.The Texas Energy Report

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.The Texas Energy Report

Sen. Kolkhorst’s Controversial Eminent Domain Bill Passes Senate

This article contains a list of changes to SB 421 as a result of a floor amendment before final passage from the Senate.

 

April 4, 2019

 

After an impassioned speech by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, her amended bill intended to provide expanded protections for property owners in private-company eminent domain procedures was passed out of the Texas Senate 28-3 on Thursday.

In remarks, the senator expressed exasperation at the demands made by oil and gas-related concerns aimed at keeping their current rights under eminent domain laws, and weariness after weeks of negotiations over the bill that effectively weakened the bill’s landowner protections when compared to the bill she introduced.

Those talks included Rep. Dwayne Burns (who’s carrying a similar House bill that’s not been heard yet) and the Lt. Governor.

 

“Oil and Gas, They’re My Friends” But…

 

The bill comes at a monumental time for the pipeline business, which is booming with new construction as increasingly more crude and gas are pumped from the Permian Basin and elsewhere in Texas.

The District 18 senator said she started with a “big idea” in 2015 to fight for fair contracts and initial offers to landowners in the often difficult and complicated condemnation negotiations

Her attempts in earlier legislative sessions at passing bills to protect such landowners hadn’t gotten this far.

In her Thursday speech, Sen. Kolkhorst also expressed exasperation at the ease with which pipeline companies may draw on eminent domain laws.

The senator said “50 or 60 people organically” showed up (she put out no invitations, she said) at a committee hearing in March to talk about the bill, some telling stories about how their land was “taken from them.”

The “ability to own our own land” is a Constitutional right, she told the Senate, a precious right — but it can be taken away by companies that can, because “we have given them that power,” simply “show up at the Railroad Commission then fill out a form and check a box and they have that power” of eminent domain.

Sen. Kolkhorst spoke of landowners’ attempts during difficult negotiations to protect their land and receive fair compensation, including reasonable upfront offers.

SB 421 started out as a “really tough bill,” and if you look at most of the people who filled out “drop cards” against the bill, “most of those people you will find in an ethics report because they’re paid to be here.”

But the committee substitute is a “much skinnier bill” than the original because of give-and-take, she said, partially because Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick helped broker the demands from both sides, meeting with landowners and groups such as TXOGA in attempts to reach compromise……
 

House Resources Hears About Pipeline Contingency Bill

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.”…
 

Bill for Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Registration Fee Increase Heard by Committee

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.