By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 885

(In the Senate - Filed February 27, 2013; March 5, 2013, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources; March 18, 2013, reported adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; March 18, 2013, sent to printer.)

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 885 By: Hinojosa

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to notice of utility rate increases.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Section 104.103, Utilities Code, is amended by amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (c) to read as follows:

(b) Instead of publishing newspaper notice, a gas utility may provide notice [to the public in an area outside the affected municipality or in a municipality with a population of less than 2,500] by:

(1) mailing the notice by United States mail, postage prepaid, to the billing address of each directly affected customer; [or]

(2) including the notice, in conspicuous form, in the bill of each directly affected customer; or

(3) sending the notice by e-mail to each directly affected customer if that address is available to the utility.

(c) A gas utility may provide a customer with notice of the utility's intent to increase rates by e-mail as described by Subsection (b)(3) only if the customer has consented in writing to the use of the customer's e-mail address for that purpose.

SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only to a notice of a proposed utility rate increase provided on or after the effective date of this Act. Notice provided before the effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that purpose.

SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.

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