|
House Bill 1090 |
House Author: Swinford et al. |
|
Effective: 9-1-07 |
Senate Sponsor: Jackson, Mike |
House Bill 1090 amends the Agriculture Code to require the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) to develop and administer an incentive program to make grants to farmers, loggers, and other parties who divert agricultural biomass, forest and urban wood waste, or storm-generated biomass debris to recipient facilities in a form suitable to generate electricity. The recipient facility must be located in Texas, be placed in service after August 31, 2009, generate electricity sold to a third party, meet certain emission control requirements, and be in compliance with its Texas Clean Air Act operating permit. The bill requires the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to assist the TDA in determining whether a facility qualifies. Grants are $20 per suitable bone-dry ton, or more if the agriculture commissioner determines that a higher amount is necessary to provide an adequate incentive. The facility operator pays the farmer, logger, or other diverter, and in turn is reimbursed by the TDA on a quarterly basis. Such grants may not exceed $30 million statewide, or $6 million to any one facility operator, per fiscal year. The bill authorizes additional TDA grants to recipient facilities for similar biomass or waste that arrives in unsuitable form but is processed to enable its use for electricity generation. It also directs the agriculture commissioner, in consultation with the Texas Forest Service, to study and report on the volume of wood waste in East Texas and Central Texas forest regions.
Additionally, the bill amends Utilities Code provisions relating to the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) program and to the renewable energy credits (RECs) that are earned by generators of renewable-source electricity and marketed primarily to retail electric providers (REPs) and investor-owned utilities (IOUs) to retire their annual RPS obligations. The bill provides that RECs that are retired (e.g., by a municipal utility with no RPS obligation but with a "green" electricity program) do not subtract from anyone else's RPS obligations, and thus do not subtract from the share of Texas-generated electricity that is required to come from renewables. On the other hand, if an entity subject to RPS obligations serves a customer, such as an industrial customer, at transmission-level voltage, and the customer elects not to support RPS goals for a particular year, then that customer's electricity load is deleted from the calculation of the entity's RPS obligations. An entity with an RPS obligation may elect to make an alternative compliance payment rather than purchasing and retiring RECs. The bill gives the PUC the responsibility to establish alternative compliance payment amounts, within specified ranges and taking into account certain factors including the effects on retail electric competition, electricity rates, and the REC market.