republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20192020/sb-550.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public utilities: merger, acquisition, or control of electrical or gas corporations."
description: "(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law prohibits a public utility, other than certain common carriers, from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of, or encumbering its assets that are necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public by any means with any other public utility, unless the public utility has secured an order from the commission to do so for a qualified transaction above $5,000,000 or an approval from the commission through the filing of an advice letter for a qualified transaction at or below $5,000,000."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20192020"
identifier: "SB 550"
citation: "California SB 550 (20192020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Public utilities: merger", "acquisition", "or control of electrical or gas corporations."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Hill"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 32
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2019-02-22"
last_action: "2019-10-02"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/4b3c5828-e040-49d5-b7ab-0d5192a81afd"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550"
source_hash: "67a7f4c6f2344239ae95be4edfd90bddfc15c8df7907220f37294622ab4c455c"
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 550 (20192020) — Public utilities: merger, acquisition, or control of electrical or gas corporations.

(1) Under existing law, the Public Utilities Commission has regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations and gas corporations. Existing law prohibits a public utility, other than certain common carriers, from selling, leasing, assigning, mortgaging, or otherwise disposing of, or encumbering its assets that are necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public by any means with any other public utility, unless the public utility has secured an order from the commission to do so for a qualified transaction above $5,000,000 or an approval from the commission through the filing of an advice letter for a qualified transaction at or below $5,000,000.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/22/19 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55099INT)
2. **04/02/19 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55098AMD)
3. **08/13/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55097AMD)
4. **09/06/19 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55096AMD)
5. **10/02/19 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55094CHP)
6. **SB550** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550)
7. **09/17/19 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB550&version=20190SB55095ENR)

## Votes

- That the Assembly amendments be concurred in — **11–0** (pass) · upper
- Unfinished Business SB550 Hill et al. Concurrence — **39–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **14–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading — **34–3** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **5–0** (pass) · upper
- SB 550 Hill Senate Third Reading By Holden — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **12–1** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **4–1** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

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

## Timeline

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

- **2019-02-22** Introduced. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. `introduction`
- **2019-02-25** From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 27.
- **2019-02-25** Read first time. `reading-1`
- **2019-03-07** Referred to Com. on E., U. & C. `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-02** From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on E., U. & C. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-03** Set for hearing April 24.
- **2019-04-24** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 12. Noes 1. Page 842.) (April 24). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-04-30** Set for hearing May 6.
- **2019-05-06** May 6 hearing: Placed on APPR. suspense file.
- **2019-05-10** Set for hearing May 16.
- **2019-05-16** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 4. Noes 1. Page 1102.) (May 16). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-05-16** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-05-21** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 34. Noes 3. Page 1189.) Ordered to the Assembly. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-05-22** In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. `reading-1`
- **2019-05-30** Referred to Com. on U. & E. `referral-committee`
- **2019-08-12** From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 14. Noes 0.) (July 10). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2019-08-12** (Received at desk July 17 pursuant to JR 61(a)(10)).
- **2019-08-13** Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `reading-1, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-08-21** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (August 21). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2019-08-22** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2019-09-06** Read third time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-06** Ordered to third reading.
- **2019-09-10** Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 3256.) Ordered to the Senate. `passage, reading-3, reading-1`
- **2019-09-10** In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending.
- **2019-09-11** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10(d). `referral-committee`
- **2019-09-11** From committee: Be re-referred to Com. on E., U. & C. pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10(d). (Ayes 5. Noes 0. Page 2822.) Re-referred to Com. on E., U. & C. `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2019-09-11** Set for hearing September 12.
- **2019-09-12** From committee: That the Assembly amendments be concurred in. (Ayes 11. Noes 0. Page 2908.) `committee-passage`
- **2019-09-13** Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 39. Noes 1. Page 2929.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-09-20** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 10 a.m.
- **2019-10-02** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2019-10-02** Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 409, Statutes of 2019.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/4b3c5828-e040-49d5-b7ab-0d5192a81afd`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).