April 3, 2019
A bill to create a grid security council to protect Texas’ electricity infrastructure is on its way to the House….
April 3, 2019
“There is concern that the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) may be unable to meet a deadline to identify and designate brackish groundwater production zones for certain areas of Texas,” so a bill passed by the state Senate moves that deadline down by a decade….
April 3, 2019
A senate committee heard testimony on a bill that would phase out a 20-year-old state program that allows the General Land Office to operate the State Power Program, giving schools, military bases, municipalities and other entities to buy electricity at a discounted rate….
April 3, 2019
With 550 oil rigs drilling in the Permian and with hundreds of them needing haircuts even though they’re out in the middle of nowhere, so Sen. Kel Seliger is pushing his haircut bill through the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce.…
Author of mandatory pipeline contingency-plan bill says she filed it because of Permian Highway pipeline; local governments, school districts and conservation districts tried to work with pipeline’s Kinder Morgan but were “belittled and dismissed”
April 2, 2019
“The goal of this bill is not to harm the oil and gas industry in Texas,” Rep. Erin Zwiener, the bill’s author, told a House committee hearing witnesses on House Bill 3324, “the goal is to ensure that this industry, just like other industries in Texas, is held to the highest standard of protecting human health.”…
April 3, 2019
The ERCOT Technical Advisory Committee has endorsed the creation of a task force to establish market rules for implementing real-time co-optimization (RTC), with its first meeting set for Thursday….
March 28, 2019
The vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Texas Ports is calling for testimony from the owner of Intercontinental Terminals Company, where a fire last week resulted in the closing of much of the Port of Houston….
March 28, 2019
A bill calling for adjusted safety standards for pilots and vessels along the Port of Houston remains in the Senate Select Committee on Texas Ports….
March 28, 2019
The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed a bill allowing for suspension of severance tax payments for inactive oil and gas wells that are returned to active status if they have not produced oil or gas for more than one month in the previous two years or more…..
March 28, 2019
The Texas House Transportation committee on Wednesday heard positions on a bill that would add an additional fee for registering electric and hybrid vehicles, since such vehicles pay less or nothing in fuel taxes but still use the same roads as gas-powered vehicles.
The money would be deposited to the state highway fund, as is a portion of gasoline taxes.
The sponsor of HB 1971, Rep. Ken King, has come up with a formula that calculates the amount of tax money spent by traditional car owners versus the amount paid by those owning electrics and hybrids.
The formula, using federal and state data, is intended to create an equitable fee for both gas engine and renewable energy cars and hybrids, to pay their “proportionate share” of highway funding, King told the committee.
The bill was left pending in committee.
Texas Automobile Dealers Association representative Robert Brazil surprisingly spoke in support of the bill.
Electric car owner Rick Bowler said the estimated extra cost for his vehicle, totaling about $200 a year, is exorbitant.
Hybrid vehicles would be $100 per year, in addition to other fees.
Bowler and Ft. Worth’s Craig Manning objected to the aspect of the bill that might tend to treat the alternative vehicles as a separate class of transportation from exclusively gas-fueled vehicles.
From among the other speakers who addressed the committee came the notion that electric and hybrid cars should indeed contribute some amount of money in lieu of paying gas taxes — the real contention is how to pay and how much.
March 26, 2019
New legislation aimed at increased transparency for landowners who opt for surveys now goes to the Texas House….
March 26, 2019
The Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) would be able to increase the number of expedited permits under a bill that passed the Texas Senate on Tuesday….
March 26, 2019
The Texas Senate would be adding a number of emergency-management-related personnel across the state to the requirement for training in the fine points of handling emergencies as part of a bill passed on Tuesday.
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March 26, 2019
The Texas Senate is making the filing of reports by lobbyists a little more detailed by passing SB 366.…
March 25, 2019
The committee substitute bill for District 31 state Sen. Ryan Guillen‘s HB 2942 is intended to help Texas residents who find that sand mining operations are going up in their neighborhoods by repurposing the land once the mining is finished….
March 25, 2019
Who owns the wastewater from oil and gas wells once its left the wells?
When fluid oil and gas waste is transferred from the producer to a water-hauler, it would become the property of the water hauler, according to HB 3246, offered by Drew Darby….
March 25, 2019
Mineral and royalty owners have been the target of a scam, District 18 Rep. Ernest Bailes told the House Energy Resources committee on Monday….
March 25, 2019
The Texas House Energy Resources committee on Monday passed along to the full House of Representatives five bill on which it heard testimony last week.
The bills would alter the primary funding method for the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), the way the RRC handles purchasing under a federal program and the eay it handles licensing of LNG, CNG and LPG container and systems retailers….
March 25, 2019
As of Tuesday afternoon, the bill has only a hearing in the Colorado House Appropriations Committee before coming to the full House for consideration.
A bill that might result in an adversarial relationship between the state of Colorado and oil and gas producers appears likely to pass that state’s legislature on party-line votes and make it into law.
The bill would change the mission of oil and gas regulators, removing them from working closely with the industry, changing their stated purpose to that of protecting the environment and public health.
Considering the momentum it has among legislators, the bill appears likely to pass……
March 25, 2019
The Texas House Energy Resources committee continues to consider a bill that focuses on the needs of contract employees, who struggle and often have long periods without work because of non-compete clauses in oil & gas contracts, versus the needs of consultant and staffing companies to protect their firms against the poaching of employees.
HB 1522 was undergoing scrutiny late Monday afternoon, a bill that would change Master Service Contracts (“1099” as opposed to “W2” employees in IRS parlance), including that an “entity” may not require an oil & gas independent contractor “from performing work or providing a service for another entity” engaged in the same operations, effectively freeing contractors to choose more freely among work that comes their way.
The sponsor of the bill, Energy Resources chairman and East Texas District 9 Rep. Chris Paddie, said his concerns are that contractors sitting out non-competes are contributing to the shortage of Permian Basin workers, that the non-competes are unfair because they sometimes “surprise” contractors who don’t read their contracts when they take jobs and, anyway, the non-competes are unenforceable because non-competes can be struck down in court as a kind of restraint of trade……..