By:  Ratliff                                          S.B. No. 1471
         99S0836/1                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the regulation of gasoline volatility and sulfur
 1-2     content.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 382.037, Health and Safety Code, is
 1-5     amended by adding Subsection (o) to read as follows:
 1-6           (o)  The commission may not adopt, implement, or enforce
 1-7     rules that could result in the increased use of the gasoline
 1-8     additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), including rules
 1-9     specifying gasoline volatility and sulfur content, unless the
1-10     commission first conducts a comprehensive environmental and
1-11     economic impact analysis  on the proposed rule and certifies in
1-12     writing to the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and the House
1-13     Committee on Natural Resources that such gasoline will reduce ozone
1-14     levels by at least 25 percent of the amount required to demonstrate
1-15     attainment and maintenance of the ozone standard in each county
1-16     where the rule is applied and that the benefits of the proposed
1-17     rule outweigh other environmental and economic costs.  In the
1-18     comprehensive environmental and economic impact analysis, the
1-19     commission shall specifically address the potential environmental
1-20     and economic consequences that could result from the increased use
1-21     of methyl tertiary butyl ether as a result of the proposed rule.
1-22           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-23           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-24     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 2-1     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 2-2     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 2-3     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.