republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20112012/sb-879.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Natural gas pipelines: safety."
description: "Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to establish a system of accounts to be kept by public utilities and to prescribe the manner in which accounts are kept, the records and memorandum to be kept, as well as the receipts and expenditures of moneys, and any other forms, records, and memoranda that in the judgment of the commission may be necessary to carry out any of the provisions of the act. The act requires the commission to require a public utility to establish and maintain a reserve account reflecting any positive or negative balance whenever the commission authorizes any change in rates reflecting and passing specific changes in costs through to customers, and requires the commission to take any positive or negative balance remaining into account by appropriate adjustment or other action at the time of any subsequent rate adjustment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20112012"
identifier: "SB 879"
citation: "California SB 879 (20112012)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Natural gas pipelines: safety."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Padilla"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2011-02-18"
last_action: "2011-10-07"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/2facc622-7c8a-429d-a3be-8ef58c6698cb"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879"
source_hash: "7fd98f31c798fee99c2c5940f865abd9e916b7b4d4f8bc5916ec832c9302f030"
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 SB 879 (20112012) — Natural gas pipelines: safety.

Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including gas corporations, as defined. The Public Utilities Act authorizes the commission to establish a system of accounts to be kept by public utilities and to prescribe the manner in which accounts are kept, the records and memorandum to be kept, as well as the receipts and expenditures of moneys, and any other forms, records, and memoranda that in the judgment of the commission may be necessary to carry out any of the provisions of the act. The act requires the commission to require a public utility to establish and maintain a reserve account reflecting any positive or negative balance whenever the commission authorizes any change in rates reflecting and passing specific changes in costs through to customers, and requires the commission to take any positive or negative balance remaining into account by appropriate adjustment or other action at the time of any subsequent rate adjustment.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/18/11 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87999INT)
2. **05/11/11 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87998AMD)
3. **07/12/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87997AMD)
4. **09/01/11 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87996AMD)
5. **10/07/11 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87994CHP)
6. **SB879** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879)
7. **09/12/11 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201120120SB879&version=20110SB87995ENR)

## Votes

- Unfinished Business SB879 Padilla Concurrence — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- 3rd Reading — **38–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, to Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- SB 879 Padilla Senate Third Reading By HILL — **78–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended, and re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **10–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **13–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Padilla — primary (person)
- Hill — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2011-02-18** Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction, reading-1`
- **2011-02-20** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 22.
- **2011-03-10** Referred to Com. on E., U., & C. `referral-committee`
- **2011-03-16** Set for hearing May 3.
- **2011-05-10** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0. Page 858.) (May 3). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-05-11** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-05-13** Set for hearing May 23.
- **2011-05-23** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage`
- **2011-05-24** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-05-31** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 1188.) Ordered to the Assembly. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-06-01** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2011-06-09** Referred to Com. on U. & C. `referral-committee`
- **2011-07-11** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 13. Noes 0.) (July 5). `amendment-passage, committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-07-12** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-2, reading-1, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2011-08-18** From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (August 17). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2011-08-22** Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2011-08-25** From consent calendar.
- **2011-08-25** Ordered to third reading.
- **2011-09-01** Read third time and amended. (Page 2775.) `reading-3, reading-1, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-01** Ordered to third reading.
- **2011-09-07** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 2993.) Ordered to the Senate. `reading-3, reading-1, passage`
- **2011-09-07** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2011-09-08** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 40. Noes 0. Page 2417.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2011-09-14** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3:30 p.m.
- **2011-10-07** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2011-10-07** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 523, Statutes of 2011.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/2facc622-7c8a-429d-a3be-8ef58c6698cb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).