Less than 20 days. That’s how much time is left in the Legislative Session, but for many bills “the end” is a lot sooner: May 13. That is the last day for the House of Representatives to pass a House bill on second reading, and Friday is the last day to pass a house bill on third reading (the last step a bill must take before leaving the House).
There are about 400 bills currently scheduled on the House calendar to be considered.
News flash.
It would be surprising if they took up even half those bills meaning some bills that the Sierra Club strongly supports -- such as HB 1820 by Rep. Zwiener (which would significantly beef up enforcement against bad environmental actors) - the very last bill listed on the Calendar - will not pass.
The Senate has a much more fluid process and bills can be passed almost up to the last day of session, but deadlines do exist and only a handful of House bills have passed both chambers.
So given that we can’t predict what happens by Thursday at midnight or Friday at midnight, what is actually moving and is likely to be approved?
Well, we know some and unfortunately, the news is not great.
First, HB 17 (bill sponsored by the gas industry) that says cities and political subdivisions can’t restrict, prohibit, or discriminate against a particular energy source in our buildings -- i.e. gas -- passed both the House and Senate and has gone to the Governor’s desk. Despite an attempt by Sen. Eckhardt on the floor to add some clarifying language that would have tempered the impact of the bill, it was approved on a party-line vote 18-13. Meanwhile, a similar bill on gas and propane appliances HB 1501 by Rep. Dean (don’t discriminate directly or indirectly against fossil fuels) passed the House overwhelmingly. Sierra Club will continue to fight it in the Senate.
Even as the House and Senate acted to root out “discrimination” against fossil fuels, apparently discriminating against people is okay. First, again on a nearly party-line vote the House passed a far-reaching voter suppression bill - SB 7 - late last week (only Rep. Lyle Larson, the independent moderate Republican bucked his party machine). While the very worst parts of the bill were stripped out, make no mistake, the bill is intended to make it harder to vote and put poll watchers in the role of voter intimidators. Being called Jim Crow 2.0, several House members - especially Rep. Rafael Anchia, Rep. Ann Johnson and Rep. Jessica Gonzalez -- should be thanked for their tireless efforts to defeat this bad bill. The bill still must go to a conference committee so expect more fireworks in the final days of the session.
Another discrimination bill is SB 14, which prevents major cities from enacting ordinances or rules intended to protect workers from discrimination by private businesses, whether it is intended to protect the LGBT+ community or construction workers needing a water break in the hot Texas summer. Cities like Austin and Dallas which have been leaders on protecting workers are clearly in the cross-hairs of state political leadership, and the bill passed the Senate and the House Committee on State Affairs, despite many hours of testimony against it. Again, while it is not our primary legislative focus, Sierra Club signed up against the bill. Worker safety is ultimately a quality of life and environmental issues and our democracy should allow local leaders to set policy.
The budget bill - SB 1 - is being negotiated between Senate and House conferees as I write this, and so far it is looking like the news is potentially good on some of our key areas like air monitoring and well plugging. One remaining mystery is whether the bill will put all revenues that flow to the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan to a trust fund to be used by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for reducing air pollution or some could be used for mitigation projects at the Texas Department of Transportation.
While the House is favoring putting all money into TERP projects, the Senate seems to be favoring a “compromise” putting 40% of the TERP into congestion mitigation projects. Separately, two bills are scheduled to be voted on today in the House that would support full funding for TERP, including HB 3294 by Rep. Cecil Bell and HB 4472 by Rep. Landgraf. The Sierra Club is supporting both bills, not only to ensure full funding, but the bill by Chair Landgraf includes new programs to reduce emissions by oil and gas and would create an energy efficiency loan program that was part of a separate bill by Rep. Ron Reynolds. While we expect the bills to pass the House, we will need to work hard to also get a final bill to the Governor’s office that includes these provisions.
Similarly, a major electric vehicle bill we support - HB 2221 by Rep. Canales - did not make it out of the House Committee on Calendars, but we are busy adding provisions of the bill to other bills, while trying to prevent bills that would unduly tax EV drivers from making it across the finish line. Expect a flurry of activity and amendments on EVs in the coming days!
Two bills not supported by the Sierra Club appear to have been stopped, at least for the moment. First, HB 2692 by Rep. Landgraf, which would have lowered required fees paid for the import of radioactive waste, and reduced certain safety and environmental requirements, to the low-level radioactive waste facility owned by Waste Control Specialists in Andrews County, was killed on a point of order by (former Speaker) Rep. Tom Craddick. The bill was advertised as prohibiting the import of high-level radioactive waste since it contained a ban, but opponents rightly pointed out that Texas does not have primacy over that issue anyway, meaning a prohibition would not have been legally defensible. WCS is separately seeking a high-level radioactive waste storage license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In a strange turn of events, the bill was opposed not only by conservation groups, but also by certain oil and gas interests. Indeed, the Texas GOP was opposing the bill and it was expected the vote would have been very close. Chair Landgraf was working on some amendments that would have improved the bill by stating that if WCS obtained their high-level waste site, the problematic revenue reductions would not have been implemented for WCS. However, because any high-level waste license could still be some time away - and hopefully never -- at the end of the day, even if that amendment had been accepted, the potential loss of tens of millions of dollars over the next several years to the state for revenue that could be used for environmental cleanup of radioactive waste was a poison pill for the Sierra Club. We continued to fight passage of the bill.
SB 1261 by Sen. Birdwell - which would prohibit cities or political subdivisions from taking action on greenhouse gas pollution failed to get out of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation after passing the Senate, after being opposed not only by the Sierra Club and other groups, but also by the City of Houston and the City of Dallas. We will need to watch for “amendments” or any revote but for the moment we appear to have stopped that bad bill.
We also had some good news on a series of good bills by Rep. Tracy King (D-Uvalde), the Chair of Natural Resources. Both HB 2225 and HB 2716 passed the House recently, as did the “pristine” water bill (HB 4146) which prohibits direct discharge of wastewater in certain areas (it had a spirited debate on the House floor this week). We are hopeful that these three good bills will receive Senate hearings next week.
Action on Winter Storm Uri remains unclear
All of the House bills that passed (HB 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 16) have either had hearings or have hearings scheduled in the Senate.The major Senate bills (SB 2, SB 3 and SB 2154) have recently been heard in the House Committee on State Affairs, but are stuck there for now. However, we expect the Senate bills to move soon, after a very late-night hearing last week. Sierra Club signed up “on” the major bills, as we work to ensure that the entire electric and gas supply chain is properly weatherized, that certain anti-renewable provisions are removed, and that local energy solutions - including energy efficiency, demand response, and distributed solar and storage - are added to the bill. While our separate legislation has not moved out of committee on distributed energy resources and energy efficiency, we are still fighting to get these important provisions added to the major bills. (link to my testimony on SB 3 in House)
We are also following HB 2000, a public loan program for weatherization of gas, water, and electric utilities, as well as potentially loans for energy efficiency and gas conservation for individuals, which passed the House last week. Sierra Club worked with allies to make sure that a revolving loan program was added to the bill that could be used for individuals and small businesses. It has been received in the Senate and is awaiting a hearing.
A separate bill - HB 2275 by Rep. Zwiener - passed the House floor today on second reading. This grant bill has been significantly improved from an initial version and would allow matching grants to public entities for a variety of resiliency efforts, including efforts on the demand-side of the electric industry. We will be supporting the bill and amendments to strengthen those demand-side efforts.
Last minute amendments, quick hearings announced on the Senate and House floors, and negotiations will be the order of business over the next two weeks. We will continue to fight for our democracy, worker’s rights, local control, and good water and energy bills that prioritize people not corporations.