The Texas Senate is a strange place these days.
On Tuesday, March 14, they overwhelmingly passed a bill supported by the Sierra Club that would continue the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) program until such time as Texas meets clean air standards for ground-level ozone (smog) pollution. (TERP provides financial incentives to reduce emissions from polluting vehicles and equipment.)
The bill, SB 26, by Craig Estes (R-Wichita Falls), was approved 27-4, with only conservative members Konni Burton (R-Colleyville), Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), Bob Hall (R-Canton) and Van Taylor (R-Plano) voting against. Among its main features, it continues the highly successful Diesel Emissions Reduction Incentive program for large trucks, the Drayage Truck Incentive program to clean up our ports, as well as programs for alternatively-fueled vehicles and related infrastructure, including rebates for electric and natural gas passenger vehicles and government fleets. Other programs include grants for electric storage programs and devices to clean up fugitive emissions in oil and gas fields.
In describing his bill, Estes noted that the TERP program has helped reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 170,000 tons. Air pollution in Houston, Dallas, and other areas has been reduced because of it. One part of the bill -- the Government Fleet program -- is somewhat controversial because it essentially “mandates” (subject to funding) that government agencies use alternative fuels like natural gas, propane, hydrogen, or electricity. In response, Estes took an amendment offered by Senator Hancock that makes the mandate more flexible, as well as amendments to provide incentives for systems which capture emissions from the oil and gas fields.
After the feel-good moment of passage, the Senate then devolved into a lengthy debate on the so-called bathroom bill, SB 6, by Sen. Kolkhorst (R-Brenham), a bill opposed by countless Texans which would require that people use “public” bathrooms corresponding to the sex on their birth certificate. The bill would also prevent local governments from adopting policies that deviate from this state law. The bill passed 21-10, with all Republicans voting for it and all Democrats voting against it, with the exception of Democrat Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville), who voted for the measure.
That was just on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Senate Finance Committee met to discuss recommendations on Article VI, and adopted recommendations on the Railroad Commission (which regulates oil and gas), Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The Finance Committee was fairly kind to the Railroad Commission, funding most of their requests for extra money for inspectors, technology upgrades, and salary parity, as well as extra money should the “Sunset” bill pass.
They were not nearly as kind to Parks and Wildlife. Not only did they not approve their exceptional items, they actually slashed local park grants by $9 million from the initial budget.
And then there is TERP funding, which is in the TCEQ budget. Even though the Senate passed a bill on Tuesday to continue the TERP programs, the Senate Finance Committee voted to slash TERP funding the following day by a third compared to the base budget, cutting funding by some $65 million, from a total of $208 million to a total of $143 million over the two year period.
They did, however, in a not-too-subtle message to the House of Representatives, add a rider that basically said if the House passes SB 26, they will add money back into TERP, although the amount of money was not specified, nor whether the money would only be for the government fleets program favored by the Lieutenant Governor.
While a bill identical to SB 26 has been filed in the House -- HB 1979 by Brooks Landgraf (R-Odessa) -- that bill has yet to be referred to committee, and several members have filed TERP bills with slightly different approaches, including HB 2682 by Ron Reynolds (D-Missouri City), and HB 3479 by Joe Pickett (D-El Paso) who is Chair of the House Environmental Regulation Committee where a TERP bill will most likely go.
In essence, the Senate seemed to be telling the House of Representatives, pass our TERP bill if you want more money back into the budget for TERP.
For its part, the House of Representatives currently has significantly more money in the TERP funds, $236 million over the biennium, although the budget has yet to get out of committee.
The House deals with the Railroad Commission Sunset bill
Back on Monday, Energy Resources Committee Chair Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) brought up the Sunset bill for Railroad Commission. HB 1818 by Larry Gonzales (R-Round Rock) was introduced with a committee substitute with a few “tweaks” and the committee passed it unanimously. Despite a lot of work by the Sierra Club and many other organizations, common-sense amendments such as putting enforcement information online, updating bonding requirements for oil and gas wells, raising maximum fines for rule-breakers, were not added to the bill in committee, and the bill is now destined for the House floor, possibly as soon as Tuesday of next week. We will be working to get these improvements to this “must-pass” bill.
The House Committee on Appropriations also met this week, adopting their Article VI recommendations, and took a much nicer approach to parks, TERP, and funding for drinking water programs. Indeed, they made no cuts to local park grants, funding all $29 million in the base budget, and also funded TERP at $236 million, the same amount as last budget cycle.
On TCEQ's water programs, they funded the majority of TCEQ’s drinking water and water quality requests to help monitor and enforce lead and copper standards as well as coliform bacteria standards.
Finally, unlike the Senate, they authorized additional debt payments on an additional $50 million in bonds for the Economically Distressed Area Programs, which provides grants for water and wastewater for underserved communities.
With TERP, discriminatory bathroom bills, and budgets likely to put the House and Senate at odds, well, please stay tuned and engaged. If you haven’t already signed our petitions for parks funding and clean air and clean energy, now would be a great time to do so, followed up with a call to your State Representative.