Operations in an Agency Not Subject to the APA: Public Utilities Commission

Abstract

Through constitution and statute the California Public Utilities Commission enjoys an extraordinary sweep of substantive powers. Regulation may be comprehensive, as in the case of most categories of utility operation where the commission dominates the economic scene through certification for entrance into the field, rate-fixing, rate-enforcing, supervision over financing methods and accounting, supervision over property transfers, and surveillance over service and safety requirements.' Or it may consist of some lesser control, as with permitted carrier operations where entrance into the field is governed largely through ministerial action, ratemaking is confined to the imposition of minimum rates, financing is left to the judgment of others, and service likewise depends to a large extent upon the desires of the operator.2 The range of commission functioning generally encompasses on a local plane what the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Power Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and in a limited way what the Civil Aeronautics Board encompass on the federal. This sweep of powers derives particular strength from the 1911 constitutional amendments3 which have enabled the Com-