May 16, 2013 – Austin, Texas
Policy
Will Texas Take the Plunge and Fund a Water Bill?
Although almost as many bills were filed this 83rd session (6221) as in the 2011 session (6304), many more bills did not even receive a hearing this time, and many more seem to have died recently. While there is always a chance that “dead” bills can come back to life by being tacked on to other bills, below is a summary of key energy legislation that is currently not on track for passage:
- HB 1963 would have changed the three appointed PUCT commissioners to one elected commissioner who would have the authority to appoint a deputy to take over if needed
- HB 2338 would have allowed homeowner associations to make regulations restricting residential solar units from covering more than 50% of roofs and being visible from the street
- HB 3166 would have given the PUCT the authority to implement a shadow temporary price cap during extreme congestion events of $500 per megawatt to prevent retail customers from absorbing unusually high congestion charges during extreme congestion
- HB 2695 would have given a municipality the right to use their municipal ordinances in their extraterritorial jurisdiction for wind turbines.
- HB 3584 and SB 305 would have given homeowners an exemption from sales tax for solar energy when installed on the customer side of the meter.
The legislature believes they have found a way to fund the 2 Billion needed for the water plan but the details are not yet clear. Stay tuned to see if they are able to get it done!
Lastly, many of the bills filed to correct the System Benefit Fund, which has been criticized for allegedly not using its money for the intended purpose, have not moved and are unlikely to survive. However, SB 1655 by Senator Tommy Williams, which would give the money back to customers, is still alive and may pass.
The next 12 days until sine die on May 27th will be important to monitor as it not best not to administer any last rites to any of these bills just yet!
People
Was Speaker of Texas House prescient in his predictions?
Last summer, Speaker Joe Straus lead a robust conversation with Power Across Texas regarding what he anticipated the “hot topics” to be in the 2013 Legislative Session which at that time was five months away. On that arid August day, Speaker Strauss outlined his four key legislative priorities, all of which were top concerns to PAT members as well: the budget, resource adequacy, water and workforce and challenged Power Across Texas members to be share their regulatory and legislative concerns and goals.
Nearly nine months later and with less than two weeks until the 2013 session ends sine die, a legislative conference committee is busy making their final touches to a budget and scores of workforce bills have passed, including HB 5, the biggest education reform bill to pass in Texas in a decade, but what about water and resource adequacy? Time will tell in the final days of the session!
Programming
Save the Date: PAT’s legislative post-mortem
Power Across Texas will hold a members only post-session policy forum with policymakers at the end of June to discuss how key energy issues fared during the 2013 Legislative Session and what the next steps will be from a regulatory perspective. Be on the lookout for your invitation with all the details! The policy forum will be followed by a PAT business meeting.
PS: We’ve moved! Be on the lookout for these biweekly energy updates now @ 10 am on Thursdays.
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