1-1     By:  Duncan                                           S.B. No. 1797
 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed March 12, 1999; March 15, 1999, read
 1-3     first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
 1-4     April 13, 1999, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
 1-5     Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 5, Nays 0; April 13, 1999,
 1-6     sent to printer.)
 1-7     COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1797              By:  Armbrister
 1-8                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-9                                   AN ACT
1-10     relating to services of a gas utility provided to a school
1-11     district.
1-12           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-13           SECTION 1.  Subchapter F, Chapter 104, Utilities Code, is
1-14     amended by adding Section 104.2545 to read as follows:
1-15           Sec. 104.2545.  REQUIRED SERVICE TO SCHOOL DISTRICT.  (a)  In
1-16     this section, "service site" means facilities or buildings operated
1-17     by a school district or a group of adjacent facilities or buildings
1-18     operated by a school district within one contiguous geographical
1-19     area.
1-20           (b)  Unless the utility is prohibited by other law from
1-21     providing the service and if sufficient pipeline capacity is
1-22     available on an existing facility of the utility to provide the
1-23     service, a gas utility or municipally owned utility may not refuse
1-24     to provide service to a school district at a service site, at rates
1-25     established as provided by Subsection (c), the following services:
1-26                 (1)  the sale of gas;
1-27                 (2)  the transportation of an annual average of 10
1-28     million British thermal units or more each day of gas that is:
1-29                       (A)  taken as a royalty in kind; and
1-30                       (B)  owned by the state or managed by a marketing
1-31     program operated by the state or by a state agency; or
1-32                 (3)  a combination of the services described by
1-33     Subdivisions (1) and (2).
1-34           (c)  A utility shall provide a service described by
1-35     Subsection (b) at rates provided by a written contract negotiated
1-36     between the utility and the state or a state agency.  If the
1-37     utility and the state or state agency are not able to agree to a
1-38     contract rate, a fair and reasonable rate may be determined for the
1-39     school district, as a rate for a separate class of service, by the
1-40     railroad commission.
1-41           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
1-42           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-43     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-44     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-45     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-46     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.
1-47                                  * * * * *