2009 Texas Legislative Session Summary

The 81^st Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, which began in January, wrapped up on June 1, 2009. Unless the Governor calls another Special Session, the next time the Legislature will convene is January of 2011. TREIA was active at the Capitol throughout the Session taking part in the creation, refinement, and advancement of dozens of bills, and in opposition to a few. For a look at the 2009 TREIA Legislative Objectives, last amended and approved on February 6, 2009, click here.

Below is a series of entries related to activity during the Session, including the following wrap-up summary.

Renewable Energy Measures In The 81^st Texas Legislature – A Summation

by Russel Smith

Following is an accounting of how two major renewable energy bills progressed, and ultimately met their demise, in the 81^st Texas Legislature – one taking a substantial part of the TREIA agenda down with it. 

The 81^st Texas Legislature got off to a slow start in January and maintained that pace throughout.  As weeks ticked by without functioning committees, and with a leisurely pace once they were named, the Legislative process acted as a funnel through which the unprecedented number of renewable energy related bills had to flow.  Where multiple bills representing various approaches to the same basic objective existed at the beginning, only one or two versions made it deep into the Session.  SB 545 by Sen. Fraser, which had received significant attention and activity, became the lead bill for solar incentives, and SB 541 by Sen. Watson won out as the primary bill for a next-stage RPS.

By the time most of the renewable energy bills got a hearing, deadlines for action were arising that most bills were unlikely to be able to meet.  As more and more of these individual bills addressing aspects of renewable energy development other than incentives and the RPS began to stall, SB 545 quickly became targeted as the measure to which their language might be amended.

Extensive back-and-forth negotiations occurred on what measures might be appended to SB 545 as it went through Senate Committee action and came to a vote on the Senate floor.  It finally passed the Senate on April 21, with a statewide rebate program for installed solar capacity, surplus electricity minimum pricing and net metering elements, a “Made in Texas” provision, 3^rd party ownership, restrictions on Property Owner’s Association’s ability to prevent solar installations, a requirement that homebuilders offer solar as an option, and a loan program to facilitate solar on schools.

SB545 moved on to the House, where it made it through the committee process and was placed on the House Major State Calendar (where a relatively small number of important statewide bills are sent) on May 25.  It seemed destined to finish successfully on the House floor and be sent to the Governor, but on Friday evening of May 22 opponents of the “Voter ID” bill, which was ahead of SB 545 in the queue, began “chubbing.”  This is basically using the rules to maximize debate time on the hundreds of less critical bills on the Local and Consent Calendar thereby preventing the Voter ID bill from being heard on the floor.  They “chubbed” until the deadline for hearing bills on the House floor that had originated in the Senate expired at midnight on Tuesday, May 26, leaving dozens of major bills, including SB 545 stranded and dying.

On Wednesday the 27th, on the Senate side, a midnight deadline for hearing bills in second reading was being approached.  The search had been under way to try and find a bill on the Senate Intent Calendar that was suitable for amendment of the language in SB 545.  Being suitable means having a caption with language sufficiently broad so as to accommodate SB 545 language as being germane.  Two bills were targeted as possibilities, but neither had been brought up on the Senate floor as the midnight deadline neared.  At one minute before midnight, the clock in the Senate was physically stopped with the hands frozen at 11:59 p.m.  The Senate continued to deliberate for another two-and-a-half hours before adjourning.  During that time, HB 1243 (the "net metering" bill) was brought up.  Senator Fraser moved to amend the bill with language from his SB 545.  While it appeared the bill might be vulnerable on germaneness, no Senator called a "point of order" on the issue, and the bill passed with the amendment intact.

Because the amended HB 1243 was different from the version that came over from the House to the Senate, it had to return to the House.  It was eligible for consideration on the House floor on Friday the 29^th, where it was again vulnerable to a point of order on the germaneness of the Senate amendments, and once again a midnight deadline was approaching.  The House had to either accept the Senate amendments and hear and possibly pass the bill, or vote to send it to a Conference Committee to iron out House and Senate differences. Rep. Sylvester Turner raised a point of order which was sustained.  Time ran out before a motion to send to Conference could be made and a list of Committee appointees named.  HB 1243 died at that point, and it was all over on the House side.

Throughout the remaining two days efforts were made to find a vehicle that was still alive and procedurally viable on the Senate side to which SB 545 language could be attached.  Those efforts came to naught.

SB 541, the RPS bill, fared much better than had been predicted by many at the beginning of the Session.  It passed the Senate and made it through the House committee process without amendments.  It was also placed on the House Major State Calendar where it got trapped in the “chubbing.”  An appropriate vehicle to amend to on the Senate side and/or the will to accept it as an amendment, could not be found.

While most of the main elements of the renewable energy agenda became entangled in the “chubbing” and its fallout, several bills that have an impact on renewable energy development in the state did pass.  The most prominent of these is HB1937 by Rep. Villarreal.  This bill, if not vetoed by the Governor, allows local taxing authorities to offer financing for renewable energy installations with payment to be made through an add-on to the owner’s property taxes.

Another bill of broad interest and potential impact is HB 1935, a general jobs and workforce training bill by Rep. Villareal, to which provisions of HB 516 by Rep. Strama and SB 108 by Sen. Ellis were amended before final passage.  The Strama/Ellis language creates a green jobs training and development program including a related Fund and a Grant Program.

In the MEMBERS ONLY section of the TREIA web site (www.treia.org), TREIA members will find a listing of twenty-two (22) more bills which passed that should be of interest to, and have impact on, the renewable energy industry. To access this list, login if you have not already done so, select the Members Only page, then select the Legislative Activity link from the left column.

TREIA Legislative Agenda Well Represented In Legislative Filings Board Lists Bills To Support And Bills To Keep An Eye On

by TREIA Executive Director Russel Smith, April 7, 2009

Things have gotten downright busy at the Capitol.  The Legislature is playing catch-up and that means hearings stacked on top of hearings.  With so many renewable energy related bills in the hopper this session hardly a day passes without at least one House or Senate Committee hearing on bills of interest and concern. On some days there are as many as seven or eight with testimony stretching well into the night.

On Tuesday, March 24, for example, three Committees – House State Affairs, House Agriculture & Livestock, and Senate Business & Commerce – held overlapping sessions that started, then stopped for the House and Senate to convene, and reconvened upon their adjournment.  Between the three Committees, there were 19 different bills on TREIA’s list being heard.  The hearings started at 8 a.m., and the Senate B&C one finally adjourned around 10:30 p.m.  Thanks to the efforts of Susan Ross, Policy Committee Chair John Pitts, President Bob Webb, Vice President John Hoffner, Solar Electric & Distributed Generation Subcommittee Co-Chair Steve Wiese, and Biomass Electric Subcommittee Chair Bill Tietze, TREIA’s interests were represented on all of the bills in each Committee.  Several other TREIA members were present during the day, but not directly representing TREIA.

On Friday, March 27, the TREIA Board of Directors met in a conference room in the State Capitol to review over 100 of the top priority bills from among the 208 bills on the TREIA tracking list. (This is the largest number of bills of interest with direct or potential impact on renewables filed during a Texas Legislative Session in the Association’s history.)  The Board determined which of them TREIA will officially support, and how to best proceed in doing so.

The TREIA Legislative Agenda has been posted on the web site since July, broadly circulated at the Capitol, and promoted at meetings where groups of legislators and legislative aides were present, and discussed one-on-one with them – often by their special request.  Of the 208 bills at least 50 of them closely match the detail of TREIA Agenda objectives, while many more substantially reflect the broader intent of TREIA policy positions.

Note that there are many similar bills on certain topics.  In the course of business at the Capitol, different elements of similar bills will find their way into a master bill on the topic.  Some bills will advance with fine tuning through amendments.  Some will be replaced with “Committee Substitute” bills that may bear little resemblance to the original.  In some rare cases a single bill will move forward virtually intact.  And of course some bills will be heard in committee and shelved, or may never even get a hearing.  TREIA will work to assure the best outcome possible in light of stated policy positions as this process unfolds.

TREIA LEGISLATIVE PICKS AND PANS

Last Updated 06/16/2009

Below is a list of all the 208 bills being tracked by the TREIA Legislative Team.  The bills to be officially SUPPORTED are bolded in Green.  Some of these bills are supported in concept and approach, but certain amendments will be pursued.  The bills to be officially OPPOSED are bolded in Red.  The balance of the bills (in Black) will be tracked.  Several may end up being opposed if it appears they are gaining traction and are judged by the Board to be counter to the interests of the industry.  To view the text and history of a bill on the list, use this link on the Texas Legislature’s web site and follow the instructions:http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/BillNumber.aspx.

Beginning May 01, 2009, we will mark bills where our position has changed with an asterisk (*). Such changes occur when an amendment or substitute to a bill causes us to alter our position on that bill one way or the other.

For additional comments from TREIA President Bob Webb as well as TREIA Legislative and Policy Consultant Susan Ross, check out past edition of the TREIA Electronic Newsletter the TREIA web site under ARCHIVES. Members will find the latest issue of the Newsletter by using the LOGIN process on the site, and then going to the Members Only page.

Non-TREIA Members can access these articles in the Newsletter Archive section once the next newsletter comes out (expected at the end of April) or by joining TREIA.  Different membership levels are available to accommodate everyone from students to large corporations.