| 1 | 1 | | By: Jackson S.B. No. 1151 |
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| 2 | 2 | | (In the Senate - Filed March 4, 2011; March 16, 2011, read |
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| 3 | 3 | | first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources; |
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| 4 | 4 | | March 30, 2011, reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 8, |
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| 5 | 5 | | Nays 0; March 30, 2011, sent to printer.) |
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| 6 | 6 | | |
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| 7 | 7 | | |
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| 8 | 8 | | A BILL TO BE ENTITLED |
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| 9 | 9 | | AN ACT |
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| 10 | 10 | | relating to notice of utility rate increases. |
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| 11 | 11 | | BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: |
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| 12 | 12 | | SECTION 1. Subsection (b), Section 104.103, Utilities Code, |
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| 13 | 13 | | is amended to read as follows: |
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| 14 | 14 | | (b) Instead of publishing newspaper notice, a gas utility |
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| 15 | 15 | | may provide notice [to the public in an area outside the affected |
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| 16 | 16 | | municipality or in a municipality with a population of less than |
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| 17 | 17 | | 2,500] by: |
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| 18 | 18 | | (1) mailing the notice by United States mail, postage |
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| 19 | 19 | | prepaid, to the billing address of each directly affected customer; |
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| 20 | 20 | | [or] |
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| 21 | 21 | | (2) including the notice, in conspicuous form, in the |
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| 22 | 22 | | bill of each directly affected customer; or |
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| 23 | 23 | | (3) sending the notice by e-mail to each directly |
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| 24 | 24 | | affected customer if that address is available to the utility. |
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| 25 | 25 | | SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only |
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| 26 | 26 | | to a notice of a proposed utility rate increase provided on or after |
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| 27 | 27 | | the effective date of this Act. Notice provided before the |
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| 28 | 28 | | effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed |
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| 29 | 29 | | immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is |
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| 30 | 30 | | continued in effect for that purpose. |
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| 31 | 31 | | SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011. |
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| 32 | 32 | | * * * * * |
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