H.B. No. 2129
AN ACT
relating to energy-saving measures that reduce the emission of air
contaminants.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 382.0215, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by amending Subsections (a), (b), and (f) and adding
Subsections (a-1) and (h) to read as follows:
(a) In this section:
(1) "Emissions[, "emissions] event" means an upset
event, or unscheduled maintenance, startup, or shutdown activity,
from a common cause that results in the unauthorized emissions of
air contaminants from one or more [an] emissions points at a
regulated entity [point].
(2) "Regulated entity" means all regulated units,
facilities, equipment, structures, or sources at one street address
or location that are owned or operated by the same person. The term
includes any property under common ownership or control identified
in a permit or used in conjunction with the regulated activity at
the same street address or location.
(a-1) Maintenance, startup, and shutdown activities shall
not be considered unscheduled only if the activity will not and does
not result in the emission of at least a reportable quantity of
unauthorized emissions of air contaminants and the activity is
recorded as may be required by commission rule, or if the activity
will result in the emission of at least a reportable quantity of
unauthorized emissions and:
(1) the owner or operator of the regulated entity
[facility] provides any prior notice or final report that the
commission, by rule, may establish;
(2) the notice or final report includes the
information required in Subsection (b)(3); and
(3) the actual emissions do not exceed the estimates
submitted in the notice by more than a reportable quantity.
(b) The commission shall require the owner or operator of a
regulated entity [facility] that experiences emissions events:
(1) to maintain a record of all emissions events at the
regulated entity [facility] in the manner and for the periods
prescribed by commission rule;
(2) to notify the commission in a single report for
each emissions event, as soon as practicable but not later than 24
hours after discovery of the emissions event, of an emissions event
resulting in the emission of a reportable quantity of air
contaminants as determined by commission rule; and
(3) to report to the commission in a single report for
each emissions event, not later than two weeks after the occurrence
of an emissions event that results in the emission of a reportable
quantity of air contaminants as determined by commission rule, all
information necessary to evaluate the emissions event, including:
(A) the name of the owner or operator of the
reporting regulated entity [facility];
(B) the location of the reporting regulated
entity [facility];
(C) the date and time the emissions began;
(D) the duration of the emissions;
(E) the nature and measured or estimated quantity
of air contaminants emitted, including the method of calculation
of, or other basis for determining, the quantity of air
contaminants emitted;
(F) the processes and equipment involved in the
emissions event;
(G) the cause of the emissions; and
(H) any additional information necessary to
evaluate the emissions event.
(f) An owner or operator of a regulated entity [facility]
required by Section 382.014 to submit an annual emissions inventory
report and which has experienced no emissions events during the
relevant year must include as part of the inventory a statement that
the regulated entity [facility] experienced no emissions events
during the prior year. An owner or operator of a regulated entity
[facility] required by Section 382.014 to submit an annual
emissions inventory report must include the total annual emissions
from all emissions events in categories as established by
commission rule.
(h) The commission may allow operators of pipelines,
gathering lines, and flowlines to treat all such facilities under
common ownership or control in a particular county as a single
regulated entity for the purpose of assessment and regulation of
emissions events.
SECTION 2. Section 386.056, Health and Safety Code, is
amended by adding Subsection (e) to read as follows:
(e) The commission shall assure that emission reduction
credits may be received in the Houston-Galveston nonattainment area
for energy efficiency and urban heat island programs in connection
with the State Implementation Plan for the eight-hour ozone
standard.
SECTION 3. Section 386.252(a), Health and Safety Code, is
amended to read as follows:
(a) Money in the fund may be used only to implement and
administer programs established under the plan and shall be
allocated as follows:
(1) for the diesel emissions reduction incentive
program, 87.5 percent of the money in the fund, of which not more
than 10 percent may be used for on-road diesel purchase or lease
incentives;
(2) for the new technology research and development
program, 9.5 percent of the money in the fund, of which up to
$250,000 is allocated for administration, up to $200,000 is
allocated for a health effects study, $500,000 is to be deposited in
the state treasury to the credit of the clean air account created
under Section 382.0622 to supplement funding for air quality
planning activities in affected counties, and not less than 20
percent is to be allocated each year to support research related to
air quality for the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria and Dallas-Fort
Worth nonattainment areas by a nonprofit organization based in
Houston of which $216,000 each year shall be contracted to the
Energy Systems Laboratory at the Texas Engineering Experiment
Station for the development and annual calculation of creditable
statewide emissions reductions obtained through wind and other
renewable energy resources for the State Implementation Plan;
(3) for administrative costs incurred by the
commission and the laboratory, three percent.
SECTION 4. Chapter 388, Health and Safety Code, is amended
by adding Section 388.012 to read as follows:
Sec. 388.012. DEVELOPMENT OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY-SAVING
METHODS. The laboratory shall develop at least three alternative
methods for achieving a 15 percent greater potential energy savings
in residential, commercial, and industrial construction than the
potential energy savings of construction that is in minimum
compliance with Section 388.003. The alternative methods:
(1) may include both prescriptive and
performance-based approaches, such as the approach of the United
States Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star qualified new
home labeling program; and
(2) must include an estimate of:
(A) the implementation costs and energy savings
to consumers; and
(B) the related emissions reductions.
SECTION 5. Chapter 447, Government Code, is amended by
adding Section 447.012 to read as follows:
Sec. 447.012. APPLIANCE STANDARDS. The state energy
conservation office shall determine the feasibility and
cost-benefit to consumers of setting appliance standards for
appliances that are not currently regulated for energy efficiency
in this state, if the office determines that the new standards would
reduce the emission of air contaminants. The office may not
consider the feasibility and cost-benefit to consumers of setting
appliance standards for air conditioning systems under this
section.
SECTION 6. Chapter 31, Utilities Code, is amended by adding
Section 31.005 to read as follows:
Sec. 31.005. CUSTOMER-OPTION PROGRAMS. (a) This section
applies to:
(1) a municipally owned electric utility;
(2) an electric cooperative;
(3) an electric utility;
(4) a power marketer;
(5) a retail electric provider; and
(6) a transmission and distribution utility.
(b) An entity to which this section applies shall consider
establishing customer-option programs that encourage the reduction
of air contaminant emissions, such as:
(1) an appliance retirement and recycling program;
(2) a solar water heating market transformation
program;
(3) an air conditioning tune-up program;
(4) a program that allows the use of on-site energy
storage as an eligible efficiency measure in existing programs;
(5) a program that encourages the deployment of
advanced electricity meters;
(6) a program that encourages the installation of cool
roofing materials;
(7) a program that establishes lighting limits;
(8) a distributed energy generation technology
program; and
(9) a program that encourages the use of
high-efficiency building distribution transformers and variable
air volume fan controls.
SECTION 7. Section 39.107, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding Subsection (h) to read
as follows:
(a) On introduction of customer choice in a service area,
metering services for the area shall continue to be provided by the
transmission and distribution utility affiliate of the electric
utility that was serving the area before the introduction of
customer choice. Metering services provided to commercial and
industrial customers that are required by the independent system
operator to have an interval data recorder meter may [shall] be
provided on a competitive basis [beginning on January 1, 2004].
(b) Metering services provided to residential customers and
to nonresidential customers other than those required by the
independent system operator to have an interval data recorder meter
shall continue to be provided by the transmission and distribution
utility affiliate of the electric utility that was serving the area
before the introduction of customer choice [until the later of
September 1, 2005, or the date on which at least 40 percent of those
residential customers are taking service from unaffiliated retail
electric providers]. Retail electric providers serving
residential and nonresidential customers other than those required
by the independent system operator to have an interval data
recorder meter may request that the transmission and distribution
utility provide specialized meters, meter features, or add-on
accessories so long as they are technically feasible and generally
available in the market and provided that the retail electric
provider pays the differential cost of such a meter or accessory.
Metering and billing services provided to residential customers
shall be governed by the customer safeguards adopted by the
commission under Section 39.101. All meter data, including all
data generated, provided, or otherwise made available, by advanced
meters and meter information networks, shall belong to a customer,
including data used to calculate charges for service, historical
load data, and any other proprietary customer information. A
customer may authorize its data to be provided to one or more retail
electric providers under rules and charges established by the
commission.
(h) The commission shall establish a nonbypassable
surcharge for an electric utility or transmission and distribution
utility to use to recover reasonable and necessary costs incurred
in deploying advanced metering and meter information networks to
residential customers and nonresidential customers other than
those required by the independent system operator to have an
interval data recorder meter. The commission shall ensure that the
nonbypassable surcharge reflects a deployment of advanced meters
that is no more than one-third of the utility's total meters over
each calendar year and shall ensure that the nonbypassable
surcharge does not result in the utility recovering more than its
actual, fully allocated meter and meter information network costs.
The expenses must be allocated to the customer classes receiving
the services, based on the electric utility's most recently
approved tariffs.
SECTION 8. (a) In recognition that advances in digital and
communications equipment and technologies, including new metering
and meter information technologies, have the potential to increase
the reliability of the regional electrical network, encourage
dynamic pricing and demand response, make better use of generation
assets and transmission and generation assets, and provide more
choices for consumers, the legislature encourages the adoption of
these technologies by electric utilities in this state.
(b) The Public Utility Commission of Texas shall study the
efforts of electric utilities to benefit from the use of advanced
metering and metering information networks. The commission shall
present to the legislature on or before September 30 of each
even-numbered year a report detailing those efforts and identifying
changes in this state's policies that may be necessary to remove
barriers to the use of advanced metering and metering information
networks or of other advanced transmission and distribution
technologies. On or before September 30, 2010, the commission
shall:
(1) evaluate whether advances in technology, changes
in the market, or other unanticipated factors would allow meters or
various meter-related products or services to be provided more
efficiently or more effectively through competition; and
(2) make recommendations for legislation the
commission considers appropriate.
SECTION 9. This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.
______________________________ ______________________________
President of the Senate Speaker of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2129 was passed by the House on April
13, 2005, by the following vote: Yeas 146, Nays 0, 1 present, not
voting; that the House refused to concur in Senate amendments to
H.B. No. 2129 on May 26, 2005, and requested the appointment of a
conference committee to consider the differences between the two
houses; and that the House adopted the conference committee report
on H.B. No. 2129 on May 29, 2005, by a non-record vote.
______________________________
Chief Clerk of the House
I certify that H.B. No. 2129 was passed by the Senate, with
amendments, on May 24, 2005, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays
0; at the request of the House, the Senate appointed a conference
committee to consider the differences between the two houses; and
that the Senate adopted the conference committee report on H.B. No.
2129 on May 29, 2005, by the following vote: Yeas 31, Nays 0.
______________________________
Secretary of the Senate
APPROVED: __________________
Date
__________________
Governor