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House Bill 432 |
House Author: Lucio III et al. |
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Effective: 9-1-09 |
Senate Sponsor: Estes |
House Bill 432 amends the Government Code to provide that purchasing requirements relating to state agency purchases of alternatively fueled vehicles do not apply if an agency demonstrates that it will incur net costs in meeting those requirements. The bill amends various provisions relating to the purchase of alternative fuels vehicles and the acquisition of related equipment or refueling facilities to include among such vehicles those that use either biodiesel or a blend of diesel and biodiesel of 20 percent or greater and to clarify that the inclusion of vehicles that use electricity includes plug-in hybrid motor vehicles. The bill also amends provisions to specify that such vehicles must use alternative fuels, rather than just be capable of using alternative fuels, and to specify that a vehicle meets the use requirement if it uses an alternative fuel not less than 80 percent of the time it is driven. The bill sets a new deadline, September 30, 2010, for agencies that operate a fleet of more than 15 motor vehicles, excluding law enforcement and emergency vehicles, to have a fleet in which at least 50 percent of the vehicles use alternative fuels. It transfers from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to the comptroller of public accounts the power to reduce or waive these requirements. The bill requires a state agency, in its annual financial report to the legislature, to describe the availability of alternative fuels and to provide information reasonably needed to determine the air quality benefits from using them. It requires the Texas State Technical College to develop a program and provide training to a state agency converting an existing vehicle to meet fleet requirements. The bill applies certain low emissions vehicle purchasing requirements not just to a state agency that purchases 10 or more vehicles in a state fiscal biennium, as under previous law, but to any agency that is authorized to purchase passenger vehicles or other ground transportation vehicles for general use. It increases, from 10 to 25 percent, the minimum percentage of purchased vehicles, other than exempted vehicles, that must meet those emission standards and expands the vehicles exempted to include a vehicle to be used by a peace officer whose duties include the apprehension of persons for violation of a Texas criminal law.