🚨Hold the phone, there's an outside the bounds section (not in either the House or Senate versions) on p. 63-66 that appears to finance ratepayer assistance through a utility tax that would otherwise go to GR.
it appears in the side by side starting on p. 63 but does NOT appear in the Conference Committee report bill text. There is no Subchapter O in the bill text.
Is this a drafting error? Could be some high drama tonight on this. House rules are clear you can't amend a CCR. #txlege
At the bottom of the section of Subchapter O in the side-by-side page 66, it says this will be funded by a utility tax which I'm told raises $300m year. So they'd bond and then pay back bonds with a utility tax. however... (cont)
Patrick says he will only work on these things if we're helping ratepayers. Great.
He's indignant about House not taking ratepayer assistance program which was only brought up in the last few days. It's been 100 days since the storm. Where was this proposal in April/early May?
It makes sense to help ratepayers. The Senate had #SB243 to increase #energyefficiency programs which helps customers to save money AND make their homes more resilient. Never got out of committee. The House had #HB3460, the Power Act, to give direct payments to Texans
#SB3 Headlines:
- Weaker gas regs (House version) are IN the bill.
- Most egregious anti-renewable language is OUT of the bill.
- one minor #demandresponse provision kept IN the bill
- #energyefficiency and most local power gen/storage backup OUT of the bill.
more details soon
Conf report kept House language that required gas supply to be mapped by the Electricity Supply Chain Mapping Committee before any regs are created. Cmte report due 1/1/22, @txrrc rules 6 months later. There will be no gas regulations required before this coming winter.
Starting to hear rumblings about #SB3. Kind of alarming there's still no committee report on this or #HB4492. Cutting it very close to the midnight deadline for a 24 hour layout. Stay tuned for updates as the cmte report is filed + as reactions start to come in. #txlege#txenergy
With 65 minutes to go, #SB3 and #HB4492 conference reports still not printed and distributed. I procrastinate, too, but goodness this is cutting it really close for bills that are this important.
Meant to tweet this yesterday. As #txlege enters the home stretch, @statesman's @bob_sechler does a great job documenting how oil and gas lobbyists have been working to remove any requirements for weatherization of gas infrastructure.
This despite the fact -- yes, it is a fact -- that large portions of the oil and gas infrastructure were offline BEFORE the outages began. @IHSMarkit said 13% of gas production was down on Feb 13, more than 24 hours before power outages.
@EIAgov economist Stephen York said "the bulk of the declines in natural gas production in Texas resulted from freeze-offs at wellheads or gathering facilities. At least initially, the declines 'were mostly unrelated' to electricity generation by power plants." #TexasBlackouts 3/
Today on the House floor, #HB2000 by Huberty to create the State Utilities Reliability Fund, a loan/grant fund for weatherization of infrastructure, will likely come up. It was scheduled for last week but postponed. Huberty was arrested last Friday and was absent. Now he's back.
At 3CT, ERCOT and the PUCT will hold a Summer Preparedness Workshop. We could see very tight conditions and possibly outages this summer if extreme heat and drought occur. ercot.com/calendar/2021/…
In @PUCTX proceedings, interested parties file comments. In Texas, #txlege set it up many years ago that anyone can file comments. In many states, you must have a lawyer. Not here #txenergy
To view the comments, go to this site and enter the control number shown in the agenda:
For example, for the filing by the Independent Market Monitor discussed so vigorously in both House and Senate yesterday, enter 51812 where it says control number