By:  Armbrister                                        S.B. No. 168
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the provision of electric transmission services by a
 1-2     river authority.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Chapter 245, Acts of the 67th Legislature,
 1-5     Regular Session, 1981 (Article 717p, Vernon's Texas Civil
 1-6     Statutes), is amended by adding Section 4C to read as follows:
 1-7           Sec. 4C.  (a)  This section applies only to a river authority
 1-8     that is engaged in the distribution and sale of electric energy to
 1-9     the public.
1-10           (b)  Notwithstanding any other law, a river authority may:
1-11                 (1)  provide transmission services, as defined by
1-12     Section 31.002, Utilities Code, on a regional basis to any eligible
1-13     transmission customer at any location within or outside the
1-14     boundaries of the river authority;
1-15                 (2)  acquire, finance, lease, construct, rebuild,
1-16     operate, or sell electric transmission facilities at any location
1-17     within or outside the boundaries of the river authority;
1-18                 (3)  share officers, directors, employees, equipment,
1-19     and facilities with any related corporation created by the river
1-20     authority; and
1-21                 (4)  provide goods, equipment, facilities, and services
1-22     to any related corporation created by the river authority without
1-23     the need for a competitive bid.
1-24           (c)  This section does not authorize a river authority to
 2-1     construct electric transmission facilities for an ultimate consumer
 2-2     of electricity to enable that consumer to bypass the transmission
 2-3     or distribution facilities of its existing provider.
 2-4           (d)  The provisions of this section shall not relieve a river
 2-5     authority from an obligation to comply with the provisions of the
 2-6     Utilities Code concerning a certificate of convenience and
 2-7     necessity for a transmission facility.
 2-8           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
 2-9     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-10     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-11     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-12     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-13     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
2-14     passage, and it is so enacted.