By Cyrus Reed
With only four days left in the Texas Legislative session, brinksmanship between Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker Joe Straus appears to have been averted with compromises on discriminatory “bathroom bill” legislation and the budget. However, several good environmental bills were still hanging by a thread.
The budget for 2018-19 is the only bill that must pass. Late Saturday/early Sunday, around 1am, the 10 “conferees” on the budget (selected from both the House and Senate to hammer out differences between the House and Senate versions of the budget bill) reached an agreement, allowing both chambers to speed up on other bills. The budget deal did meet several Sierra Club demands, including more money for oil and gas inspectors and a new database for enforcement at the Railroad Commission, and more money for water programs at TCEQ. However, money for the Texas Emissions Reduction Program (TERP - a clean air program) was cut by some $80 million from the base budget. A contingency rider was added that if the TERP bill (SB 26) passes, then basically the $80 million would be put back in the budget.
Second, the House has thus far refused to pass the Senate’s dangerous, discriminatory “bathroom” bill, SB 6, causing Lt. Governor Dan Patrick to tweet he would demand a special session. The House ended up passing a more focused discriminatory “bathroom” bill that would affect public and charter schools. Essentially, the House agreed to discriminate against transgender school children, but not bathrooms in the private sector.
Agreement on a third issue dividing the House and Senate was only partially resolved. The House had refused to take up SB 2, a bill favored by the Senate that would require a local election for any city wanting to raise local property taxes by more than four percent. Instead, it attached a version of SB 2 on another bill that improves transparency and accountability in local property taxes, but does not change local election laws for property taxes increases. SB 2 itself was not taken up the House.
Though the Senate added SB 2 and SB 6 to a House bill late Tuesday, the House has already told the Senate they will not accept those amendments.
Still Alive?
Several bills supported by Sierra Club were given the green light because of the budget agreement.
First, SB 26, which extends TERP and associated fees that fund programs that help cities meet clean air standards, passed the Senate and the House Committee on Environmental Regulation, and was placed on the calendar on Tuesday, May 23 - the last day to place a bill on the calendar. However, SB 26 was not acted upon when discussions over the Voter ID bill, SB 5 (supported by Republican leadership and vehemently opposed by Democrats), lasted more than five hours. Then, a bill concerning leash laws for dogs prevented SB 26 from being taken up when the bell struck 12:01am. SB 26 was literally the next bill on the agenda.
However, SB 26 was then added to two other bills in the Senate, meaning that with four days left, it is still possible the TERP bill to continue programs that help clean up our air will still be acted upon and approved, along with more money.
Secondly, SB 1105, which would allow TCEQ to use a used oil recycling account to fund drinking water and water quality programs, was also given the green light, and passed the House on Monday on a 143-1 vote. The bill, by Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-Brownsville) and sponsored in the House by Rep. Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont), will free up millions of dollars to help TCEQ enforce drinking water and water quality programs. This was a major effort by the Sierra Club to make sure we had sufficient resources to assure better drinking water.
Other bills that are Sierra Club priorities also received positive movements in the waning days of the session.
Two water conservation bills supported by the Sierra Club have passed both the House and Senate are onto the Governor. First, HB 1648 by Four Price (R-Lubbock), which would require public water utilities to designate a water conservation coordinator to implement their water conservation plans, was passed by both the House and Senate. Second, HB 1573 by Rep. Price, would improve requirements for water loss audits. Both will help further promote water conservation in the state of Texas.
HB 2321 by Rep. Chris Turner (D-Grand Prairie) and Sen. Kirk Watson (D-Austin), which would expand the Low Income Vehicle Repair and Replacement Program (LIHEAP) to help drivers in cities to fix or purchase new cleaner vehicles (and enforce clean air rules on cars) passed the House and was scheduled to be voted on this week in the Senate. However, conservative Senators held up final passage. Thus, a major effort to reform the program and make it more accessible for Texas drivers did not occur, despite our best efforts.
Good Bills Gone
Similarly, Sierra Club priority bills related to oil and gas reform did not do well. First, while the Railroad Commission Sunset bill (HB 1818) passed both the House and Senate, attempts to add basic reforms were defeated easily by political leaders beholden to the oil and gas industry, but not to citizens calling for more fundamental reform.
Separate legislation (on access to enforcement information, increasing fines for not complying with the law, studying fugitive emissions from oil and gas facilities, limiting political contributions to the Commissioners that regulate oil and gas, and other issues) had hearings, but never made it to the House or Senate floor.
Bad Bills Linger
A couple of “bad” bills were also still alive. SB 277 by Sen. Campbell (R-Brenham), which would eliminate the potential for property tax breaks for wind facilities located within 25 miles of a military base, narrowly passed the House 76 to 65. However, due to some last minute negotiations, two mitigating amendments were added. First, an amendment was added on second reading that projects that have begun construction and have begun the process of getting a tax break before September 2017 would not be affected by the bill, even if the decision on the tax break is pending. In addition, a separate “third reading” amendment would allow existing wind projects that are expanding to proceed and get the tax break, as well as new projects if they reach a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Defense that assuages the concerns of the military facility.
The Senate, however, refused to agree to these changes and the issue will go to “conference committee” in the coming days for final approval or rejection.
Fortunately, SB 636 by Sen. Don Huffines (R-Dallas), which would require any local amendment to building codes, be it for plumbing, energy use, construction or any other standard building code, to go through a cost-benefit analysis, passed the Senate and was heard in the House but failed to get out of the committee on a tie vote. The Sierra Club worked hard with our allies to prevent the bill from getting out of committee.
A bill opposed by Sierra Club, SB 1045, which would allow some air pollution permits to only have one notice to the public rather than the two currently required under state law, passed the Senate and House. The Sierra Club made an attempt to improve the bill but it failed as two amendments by Rep. Donna Howard (D-Austin) and Rep. Geannie Morrison (R-Victoria) were narrowly defeated.
Finally, a bill with lots of drama, SB 570 by Sen. José Rodriguez (D-El Paso) and Rep. Armando Walle (D-Houston), which would better regulate used and “trash” tires, was first defeated in the House on a 71-67 vote. However, because many members were not present, and it appeared that many members had their red “no” button pushed when they were not at their desks, Rep. Phelan (who had been shown voting no), asked for a revote the following day. After considerable debate, the bill then finally passed on a 114-30 vote, paving the way for the Governor to sign the bill to help better enforce laws against illegal tire dumping.
With only days left in the session, the fate of LIRAP, TERP, and other good bills will come down to the last days of the session, or be left “as dust in the wind.”