BILL ANALYSIS

Senate Research Center	S.B. 1999
87R10683 JXC-D	By: Springer
	Business & Commerce
	4/30/2021
	As Filed

AUTHOR'S / SPONSOR'S STATEMENT OF INTENT

In rural areas, people rely heavily on their local radio station to receive their news. During the blackouts people were not able to watch the news and turned to their radios, however, the radio stations lost power as well. Rural areas also lack quality Internet and cell service capabilities. This made the radio stations even more essential during the outages because people were unable to stream televised news stations. Allowing radio broadcasting facilities to be exempt would enable people to continue to receive important information that could save their lives.

Therefore, legislation is needed to exempt radio broadcasting facilities from load shedding during a blackout. S.B. 1999 seeks to exempt radio broadcasting facilities from load shedding participation during a blackout.

As proposed, S.B. 1999 amends current law relating to the exclusion of broadcasting facilities from load shedding participation during a rolling blackout.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

Rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the Public Utility Commission of Texas in SECTION 1 (Section 38.0722, Utilities Code) of this bill.

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1. Amends Subchapter D, Chapter 38, Utilities Code, by adding Section 38.0722, as follows:

Sec. 38.0722.� EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN BROADCASTING FACILITIES FROM ROLLING BLACKOUT. Requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas by rule to require each electric utility, municipally owned utility, and electric cooperative to exclude any circuits that provide power to a commercial or public radio or television broadcasting facility from participation in the utility's or cooperative's attempt to shed load in response to a rolling blackout initiated by an independent organization certified under Section 39.151 (Essential Organizations) or another reliability council or power pool in which the utility or cooperative operates.

SECTION 2. Effective date: September 1, 2021.