By: Hinojosa S.B. No. 885
(Harper-Brown)
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to notice of utility rate increases.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 104.103, Utilities Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (c) to read as
follows:
(b) Instead of publishing newspaper notice, a gas utility
may provide notice [to the public in an area outside the affected
municipality or in a municipality with a population of less than
2,500] by:
(1) mailing the notice by United States mail, postage
prepaid, to the billing address of each directly affected customer;
[or]
(2) including the notice, in conspicuous form, in the
bill of each directly affected customer; or
(3) sending the notice by e-mail to each directly
affected customer if that address is available to the utility.
(c) A gas utility may provide a customer with notice of the
utility's intent to increase rates by e-mail as described by
Subsection (b)(3) only if the customer has consented in writing to
the use of the customer's e-mail address for that purpose.
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a notice of a proposed utility rate increase provided on or after
the effective date of this Act. Notice provided before the
effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed
immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
continued in effect for that purpose.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.