June 1, 2015, was the official end of the 2015 Legislative Session… at least the regular session. There are always rumors of special session brewing. Here are some highlights from the perspective of the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter.
Contributed By Cyrus Reed, Ken Kramer, and Evelyn Merz
The Budget
House Bill 1 was not perfect, but the final version did increase the amount of money going to local parks, park operations and maintenance, water conservation* at the Texas Water Development Board, and clean air programs like the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) and the Low-Income Vehicle Repair and Replacement Program (LIRAP). Unfortunately, the bill did not fully fund these programs.
In addition, the final version of the budget failed to require the Railroad Commission (RRC) to fully develop access to their enforcement data or conduct a best practices report on flaring and venting, as the Sierra Club had requested. While the House and Senate did pass some tax reduction – about $3.8 billion in all – it was more limited than the original proposal, meaning potentially more revenues available for important programs. Other tax reduction efforts separate from the budget were relatively minor as the state continues to struggle with having adequate resources to deal with the needs of the state.
The House and Senate also passed HB 158, which guarantees that all the sporting goods tax is dedicated to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for state parks and local park grants (94%) and to the Texas Historical Commission (6%). The Legislature appropriated $568.6 million of the $575.1 million base budget request by TPWD and $144.4 million of the $201.6 million in exceptional items. Key items funded for state parks included operations, minor repairs, major capital repairs/improvements, and local parks grants. Sadly, there was no state funding for acquisition of new state park land. A major change on the Wildlife Division side was the increase in funding for invasive aquatic species control from the current $1.4 million for the biennium to $5.7 million for FY 2016-17. Although it is a major improvement, it is still lacking compared to the $18 million requested by TPWD.
*Unfortunately, Governor Greg Abbott line item vetoed $1 million for water conservation education grants in FY 2016 on the inaccurate grounds that such funding is “duplicative of existing water conservation initiatives.” In a statement issued after the veto, Water Resources Chair Ken Kramer said it is not duplicative. “Indeed while the State Legislature created a statewide water education program in 2007, it has yet to fund that program, despite recommendations from Legislative Budget Board staff and others to do so.” Read the full statement here.
Protecting Citizens: House and Senate Listen to, and Heed, Their Corporate Sponsors
Despite our best efforts – and those of our allies – two key bills supported by polluting industries passed and were signed by the Governor. SB 709 – sponsored by Sen. Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay) and Chairman Morrison (R-Victoria) – undermines the ability of local governments and citizens to request and participate in Contested Case Hearings on environmental permits issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). While the bill does not eliminate the opportunity to request and receive a hearing before an administrative law judge, it gives much greater discretion to TCEQ to deny standing and also largely shifts the burden of proof from the applicant to the protestant. Some groups are reportedly going to challenge the new law, and ask EPA to review TCEQ’s delegation authority.
Governor Abbott signed HB 40, which severely restricts the ability of cities to regulate oil and gas development within municipal boundaries, despite the widespread problems with urban drilling, including air pollution, earthquakes, traffic, spills, highway accidents and deaths, and other consequences of drilling too near where people live, work, and play. In Denton, they have started drilling again, while Laredo and Lubbock have been issuing permits to drill within city limits, unsure of whether more aggressive ordinances they had been contemplating would be legal.
Finally, HB 1794 passed, which places a cap on civil penalties for cases brought by local governments to $2.3 million for the local government and $2.3 million for the state against egregious environmental polluters. Heavily supported by polluting industries, the bill essentially tells local governments that want to go after polluters that it is the state’s job since the cap makes it unlikely that most local governments would bother.
It took a unique coalition of environmental groups and tea party organizations to defeat the corporate lobby for HB 2595(Keffer, R-Eastland). The bill would have largely eliminated the potential to do initiatives and referenda in local cities, but was beat back in the Senate when more conservative senators and more liberal senators told the bill’s senate sponsor, Sen. Fraser, that this was going a step too far.
A Silver Lining: Defeating Last Minute Attempt to Delay Another Sunset Review of the Railroad Commission
In the last days of the session, HB 3123, a bill dealing with the timing of putting state agencies through Sunset Review, had last-minute provisions added that would have delayed another full Sunset Review for the RRC from 2017 until 2023. Fortunately, a combination of efforts by groups like the Sierra Club, citizens concerned that the agency has failed to properly regulate the oil and gas industry, key legislative leaders like Rep. Jim Keffer (R-Eastland) and Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), and ratepayers concerned about rising gas utility rates, led the House to beat back the proposal on a bipartisan 90-52 vote. Make no mistake, the Railroad Commission will be analyzed again over the next two years!
…And so will river authorities like the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), which, under SB 521, will undergo Sunset Review.
Efforts to Beat Back Renewables Stalled
In other good news, efforts to eliminate important policy tools like the Renewable Portfolio Standard and the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (transmission lines for renewable energy) were beat back in the House through a strong coalition of environmental and coalition groups, the Wind Coalition, the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association (TREIA), and the Texas Solar Power Association.
First, Sen. Fraser’s SB 931 never even received a public hearing after sailing through the Senate. In addition, last minute attempts by Fraser to add the anti-CREZ provisions of his bill to other bills were similarly defeated in the House, as were his attempts to impose single-member voting districts in the nation’s largest cooperative, the Pedernales Electric Cooperative.
Second, SCR 27 which would have ordered the Public Utility Commission and TCEQ to take no action on implementing the Clean Power Plan – including taking advantage of our vast renewable energy potential – failed to move out of committee.
Indeed, a few positive bills for renewables passed.
SB 991, which requires a study of the benefits of utilizing renewables for water desalination, passed with ease, while HB 706, which eliminates the yearly requirement of homeowners to go to their local appraisal district to have their solar or wind system declared property-tax free, also was approved (Farrar and Huffman). Finally, SB 1626 passed. The bill gives further protection to homeowners living in HOAs and subdivisions who want to put solar on their rooftops.
TERP Loses
One of our main efforts was to extend and improve the programs that make up the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan – or TERP – but it failed to pass due to a disagreement between the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor over a new proposed program. Thus, HB 14 – the TERP “tune-up” bill – easily passed the House and Senate, but the Senate added SB 12 as an amendment, which was a bill that would have created a government fleet turnover program to encourage natural gas vehicles. The House refused to take the Senate amendment as is, and the Senate refused to name a negotiating committee (officially known as a Conference Committee), and the bill died in the final hours of the session. While most programs will continue at least for the next two years, because of the disagreement, the state will not be offering any state rebates for electric or natural gas vehicles, except those already in the current budget.
Efficiency Sees Few Advances
Energy efficiency efforts were largely stalled. Four modest energy efficiency bills that would have expanded the tools at the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) to promote energy efficiency in state and private buildings stalled, mostly on the Senate side. In particular, HB 2392 by Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas) would have authorized SECO (using only private or federal funding) to initiate rulemaking and begin a program known as WHEEL (Warehouse for Energy Efficiency Loans), which leverages private dollars to create a revolving loan program for homeowners. Despite passing the House on a 100-36 vote and getting out of the Senate Business & Commerce Committee on a 6-2 vote, it failed in the Senate. Sen. Watson (D-Austin) worked tirelessly with the Sierra Club and an unlikely ally in Dow Chemical – which makes many of the insulation products that would benefit from such a program – to line up the needed 19 or 20 Senate votes, but was never recognized by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick to bring up the bill in the last days of the session. Thus, the bill had the support, but not the time to convince leadership to allow it to move forward. Three other bills to create programs to help churches, state buildings, and performance contracting, also failed due either to Senate or House opposition.
A complicated bill, HB 1736 (Villalba and Fraser) did pass and is largely a positive development. The bill delays future adoption of statewide energy codes until 2021, but does adopt the 2015 Energy Code known as Chapter 9 of the International Residential Code statewide in September 2016. While the bill also includes a more flexible HERS rating – essentially an energy index of the efficiency of new homes – Sierra Club worked with unlikely allies like the Texas Chemical Council and the Texas Municipal League to assure that cities in areas impacted by air pollution could still adopt local amendments that require even more energy efficient homes. Thus, it is largely a win for more energy efficient homes being built in Texas over the next few years.
Water
The 84th Texas Legislature was a mixed bag on water issues but environmental advocates thwarted some major assaults on sound water policy and saw continued or increased funding for environmental flow protection, water conservation, and groundwater studies. Sierra Club and others, in coalition with rural Texans and fiscal conservatives, stopped the advance of what they termed a "water gridzilla," (HB 3298/SB 1907) a proposed state water "grid" of reservoirs, pipelines, pumping stations, and other infrastructure to move massive volumes of water around Texas.
Legislation to advance aquifer storage and recovery projects (HB 655) and seawater desalination (HB 2031 and HB 4097) passed in compromised form and will require close public scrutiny as individual projects, which have environmental advantages and disadvantages, are proposed.
Some good legislation passed to advance water reuse and water conservation. HB 1902 will facilitate use of graywater and other sources such as air conditioner condensate to meet certain water needs. Another bill, SB 1356, will provide a sales tax exemption for water-conserving products sold each year during the Memorial Day Weekend. This is similar to the sales tax “holiday” for energy efficient appliances observed annually during the same three-day period. This will give higher visibility to ways in which individuals may practice water conservation as well as an incentive for them to do so.
On the other hand, SB 912, legislation to exempt certain wastewater spills from immediate reporting, passed and will need to be monitored closely in implementation. Sierra Club was able to modify the bill to require clearer standards for calculating spill volumes. The association of wastewater utility professionals has pledged to work with Sierra Club to avoid abuses of this new law.
Finally, in the last days of the session, San Antonio Water Systems was able to add language aiding its proposed Vista Ridge pipeline to an unrelated modest drought response bill, HB 928, despite the fact that the language was not part of any piece of legislation all session and it was not related to the original version of HB 928 at all. Senators raised a red flag on the move, and the conference committee report was withdrawn, killing the SAWS amendment but also killing the bill.
State Parks & Wildlife
On the Wildlife side, some of the best news was that HB 1579, which protects the marine ecosystem by preventing the decimation of the shark population through shark finning, finally passed this session after being derailed in the Senate when it was almost at the finish line during the 83rd session. The second time was the charm for Rep. Lucio III, with an assist from Sen. Lucio (his father) as the Senate sponsor. The bill provides criminal penalties for the possession, sale, or purchase of detached shark fins. It does not impact recreational fishing.
The Texas Farm and Ranchlands Program was transferred from the General Land Office to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Unfortunately, an un-needed constitutional amendment (SJR 22) will be on the ballot this November seeking voter approval. It would guarantee a person’s right to hunt and fish, not that anyone thought otherwise. In short, it is a solution in search of a problem. Although people might consider the bill to be harmless, other provisions in the bill states that activities can use “traditional means”, which is undefined and that hunting and fishing are the best ways to control wildlife populations. The Chapter initially was neutral on the bill, but later changed its position to AGAINST because needed revisions were not made.
The big news for state parks, other than a welcome, much-needed increase in appropriations, is the passage of HB 158. It completely removes a cap on the amount that can be appropriated from the Sporting Goods Sales Tax and allows all the tax to be dedicated to TPWD and the Texas Historical Commission. Unfortunately, bills proposed by Rep. Larson and Sen. Estes that proposed a constitutional amendment to automatically appropriate the SGST to state parks and the THC died in committee.
However, an important bill, SB 1366 by Sen. Kolkhorst, removed some rigid percent allocation requirements of appropriated SGST that had been in place since 2007 and that were beginning to hamper needed allocations to effect major repairs in state parks.
Two potentially damaging bills that would have decreased the amount of sales tax revenue flowing to the SGST failed to pass. HB 847 would have created two sale tax-free weekends for purchasers of firearms and hunting supplies, but it would have reduced the SGST by about $11.1 million. A similar bill in the Senate, SB 228, would have allowed one free sales tax-free weekend. Similar bills may well return in the 85th session.
Recycling
Unfortunately, there was no good news on the recycling front. A fine bill by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez that would have created a program of beverage container recycling incentives (HB 2425) was left pending in the Environmental Regulations Committee after one hearing. We hope the Speaker will assign an interim charge so that stakeholders can thoroughly discuss the proposal. A bill to establish a program to recycle certain household batteries (HB 3153 – Rep. Anderson) met the same fate in the same committee.