HB 2771
HB 2771, introduced by Rep. JM Lozano, Chair of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation, was a bill heavily supported by the oil and gas industry. In the Senate, the bill was sponsored by Sen. Bryan Hughes. The bill as introduced required the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to seek, by September 2020, authority from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to delegate wastewater discharge permits to the state agency for three kinds of permits involving wastewater from oil and gas production, including “produced” water resulting from the hydraulic fracturing process.
Our position
The Sierra Club opposed HB 2771 as introduced, arguing that the timeline for seeking delegation authority was too quick, and that there was no required cost-benefit analysis. In addition, a public process to help determine appropriate safety and water quality standards was not considered in the legislation. Thus, we believed it was premature to talk about wastewater discharge permits from fracked oil and gas wells even before the EPA had finished its own internal analysis about whether such discharge permits would be allowed. Under current law, oil and gas operators are required to seek permits from both the state, through the Railroad Commission, and the EPA, and such permits for produced water have not been granted. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Oil and gas, AECT, Texas Water Recycling Association
Outcome
The House, with significant backing from the oil and gas industry, approved the bill on a 94-47 vote on April 17. It passed the Senate 24-7, and was signed by Governor Abbott. One modest improvement was made to the bill by Rep. John Turner and Sen. Chuy Hinojosa, who got language in the bill to delay the timeline for requesting delegation authority to 2021. While Rep. Turner and Sen. Chuy Hinojosa ultimately voted for the bill - and against our position - we respect that they did it as part of a compromise to improve the legislation.
HB 3557
HB 3557, introduced by Rep. Chris Paddie, Chair of the House Committee on Energy Resources, was heavily backed by the pipeline industry, oil and gas, and the American Chemical Council. It creates heavy criminal and civil penalties for those who would damage, destroy, impede, or obstruct so-called “critical infrastructure” such as pipelines or refineries. The bill was born from the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and has been adopted in several other oil and gas producing states as a reaction to the frequent protests against existing and planned pipelines. Dubbed the “Criminalize Peaceful Protests” bill, the bill as introduced had draconian measures, including potential second-degree felonies for damaging, defacing, or destroying critical infrastructure and up to $1 million in civil fines for organizations found to be helping to facilitate such activities. While the bill was made less unreasonable through the legislative process, Sierra Club still opposed the bill. A vote for the bill on third reading was a vote against the Sierra Club position. A vote to table the Zwiener amendment was a vote against the Sierra Club position. A vote for the Conference Committee Report was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special Interests
Pipeline industry, oil and gas, TAM, TML, TX Chemical Council, LCRA, BNSF Railway, TAB
Outcome
The bill passed the House on May 7 on a 90-51 vote, though some slight improvements were made to the bill. During the debate on the House floor, Rep. Erin Zwiener introduced a proposed amendment that would have provided protections for landowners that were protesting pipelines on their own land, but her proposed amendment was tabled on a 77-65 vote. After passing the House, the bill passed the Senate, where it was carried by Sen. Brian Birdwell, Chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources. In the Senate, an amendment offered by Sen. Chuy Hinojosa improved the bill slightly. After passing the Senate, the House refused to concur with the Senate amendments so the Senate and House had to work out the differences. That new version of the bill - the Committee Conference Report (CCR) -- was then placed on the House floor and the House passed it on May 26 on a 97-49 vote. The CCR also passed the Senate on a 19-12 vote and was signed by the Governor.
HB 2545
HB 2545 by Rep. Ryan Guillen was a bill heavily backed by certain oil and gas companies that wanted to create certain tax incentives for companies that treated and discharged heavily saline oil and gas wastewater. The proposed tax breaks for such “desalination” facilities were substantial even though the standards that would have been applied to the wastewater have yet to be developed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and the costs and benefits of sending such treated wastewater downstream are unknown. In fact, the exact costs in lost tax revenue to the state could not be determined. Despite these unknowns, many believed it was preferable to provide tax incentives to encourage such reuse of salty water and wastewater as opposed to simply sending the wastewater down injection wells.
Our Position
A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Texas Desalination Association, Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, oil and gas, Texas Farm Bureau
Outcome
The bill passed the House of Representatives on May 3 on a 116-26 vote, but after being referred to the Senate Committee on Finance, it was unable to get out of committee, in large part because of the questions around the cost to the state of providing the incentives to desalination plants.
HB 2826
HB 2826 by Rep. Greg Bonnen requires that before any local political subdivision hires outside counsel, they must check with the Attorney General of Texas and get their approval to do so. Many cities, county governments, and nonprofit organizations that rely on the legal actions of local government for a variety of protections against bad corporate actors opposed this bill. While it did improve somewhat through the course of the legislative process, it still represented interference by state government in the actions of local democracies to protect citizens.
Our position
The Sierra Club made clear our opposition to the bill and opposed it both in committee and on the House floor. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Construction industry, Texas Society of Architects, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, TAB, Texas Apartment Association, Insurance industry
Outcome
The bill passed the House on May 2 on a 103-39 vote. In the Senate, the bill was sponsored by Sen. Joan Huffman, passed on a 27-4 vote, and was signed by Governor Abbott on June 10.
HB 2726
HB 2726, authored by Rep. John Keumpel, allows a facility that submits an air pollution permit application to amend an existing permit to go ahead and construct the modification or expansion after the application has been submitted but before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued the final permit. While the facility that began such a modification or expansion would do so at their own risk if the permit amendment were ultimately not granted, the bill puts communities at risk and also puts political pressure on the TCEQ to ultimately approve permit amendments since the facility modification would already be complete or under construction. In addition, if the permit amendment were the subject of a contested case hearing, allowing a facility to go ahead and construct a modification to their facility could impact negotiations between a community and the facility. One provision was added to the bill to prevent certain concrete batch plants from utilizing the provisions of the bill.
Our position
Sierra Club opposed the bill and spoke against it in both committees. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Oil and gas, chemical industry, TAM
Outcome
HB 2726 passed the House on May 7 on a 102-46 vote. In the Senate the bill was sponsored by Sen. Brandon Creighton, and it passed the Senate on a 21-10 vote on May 20 with an amendment on the concrete batch plant issue. The House and Senate then passed a Conference Committee Report in the last days of the session, and the bill was signed by Governor Abbott.
HB 3745
HB 3745 by Rep. Cecil Bell continues to fund the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) by extending the revenues (from taxes and fees) that support the program, and furthermore creates a trust fund outside the state treasury so that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality could spend that revenue as money came in, without having to seek appropriations from the state legislature every two years. In past years, the Texas Legislature has not actually appropriated the revenues for their intended purpose -- more than $1.7 billion in TERP funds has sat in a state account without ever being spent.
Our position
Sierra Club supported HB 3745 because it would help the state lower air pollution and ozone pollution levels that impact public health through incentives to get cleaner cars, trucks, and construction equipment on our roads, including rebates for electric vehicles. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
None registered as against.
Outcome
The bill was approved by the House but was changed substantially in the Senate, where it was sponsored by Sen.. Brian Birdwell. However, when the House refused to concur with the Senate version, which only extended the revenues for two years and did not create a separate trust fund, the House and Senate reached a compromise. The revenues would continue until Texas meets federal ozone standards, and the funds will be put in a trust fund, but not until 2021. The Committee Report was approved by the House on May 26 on a 145-1 vote, and passed the Senate that same day on a 30-1 vote. The bill was signed by Governor Abbott.
SJR 24
For decades, state park advocates have complained that the state has failed to adequately invest in our state parks, wildlife reserves, and related lands and programs. This session, Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and Rep. John Cyrier, Chair of the House Committee on Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, took up both legislation related to funding state parks and historical sites, as well as a proposed constitutional amendment to dedicate revenue generated by the existing sales tax on sporting goods to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas State Historical Commission. SJR 24 created an amendment to the constitution which, when approved by voters in November, permanently dedicated those revenues to the Parks and Wildlife and the Texas Historical Commission. Revenue from that tax would be allocated automatically to the two agencies beginning September 1, 2021.
Our position
Sierra Club supported SJR 24. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
None registered as against.
Outcome
After initially passing SJR 24, the House added a clarifying amendment and passed the bill on a 143-1 vote on April 23. The Senate then concurred with the House version of SJR 24 on May 21 on a 30-1 vote. Governor Abbott signed the bill and voters approved the Constitutional Amendment in November.
SJR 79
Adequate access to funding for potable water, wastewater treatment service, and drainage service has been a complex and difficult issue for many Texans for decades. For 25 years, the State of Texas has helped hundreds of thousands of residents through the “Economically Distressed Areas Program” (EDAP) which provides low-interest loans, and in some cases access to grant funds, for such public projects. Unfortunately, the funding for the program had run out of money, and this legislative session, Sen. Eddie Lucio and Rep. Mary Gonzalez sponsored legislation and a constitutional amendment to bring funding back for future projects. SJR 79 is a constitutional amendment that would allow the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to issue additional general obligation bonds for the EDAP account of the Texas Water Development Fund II in amounts such that the aggregate principal amount of the bonds issued that are outstanding at any time does not exceed $200 million. EDAP has been an important program that allows for TWDB to combine loan and grant programs to help certain areas of the state that are considered “economically distressed” to get access to water, wastewater treatment, drainage, and other basic water services. The final version of SJR 79 seeks to allow for an additional $200 million to be authorized, though the exact timing and amounts of issuing bonds would be determined by the TWDB with legislative input.
Our position
The Sierra Club has a long history of supporting the EDAP program and adequate potable water and wastewater treatment for all Texas residents. Investing more bond funding in such a program makes sense. A vote for SJR 79 was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
None registered as against.
Outcome
The constitutional amendment passed the Senate on a 19-12 vote on May 8 on second reading, before receiving final approval later that day on a 21-10 vote. After a slightly different version of the bill passed out of the House Committee on Natural Resources on May 17, it passed the House on May 21 on a 114-27 vote. The new version of the bill then went back to the Senate, eventually passing on a 22-8 vote on May 25.
HB 1059
HB 1059 by Rep. Eddie Lucio III was a “study” bill that required the TCEQ to appoint a Green Stormwater Infrastructure and Low Impact Development Report Group each fiscal biennium to prepare a report on the use of green stormwater infrastructure and low impact development in this state. The intent of the bill was to highlight the existing use of “green stormwater infrastructure” and low impact development to lower the risks of floods, but also assess how state and local government could learn best practices and implement such projects as the state develops flood infrastructure.
Our position
The Sierra Club supported this bill. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
None registered as against.
Outcome
The bill easily passed the House on May 2 on a 120-19 vote before being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jose Rodriguez. The bill passed the full senate on May 22 on a 28-3 vote. Unfortunately, the measure was vetoed by Governor Greg Abbott, who argued that the bill and resulting working group and study were not necessary.
HB 798
HB 798 by Rep. Armando Walle was a simple but important bill that would amend the Health and Safety Code to require standard permit applications for a concrete plant that performs wet batching, dry batching, or central mixing to include a plot plan, including a distance scale, north arrow, and all property lines, emissions points, buildings, tanks and process vessels. By including this information, the application would allow the public to see where a proposed plant would be located in relation to nearby homes and businesses (including where the facility located its equipment, and its relation to roads and traffic). According to TCEQ, duties and responsibilities associated with implementing the provisions of the bill could be accomplished by utilizing existing resources.
Our position
The Sierra Club supported the bill as a needed public transparency requirement to improve transparency and public participation. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Concrete/aggregate (registered on and against).
Outcome
The bill passed the House on a 92-47 vote on May 10, but was never sent to a committee in the Senate, killing the bill.
HB 907
HB 907 by Rep. Huberty was one of many bills designed to improve the regulation and enforcement of the aggregate and cement industry in Texas. Texas has an issue where many aggregate producers have operated without seeking the proper authorization from TCEQ. The bill as filed would increase fines on aggregate producers that failed to register with the TCEQ, increasing fines from $5,000 up to a maximum of $20,000 for each year an aggregate producer operated without proper registration. A maximum fine was set at $50,000.
Our position
The Sierra Club supported HB 907 and other bills related to improved inspections and enforcement of aggregate production operators. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Concrete and aggregate industries (mixed for/against), TAB
Outcome
HB 907 passed the House on a 124-13 vote on May 10. In the Senate, the bill was sponsored by Sen. Brandon Creighton and was substituted in committee to include language from other filed bills. The new bill included not only larger fines but also required the TCEQ to conduct more frequent inspections of aggregate producers, including unannounced inspections for aggregate producers that had received notice of violations in previous years. The bill passed the Senate on May 20 on a 28-3 vote. The House concurred with the new version of the bill and Governor Abbott signed the bill.
HB 3750
HB 3750 by Rep. Keumpel, supported by development and agriculture special interests, was intended to limit the authority of a municipality to impose water quality regulations in the municipality's extraterritorial jurisdiction. The bill as filed would have prevented a municipality from imposing any cut-and-fill depth requirements or other water quality regulations in its extraterritorial jurisdiction unless the project was part of a contributing or recharge zone. The bill was improved slightly on the House floor by adding language that would allow such regulations if it was in the drainage basin of a river with exceptional or high quality water quality standards. Still, the bill was clearly designed to limit city powers.
Position
The Sierra Club opposed the bill because it undermines local democracy and the ability of cities to protect water resources. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
Developers, cattle industry, TAA, TAB
Outcome
Due in part to the author adding further protections for cities, the bill did pass the House 103-22 on May 10. However, once in the Senate, the bill was weakened by the addition of an amendment by Sen. Donna Campbell that would have specifically impacted San Antonio’s ordinance to protect trees within its extraterritorial district. Still, the bill passed the Senate on a 28-3 vote. Fortunately, when it came back to the House with the new language, Rep. Erin Zwiener introduced a “point of order” that was sustained since the Senate amendments were not germane to the original bill. Because Rep. Zwiener’s point of order occurred on May 24, the bill died since it was so late in the session.
SB 185
SB 185 by Sen. Borris Miles was an attempt to improve the safety and regulation of oil and gas wells by creating beefed up reporting requirements for wells involved in an accident or release. It would have prevented oil and gas companies that had not adequately cleaned up such a well from obtaining new permits, and creating a new alert system for residents living near an accidental release or similar incident. To get the bill out of committee and to the Senate floor, Sen. Miles changed the bill substantially to be much more modest, as it only required certain well owners to disclose when they were applying for a new oil and gas well permit if they had a nearby well that had leaked or had an accident that released product into the environment.
Position
This bill was supported by the Sierra Club. A vote for the bill was a vote for the Sierra Club position.
Special Interests
Major oil companies were clearly opposed to the legislation and the bill that passed out of committee was a much, much weaker version.
Outcome
SB 185 was approved by the Senate on May 15 on a 27-4 vote. However, it was referred on May 16 to the House Committee on Energy Resources and was never considered or taken up by that committee.
HB 720
HB 720 by Rep. Lyle Larson sets up a process whereby the TCEQ can approve applications to take the state’s surface water and grant the right to private or public entities to use it for aquifer storage and recharge projects. While the bill does have language stating that water should not be granted if it would impact “environmental flows” needed to protect bays and estuaries and dependent species, the bill assumes that these flow needs are already well established. In addition the bill sets up the criteria for when state water that percolates into aquifer storage facilities becomes groundwater, and thus a private water property. Thus, there is the potential that surface water could ultimately change from “waters of the state” to a private groundwater resource. Finally, the bill allows those with a permit to develop a reservoir to be able to convert that to an aquifer storage facility. While it is unlikely that there will be major projects developed under the law because of both financial and technical issues, the law could impact the availability of water resources for downstream users and the environment.
Our position
Sierra Club knew that a bill carried by the Chairs of the Natural Resource and Water Committees would be difficult to stop, but because of our concerns about how state water could be converted to private water and because of our concerns about the potential to impact environmental flows, we opposed the legislation. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special Interests
The bill had the support of major water special interests.
Outcome
The bill passed the House 135-3 on May 1. After being picked up by Sen. Charles Perry, Chair of the Senate Committee on Water Affairs, it passed out of committee and passed the Senate on a 25-6 vote on May 22, and was signed by Governor Abbott on June 10.
HB 3143 - Amendment 4
HB 3143 by Rep. Jim Murphy was a bill that extended Chapter 312 tax abatement agreements from 2019 to 2029. These property tax abatement agreements are agreements with local government that allow for property tax breaks for a period of time in return for agreements to invest in facilities that provide jobs and local economic development in communities. Many of these tax abatements have gone to renewable energy companies, while others have been for fossil fuel and manufacturing industries. The bill not only extended the program for another 10 years, but it included some important transparency requirements in terms of providing the public with information and requirements on holding public meetings. After being approved in the House, Senate sponsor, Sen. Royce West, got the bill through committee and onto the Senate floor. During the floor debate on May 20, Sen. Bob Hall introduced an amendment that would have specifically stripped the ability of many renewable energy companies to be able to access the tax abatement agreements, potentially slowing the development of wind and solar power.
Our position
The Sierra Club neither supported nor opposed the extension of the tax abatement agreements under Chapter 312. However, we did make it clear that we opposed any provisions that would specifically exclude renewable energy from having the same access to the tax breaks as the fossil fuel industry. Thus, we opposed the amendment offered by Sen. Hall. A vote for the amendment was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special interests
The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) made this one of their two major efforts on renewable energy this session and they were backed by oil and gas money.
Outcome
The attempt to strip HB 3143 of its pro-renewable policy by Sen. Hall failed on a 21-10 vote. The bill then passed the Senate and was signed into law by the Governor.
SB 2232
SB 2232 by Sen. Kelly Hancock was a “study” bill that unfortunately was designed in such a way that it could have led to changes that would have directly led to measures that would have increased the cost of, and therefore lowered the potential development of, renewable energy and specifically wind power. The bill was reportedly to study the impact of the federal production tax incentives, which help spur wind development in Texas, but then it ordered the Public Utility Commission and ERCOT, the grid operator for most of Texas, to take any steps to counteract the impact of those incentives. That meant the bill could have been used by fossil fuel interests to enact changes to slow down the growth of wind energy. Importantly, the bill would only have studied renewable energy incentives and not the vast array of federal and state incentives that favor fossil fuels, meaning it was a bill designed to target renewable energy.
Our Position
We actively opposed the bill in both the Senate and House and were pleased that it did not get out of the House Committee on State Affairs. A vote for the bill was a vote against the Sierra Club position.
Special Interests
While this was the brainchild of TPPF, some other special interests, like the Texas Association of Manufacturers, were supporting it as a way to argue that wind subsidies could impact electricity pricing. Many chemical and refinery interests also supported the bill, though their support was lukewarm.
Outcome
While the bill did pass the Senate on a 23-8 vote on April 24, it did not pass the House Committee on State Affairs after being sponsored by Rep. Phil King.