25350-25366
PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE
SECTION 25350-25366
25350. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that the petroleum industry is an essential element of the California economy and is therefore of vital importance to the health and welfare of all Californians. (b) The Legislature further finds and declares that a complete and thorough understanding of the operations of the petroleum industry is required by state government at all times to enable it to respond to possible shortages, oversupplies, or other disruptions and to assess whether all consumers, including emergency service agencies, state and local government agencies, and agricultural and business consumers of petroleum products have adequate and economic supplies of fuel. (c) The Legislature further finds and declares that information and data concerning all aspects of the petroleum industry, including, but not limited to, crude oil production, production and supplies of finished branded and unbranded gasoline, supplies of diesel fuel and other distillates, supplies of blendstocks used to make gasoline and other refined products, refining, product output, exports of finished gasoline, diesel fuel, and blendstocks, prices, distribution, demand, and investment choices and decisions are essential for the state to develop and administer energy policies that are in the interest of the state's economy and the public's well-being. 25352. This chapter shall be known and may be cited as the Petroleum Industry Information Reporting Act of 1980. 25354. (a) Each refiner and major marketer shall submit information each month to the commission in such form and extent as the commission prescribes pursuant to this section. The information shall be submitted within 30 days after the end of each monthly reporting period and shall include the following: (1) Refiners shall report, for each of their refineries, feedstock inputs, origin of petroleum receipts, imports of finished petroleum products and blendstocks, by type, including the source of those imports, exports of finished petroleum products and blendstocks, by type, including the destination of those exports, refinery outputs, refinery stocks, and finished product supply and distribution, including all gasoline sold unbranded by the refiner, blender, or importer. (2) Major marketers shall report on petroleum product receipts and the sources of these receipts, inventories of finished petroleum products and blendstocks, by type, distributions through branded and unbranded distribution networks, and exports of finished petroleum products and blendstocks, by type, from the state. (b) Each major oil producer, refiner, marketer, oil transporter, and oil storer shall annually submit information to the commission in such form and extent as the commission prescribes pursuant to this section. The information shall be submitted within 30 days after the end of each reporting period, and shall include the following: (1) Major oil transporters shall report on petroleum by reporting the capacities of each major transportation system, the amount transported by each system, and inventories thereof. The commission may prescribe rules and regulations that exclude pipeline and transportation modes operated entirely on property owned by major oil transporters from the reporting requirements of this section if the data or information is not needed to fulfill the purposes of this chapter. The provision of the information shall not be construed to increase or decrease any authority the Public Utilities Commission may otherwise have. (2) Major oil storers shall report on storage capacity, inventories, receipts and distributions, and methods of transportation of receipts and distributions. (3) Major oil producers shall, with respect to thermally enhanced oil recovery operations, report annually by designated oil field, the monthly use, as fuel, of crude oil and natural gas. (4) Refiners shall report on facility capacity, and utilization and method of transportation of refinery receipts and distributions. (5) Major oil marketers shall report on facility capacity and methods of transportation of receipts and distributions. (c) Each person required to report pursuant to subdivision (a) shall submit a projection each month of the information to be submitted pursuant to subdivision (a) for the quarter following the month in which the information is submitted to the commission. (d) In addition to the data required under subdivision (a), each integrated oil refiner (produces, refines, transports, and markets in interstate commerce) who supplies more than 500 branded retail outlets in California shall submit to the commission an annual industry forecast for Petroleum Administration for Defense, District V (covering Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, and Hawaii). The forecast shall include the information to be submitted under subdivision (a), and shall be submitted by March 15 of each year. The commission may require California-specific forecasts. However, those forecasts shall be required only if the commission finds them necessary to carry out its responsibilities. (e) The commission may by order or regulation modify the reporting period as to any individual item of information setting forth in the order or regulation its reason for so doing. (f) The commission may request additional information as necessary to perform its responsibilities under this chapter. (g) Any person required to submit information or data under this chapter, in lieu thereof, may submit a report made to any other governmental agency, if: (1) The alternate report or reports contain all of the information or data required by specific request under this chapter. (2) The person clearly identifies the specific request to which the alternate report is responsive. (h) Each refiner shall submit to the commission, within 30 days after the end of each monthly reporting period, all of the following information in such form and extent as the commission prescribes: (1) Monthly California weighted average prices and sales volumes of finished leaded regular, unleaded regular, and premium motor gasoline sold through company-operated retail outlets, to other end-users, and to wholesale customers. (2) Monthly California weighted average prices and sales volumes for residential sales, commercial and institutional sales, industrial sales, sales through company-operated retail outlets, sales to other end-users, and wholesale sales of No. 2 diesel fuel and No. 2 fuel oil. (3) Monthly California weighted average prices and sales volumes for retail sales and wholesale sales of No. 1 distillate, kerosene, finished aviation gasoline, kerosene-type jet fuel, No. 4 fuel oil, residual fuel oil with 1 percent or less sulfur, residual fuel oil with greater than 1 percent sulfur and consumer grade propane. (i) (1) Beginning the first week after the effective date of the act that added this subdivision, and each week thereafter, an oil refiner, oil producer, petroleum product transporter, petroleum product marketer, petroleum product pipeline operator, and terminal operator, as designated by the commission, shall submit a report in the form and extent as the commission prescribes pursuant to this section. The commission may determine the form and extent necessary by order or by regulation. (2) A report may include any of the following information: (A) Receipts and inventory levels of crude oil and petroleum products at each refinery and terminal location. (B) Amount of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, blending components, and other petroleum products imported and exported. (C) Amount of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, blending components, and other petroleum products transported intrastate by marine vessel. (D) Amount of crude oil imported, including information identifying the source of the crude oil. (E) The regional average of invoiced retailer buying price. This subparagraph does not either preclude or augment the current authority of the commission to collect additional data under subdivision (f). (3) This subdivision is intended to clarify the commission's existing authority under subdivision (f) to collect specific information. This subdivision does not either preclude or augment the existing authority of the commission to collect information. 25356. (a) The commission, utilizing its own staff and other support staff having expertise and experience in, or with, the petroleum industry, shall gather, analyze, and interpret the information submitted to it pursuant to Section 25354 and other information relating to the supply and price of petroleum products, with particular emphasis on motor vehicle fuels, including, but not limited to, all of the following: (1) The nature, cause, and extent of any petroleum or petroleum products shortage or condition affecting supply. (2) The economic and environmental impacts of any petroleum and petroleum product shortage or condition affecting supply. (3) Petroleum or petroleum product demand and supply forecasting methodologies utilized by the petroleum industry in California. (4) The prices, with particular emphasis on retail motor fuel prices, including sales to unbranded retail markets, and any significant changes in prices charged by the petroleum industry for petroleum or petroleum products sold in California and the reasons for those changes. (5) The profits, both before and after taxes, of the industry as a whole and of major firms within it, including a comparison with other major industry groups and major firms within them as to profits, return on equity and capital, and price-earnings ratio. (6) The emerging trends relating to supply, demand, and conservation of petroleum and petroleum products. (7) The nature and extent of efforts of the petroleum industry to expand refinery capacity and to make acquisitions of additional supplies of petroleum and petroleum products, including activities relative to the exploration, development, and extraction of resources within the state. (8) The development of a petroleum and petroleum products information system in a manner that will enable the state to take action to meet and mitigate any petroleum or petroleum products shortage or condition affecting supply. (b) The commission shall analyze the impacts of state and federal policies and regulations upon the supply and pricing of petroleum products. 25357. The commission shall obtain and analyze monthly production reports prepared by the State Oil and Gas Supervisor pursuant to Section 3227. 25358. (a) Within 70 days after the end of each preceding quarter of each calendar year, the commission shall publish and submit to the Governor and the Legislature a summary, an analysis, and an interpretation of the information submitted to it pursuant to Section 25354 and information reviewed pursuant to Section 25357. This report shall be separate from the report submitted pursuant to Section 25322. Any person may submit comments in writing regarding the accuracy or sufficiency of the information submitted. (b) The commission shall prepare a biennial assessment of the information provided pursuant to this chapter and shall include its assessment in the biennial fuels report prepared pursuant to Section 25310. (c) The commission may use reasonable means necessary and available to it to seek and obtain any facts, figures, and other information from any source for the purpose of preparing and providing reports to the Governor and the Legislature. The commission shall specifically include in the reports its analysis of any unsuccessful attempts in obtaining information from potential sources, including the lack of cooperation or refusal to provide information. (d) Whenever the commission fails to provide any report required pursuant to this section within the specified time, it shall provide to all members of the Legislature, within five days of the specified time, a detailed written explanation of the cause of any delay. 25362. (a) The commission shall notify those persons who have failed to timely provide the information specified in Section 25354. If, within five days after being notified of the failure to provide the specified information, the person fails to supply the specified information, the person shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than two thousand dollars ($2,000) per day for each day the submission of information is refused or delayed, unless the person has timely filed objections with the commission regarding the information and the commission has not yet held a hearing on the matter, or the commission has held a hearing and the person has properly submitted the issue to a court of competent jurisdiction for review. (b) Any person who willfully makes any false statement, representation, or certification in any record, report, plan, or other document filed with the commission shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed two thousand dollars ($2,000). (c) For the purposes of this section, the term "person" shall mean, in addition to the definition contained in Section 25116, any responsible corporate officer. 25364. (a) Any person required to present information to the commission pursuant to Section 25354 may request that specific information be held in confidence. Information requested to be held in confidence shall be presumed to be confidential. (b) Information presented to the commission pursuant to Section 25354 shall be held in confidence by the commission or aggregated to the extent necessary to assure confidentiality if public disclosure of the specific information or data would result in unfair competitive disadvantage to the person supplying the information. (c) (1) Whenever the commission receives a request to publicly disclose unaggregated information, or otherwise proposes to publicly disclose information submitted pursuant to Section 25354, notice of the request or proposal shall be provided to the person submitting the information. The notice shall indicate the form in which the information is to be released. Upon receipt of notice, the person submitting the information shall have 10 working days in which to respond to the notice to justify the claim of confidentiality on each specific item of information covered by the notice on the basis that public disclosure of the specific information would result in unfair competitive disadvantage to the person supplying the information. (2) The commission shall consider the respondent's submittal in determining whether to publicly disclose the information submitted to it to which a claim of confidentiality is made. The commission shall issue a written decision which sets forth its reasons for making the determination whether each item of information for which a claim of confidentiality is made shall remain confidential or shall be publicly disclosed. (d) The commission shall not make public disclosure of information submitted to it pursuant to Section 25354 within 10 working days after the commission has issued its written decision required in this section. (e) No information submitted to the commission pursuant to Section 25354 shall be deemed confidential if the person submitting the information or data has made it public. (f) With respect to petroleum products and blendstocks reported by type pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25354 and information provided pursuant to subdivision (h) or (i) of Section 25354, neither the commission nor any employee of the commission may do any of the following: (1) Use the information furnished under paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25354 or under subdivision (h) or (i) of Section 25354 for any purpose other than the statistical purposes for which it is supplied. (2) Make any publication whereby the information furnished by any particular establishment or individual under paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25354 or under subdivision (h) or (i) of Section 25354 can be identified. (3) Permit anyone other than commission members and employees of the commission to examine the individual reports provided under paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 25354 or under subdivision (h) or (i) of Section 25354. (g) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the commission may disclose confidential information received pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 25304 or Section 25354 to the State Air Resources Board if the state board agrees to keep the information confidential. With respect to the information it receives, the state board shall be subject to all pertinent provisions of this section. 25366. Any confidential information pertinent to the responsibilities of the commission specified in this division which is obtained by another state agency shall be available to the commission and shall be treated in a confidential manner.