By:  Parker                                           S.B. No. 1071
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                        AN ACT
    1-1  relating to the requirement that school districts use buses that
    1-2  run on natural gas.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subsection (d), Section 21.174, Education Code,
    1-5  is amended to read as follows:
    1-6        (d)(1)  Any county or local district school board which
    1-7  operates a fleet of more than 50 motor vehicles used for
    1-8  transporting school children shall achieve the conversion of the
    1-9  following percentages of such vehicles to the use of <capable of
   1-10  using> compressed natural gas or other alternative fuels by the
   1-11  times specified:
   1-12                    (A)  <the percentage shall be> equal to or
   1-13  greater than 30 percent of the number of such vehicles operated by
   1-14  September 1, 1994; and
   1-15                    (B)  equal to or greater than 50 percent of the
   1-16  number of such vehicles operated by September 1, 1996.
   1-17              (2)  A school board subject to Subdivision (1) of this
   1-18  subsection may enter into a long-term contract to achieve the
   1-19  required percentages.
   1-20              (3)  The Texas Air Control Board  must review this
   1-21  alternative fuel use program by December 31, 1996, and, if the
   1-22  Texas Air Control Board determines that the program has been
   1-23  effective in reducing total annual emissions from vehicles in the
    2-1  area, county and local district school boards operating fleets of
    2-2  more than 50 motor vehicles used for transporting school children
    2-3  shall achieve a percentage of such vehicles capable of using
    2-4  compressed natural gas or other alternative fuels equal to or
    2-5  greater than 90 percent of the number of fleet vehicles operated by
    2-6  September 1, 1999 <1998>, and thereafter.
    2-7              (4) <(3)>  County and local district school boards
    2-8  shall submit to the Central Education Agency annual reports
    2-9  summarizing their progress in achieving these percentage
   2-10  requirements and increasing use of compressed natural gas or other
   2-11  alternative fuels, and the Central Education Agency shall submit
   2-12  the summaries to the Texas Air Control Board by September 1 of each
   2-13  year.
   2-14              (5) <(4)>  County and local district school boards, the
   2-15  Central Education Agency, and the State Purchasing and General
   2-16  Services Commission shall support the Texas Air Control Board in
   2-17  collecting reasonable information needed to determine air quality
   2-18  benefits from use of alternative fuels in affected districts.
   2-19        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-20  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-21  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   2-22  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   2-23  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-24  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-25  passage, and it is so enacted.