On August 7, 2025, the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled that, except for decisions pertaining to water corporations, the California Public Utilities Commission’s interpretation of the Public Utilities Code will no longer be upheld “unless it fails to bear a reasonable relation to statutory purposes and language.”

As the Court recognized, the Legislature found that the deregulation of the energy, transportation, and telecommunications industries required greater access to the courts, and had amended the applicable statutes accordingly.  As a result, the Commission’s decisions regarding those industries are subject to review similar to other administrative decisions.  Namely, courts are to apply an abuse of discretion standard that parallels that in the administrative mandamus statute (Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5).

The California Supreme Court’s decision in Center for Biological Diversity, Inc., et al. v. Public Utilities Commission (Case No. S283614) can be found here.