(a)
The commission, in consultation with the Energy Commission, shall prepare and submit to the authority and to the Legislature, within 90 days of the effective date of the act adding this section, a report on the present, planned, and required future capacity of the state’s natural gas transportation and storage system to provide adequate, seasonally reliable amounts of competitively priced natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, including, but not limited to, electric generating plants.
(b)
The authority may provide financing for natural gas transportation or storage projects recommended to it by the commission. In recommending a project to the authority, the commission shall ensure that the project is in the public interest.
(c)
Nothing in this section prevents the commission from acting on its own authority to direct gas corporations within its jurisdiction to construct, or facilitate the construction or operation, by the owners or operators of pipelines not within the jurisdiction of the commission, of, natural gas transportation and storage facilities as the commission determines to be needed to provide adequate, seasonally reliable amounts of competitively priced natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers, including, but not limited to, electric generating plants.