BILL ANALYSIS

 

 

 

C.S.H.B. 2532

By: Bonnen

Defense & Veterans' Affairs

Committee Report (Substituted)

 

 

 

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

 

After Hurricane Ike, a lack of critical services hampered the ability of local communities to recover from the storm. Vital entities, such as wastewater treatment plants, sewer lift stations, police stations, and hospitals experienced prolonged delays in having their power restored. When contacted with requests to restore power to these facilities, electric transmission and distribution utilities often lacked any information or had outdated locations or addresses. 

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 requires counties and municipalities to annually provide the division of emergency management with the location and physical address of infrastructure in the municipality's or county's jurisdiction that is critical to public health or safety and that requires electric utility service in order to adequately respond to or mitigate the effects of a disaster or emergency. The bill further requires the division, with the assistance of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, to provide each electric utility with this information.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

 

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Public Utility Commission of Texas in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 amends the Government Code to require each municipality and county, in order to provide for rapid mitigation of disasters or emergencies that result in widespread electric utility service outages, to provide the division of emergency management in the office of the governor with the location of infrastructure in the municipality's or county's jurisdiction that is critical to the public health or safety and that requires electric utility service to adequately respond to or to mitigate the effects of a disaster or emergency.

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 requires a municipality or county to file with the division the critical infrastructure location information annually, on a standardized form provided by the division to be filed electronically or by mail, and by street address and by any other means of identifying location the division requires. The bill requires the division to provide with the standardized form information to assist a municipality or county in determining the infrastructure in the municipality's or county's jurisdiction that is critical to the public health or safety and that requires electric utility service to adequately respond to or mitigate the effects of a disaster or emergency.  The bill requires the municipality or county to rank the critical infrastructure on the form by priority, and requires the critical infrastructure identified to include police and fire stations, relevant government buildings, sewage lift stations, water treatment facilities, and hospitals.

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 requires the division to provide each electric utility that owns electric transmission and distribution lines the critical infrastructure location information for each municipality or county served by the utility and requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to assist the division in identifying the relevant utilities and coordinating the delivery of the information. The bill requires the division to provide the information not later than March 1 of each year.

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 requires an electric utility that receives the critical infrastructure location information from the division to maintain the information to assist the utility with efforts to restore electric utility service and update the information annually with location information as it is received from the division.

 

C.S.H.B. 2532 requires the PUC to adopt rules to ensure compliance with these provisions.    

EFFECTIVE DATE

 

September 1, 2009.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2532 differs from the original by making provisions that only applied to a municipality in the original also applicable to a county.  The substitute adds a provision not in the original that requires a municipality or county to rank critical infrastructure identified on a standardized form by priority.