Honorable Patricia Harless, Chair, House Committee on Environmental Regulation
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2368 by Allen (Relating to a study on waste reduction and a statewide waste reduction plan.), As Introduced
No significant fiscal implication to the State is anticipated.
The bill would require the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to convene an advisory committee to study and report on waste reduction in Texas. The study would assess current waste reduction efforts and identify ways to improve and increase those efforts, assess the effectiveness of waste reduction efforts, investigate available funding for waste reduction programs, review waste reduction education programs, as well as other topics relating to waste reduction and recycling. The advisory committee would be required to submit a report to TCEQ, which would be posted on the agency's website. The bill would also require the TCEQ to use the report to reassess whether the existing statutory source reduction and recycling goal is being achieved and how the goal might be updated. The bill would require the TCEQ to report the results of the study to the legislature by December 2014.
The TCEQ reports that the agency currently has a statutorily mandated advisory group, the Municipal Solid Waste Resource Recovery Advisory Council, which has discussed and considered nearly all of the issues that would be addressed by the advisory committee that would be established by the bill. In implementing the bill, the agency would likely incur costs in holding meetings, preparing meeting notes, conducting research, hiring contractors, and travel. This estimate assumes that the TCEQ could absorb such costs using existing resources.
Local Government Impact
No significant fiscal implication to units of local government is anticipated.