85R4937 DMS-F
By: Hancock S.B. No. 736
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the authority of the General Land Office to sell retail
electric power.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 35.102, Utilities Code, is transferred
to Subchapter A, Chapter 101, Utilities Code, redesignated as
Section 101.009, Utilities Code, and amended to read as follows:
Sec. 101.009 [35.102]. STATE AUTHORITY TO SELL OR CONVEY
[POWER OR] NATURAL GAS. (a) In this section:
(1) "Commissioner" means the commissioner of the
General Land Office.
(2) "Public retail customer" means a retail customer
that is an agency of this state, a state institution of higher
education, a public school district, a political subdivision of
this state, a military installation of the United States, or a
United States Department of Veterans Affairs facility.
(b) The commissioner, acting on behalf of the state, may
sell or otherwise convey [power or] natural gas generated from
royalties taken in kind as provided by Sections 52.133(f), 53.026,
and 53.077, Natural Resources Code, directly to a public retail
customer [regardless of whether the public retail customer is also
classified as a wholesale customer under other provisions of this
title].
(c) [(b)] To ensure that the state receives the maximum
benefit from the sale of [power or] natural gas generated from
royalties taken in kind, the commissioner shall use all feasible
means to sell that [power or] natural gas first to public retail
customers that are military installations of the United States,
agencies of this state, institutions of higher education, or public
school districts. The remainder of the [power or] natural gas, if
any, may be sold to public retail customers that are political
subdivisions of this state or to a United States Department of
Veterans Affairs facility.
SECTION 2. Section 104.2545(d), Utilities Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(d) In this section, "public retail customer" has the
meaning assigned by Section 101.009 [35.101].
SECTION 3. (a) The heading to Subchapter D, Chapter 35,
Utilities Code, is repealed.
(b) Sections 35.101, 35.103, 35.104, 35.105, and 35.106,
Utilities Code, are repealed.
SECTION 4. The General Land Office or an entity operating
under a contract with the General Land Office may continue to
provide retail electric service in accordance with Subchapter D,
Chapter 35, Utilities Code, as that subchapter existed before the
effective date of this Act, under the terms of an agreement with a
customer entered into before the effective date of this Act, only
until the date the agreement expires.
SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2017.