CA AB1774

Requires the California Public Utilities Commission to mandate independent audits of electrical corporations' wildfire mitigation expenditures from the preceding 5 calendar years before authorizing recovery of ratepayer funds for new or ongoing wildfire mitigation programs

Audits must determine whether expenditures were reasonable, prudent, cost-effective, used for authorized purposes, resulted in measurable risk reductions, or were duplicative, excessive, or improperly charged to ratepayers

Commission must disallow recovery of wildfire mitigation expenditures found to be unreasonable, imprudent, or improperly incurred, and may order refunds, bill credits, or impose conditions on future funding

Electrical corporations that fail to maintain sufficient records for the audit will have those expenses disallowed from rate recovery; audit costs can only be recovered if the corporation complied with commission recordkeeping requirements

States legislative intent to reduce utility rates by 25 percent