1-1     By:  Brown                                             S.B. No. 816
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 2, 1999; March 4, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
 1-4     March 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas 4,
 1-5     Nays 0; March 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain transactions by a gas utility.
 1-9           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-10           SECTION 1.  Subsection (a), Section 102.051, Utilities Code,
1-11     is amended to read as follows:
1-12           (a)  Unless a gas utility reports the transaction to the
1-13     railroad commission within a reasonable time, the gas utility may
1-14     not:
1-15                 (1)  sell, acquire, or lease a plant as an operating
1-16     unit or system in this state for a total consideration of more than
1-17     $1 million [$100,000]; or
1-18                 (2)  merge or consolidate with another gas utility
1-19     operating in this state.
1-20           SECTION 2.  Section 102.054, Utilities Code, is repealed.
1-21           SECTION 3.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
1-22     to  a transaction occurring on or after the effective date of this
1-23     Act.  A transaction occurring  before the effective date of this
1-24     Act is governed by the law in effect when the transaction occurred,
1-25     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
1-26           SECTION 4.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-27           SECTION 5.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-28     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-29     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-30     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-31     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
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