1-1     By:  Armbrister                                        S.B. No. 168
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 15, 1999; January 28, 1999,
 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Economic Development;
 1-4     April 29, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 7, Nays 0; April 29, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 168               By:  Armbrister
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to the provision of electric transmission services by a
1-11     river authority.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Chapter 245, Acts of the 67th Legislature,
1-14     Regular Session, 1981 (Article 717p, Vernon's Texas Civil
1-15     Statutes), is amended by adding Section 4C to read as follows:
1-16           Sec. 4C.  (a)  This section applies only to a river authority
1-17     that is engaged in the distribution and sale of electric energy to
1-18     the public.
1-19           (b)  Notwithstanding any other law, a river authority may:
1-20                 (1)  provide transmission services, as defined by
1-21     Section 31.002, Utilities Code, on a regional basis to any eligible
1-22     transmission customer at any location within or outside the
1-23     boundaries of the river authority;
1-24                 (2)  acquire, finance, lease, construct, rebuild,
1-25     operate, or sell electric transmission facilities at any location
1-26     within or outside the boundaries of the river authority;
1-27                 (3)  share officers, directors, employees, equipment,
1-28     and facilities with any related corporation created by the river
1-29     authority; and
1-30                 (4)  provide goods, equipment, facilities, and services
1-31     to any related corporation created by the river authority without
1-32     the need for a competitive bid.
1-33           (c)  This section does not authorize a river authority to
1-34     construct electric transmission facilities for an ultimate consumer
1-35     of electricity to enable that consumer to bypass the transmission
1-36     or distribution facilities of its existing provider.
1-37           (d)  The provisions of this section shall not relieve a river
1-38     authority from an obligation to comply with the provisions of the
1-39     Utilities Code concerning a certificate of convenience and
1-40     necessity for a transmission facility.
1-41           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-42     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-43     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-44     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-45     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-46     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-47     passage, and it is so enacted.
1-48                                  * * * * *