(a) The state has long recognized the critical nature of its energy and communication infrastructure, in its importance in driving the engine of the state’s prosperity, in the hardships placed on the state’s residents in the absence of the services the infrastructure provides, and in the devastation that can occur when the operators of the infrastructure lose operational control of the infrastructure. To ensure that the operations of energy and communication infrastructure within the state will be managed adequately, the Legislature finds and declares all of the following are necessary:

(1) To provide for a state office to be known and referred to as the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, within the Natural Resources Agency, and to prescribe the powers and duties of the director of that office.

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(2) To provide for the coordination of functions among state entities with jurisdiction over other functions of the state’s energy and communication service providers.

(3) To authorize the establishment of organizations and the taking of actions necessary and proper to carry out the provisions of this part.

(b) It is further declared to be the purpose of this part and the policy of this state that all environmental, health, and safety functions of this state shall be coordinated as far as possible with the comparable functions of its political subdivisions, of the federal government, including its various departments and agencies, of other states, and of private agencies of every type, to the end that the most effective use may be made of all manpower, resources, and facilities in managing the environmental, health, and safety of energy and communication infrastructure in the state.

(Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 396, Sec. 3. (AB 1513) Effective January 1, 2020.)