re-referred to the Committee on Natural Resources to Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and re-refer to Committee on Appropriations with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **pass** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Skinner — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2009-02-26** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-03-01** From printer. May be heard in committee March 30.
- **2009-03-23** Referred to Coms. on U. & C. and NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-02** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on U. & C. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-04-13** Re-referred to Com. on U. & C. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-14** From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. Re-referred. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (April 13). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-04-21** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-04-22** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-28** From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. Re-referred. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (April 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-05-07** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (May 6). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-05-11** Read second time. To Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-05-14** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 73. Noes 0. Page 1469.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-05-14** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-05-21** Referred to Com. on E., U., & C. `referral-committee`
- **2009-06-10** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2009-06-29** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2009-07-01** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2009-07-08** From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. Re-referred. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (July 7). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-07-23** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2009-08-17** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-08-20** Ordered to Special Consent Calendar.
- **2009-08-24** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1925.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-08-25** In Assembly. To enrollment.
- **2009-08-31** Enrolled and to the Governor at 5:15 p.m.
- **2009-10-11** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-10-11** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 370, Statutes of 2009.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b152d6aa-2ed2-4859-8b13-edd5f7c2e793`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).