HBA-CBW, SEP H.B. 412 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 412
By: Zbranek
State Affairs
2/26/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Current law prohibits a retail electric utility from furnishing or making
available retail electric utility service to an area in which that service
is being lawfully furnished by another retail electric utility, unless the
utility first obtains from the Public Utility Commission (PUC) a
certificate of convenience and necessity that includes the area in which
the consuming facility is located.  In addition,  certificated municipally
owned utilities are exempt from the provision relating to dividing multiply
certificated service areas if the utility serving the area filed a request
with the PUC by February 1, 2000, requesting that areas within the
certificated service area of the municipally owned utility remain as
presently certificated. Following the enactment of the current law, some
municipally owned utilities failed to meet the February 1, 2000, deadline
to file the request.  House Bill 412 moves the deadline to October 1, 2001. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 412 amends the Utilities Code to change the filing date from
February 1, 2000, to October 1, 2001, by which a municipally owned utility
may request to maintain service area certification. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or if the Act does not receive the necessary vote, the Act
takes effect September 1, 2001.