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  85R4937 DMS-F
 
  By: Clardy H.B. No. 1685
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the authority of the General Land Office to sell retail
  electric power.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 35.102, Utilities Code, is transferred
  to Subchapter A, Chapter 101, Utilities Code, redesignated as
  Section 101.009, Utilities Code, and amended to read as follows:
         Sec. 101.009 [35.102].  STATE AUTHORITY TO SELL OR CONVEY
  [POWER OR] NATURAL GAS. (a) In this section:
               (1)  "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the
  General Land Office.
               (2)  "Public retail customer" means a retail customer
  that is an agency of this state, a state institution of higher
  education, a public school district, a political subdivision of
  this state, a military installation of the United States, or a
  United States Department of Veterans Affairs facility.
         (b)  The commissioner, acting on behalf of the state, may
  sell or otherwise convey [power or] natural gas generated from
  royalties taken in kind as provided by Sections 52.133(f), 53.026,
  and 53.077, Natural Resources Code, directly to a public retail
  customer [regardless of whether the public retail customer is also
  classified as a wholesale customer under other provisions of this
  title].
         (c) [(b)]  To ensure that the state receives the maximum
  benefit from the sale of [power or] natural gas generated from
  royalties taken in kind, the commissioner shall use all feasible
  means to sell that [power or] natural gas first to public retail
  customers that are military installations of the United States,
  agencies of this state, institutions of higher education, or public
  school districts. The remainder of the [power or] natural gas, if
  any, may be sold to public retail customers that are political
  subdivisions of this state or to a United States Department of
  Veterans Affairs facility.
         SECTION 2.  Section 104.2545(d), Utilities Code, is amended
  to read as follows:
         (d)  In this section, "public retail customer" has the
  meaning assigned by Section 101.009 [35.101].
         SECTION 3.  (a)  The heading to Subchapter D, Chapter 35,
  Utilities Code, is repealed.
         (b)  Sections 35.101, 35.103, 35.104, 35.105, and 35.106,
  Utilities Code, are repealed.
         SECTION 4.  The General Land Office or an entity operating
  under a contract with the General Land Office may continue to
  provide retail electric service in accordance with Subchapter D,
  Chapter 35, Utilities Code, as that subchapter existed before the
  effective date of this Act, under the terms of an agreement with a
  customer entered into before the effective date of this Act, only
  until the date the agreement expires.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.