Several provisions of the California Corporate Securities Law of 1968 need to be brought up to date. Section 25100(i) is one of them. That section exempts from the qualification requirements of Sections 25110, 25120 and 25130 “Any security issued or guaranteed by . . . a holding company registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or a subsidiary of that company within the meaning of that act . . .”. Section 25018 defines the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. There is just one small problem, however. Congress repealed the Public Utility Holding Company Act nine years ago as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2008 (Public Law 109-58, § 1263).
That doesn’t mean, however, that there is no Public Utility Holding Company Act. In 2005, Congress enacted a the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 16451 et seq.). The new act is referenced in several provisions of the California Public Utilities Code (§§ 216, 218.5 & 761.3). Oddly, the California Public Utilities Code and Revenue and Taxation Code also continue to refer to the 1935 act (Pub. Util. Code § 246 and R&T Code § 11924).
