(Austin  04-22-09) 

     Legislation that would bring more transparency and accountability to electric co-operatives in Texas passed the Senate on a unanimous vote Wednesday.  This bill would address issues raised during the interim specifically related to Pedernales Electric Cooperative, the largest electric co-op in the country. 

     Bill author and Senate Business and Commerce Committee Chairman Troy Fraser began investigating the PEC during the interim following allegations of misappropriation of funds and director election irregularity.  When Fraser himself couldn't get access to a board meeting, he began looking at ways to improve transparency not only at Pedernales but at co-ops around the state. 

"We had a problem at Pedernales that they were rigging elections, and it was impossible for anyone from the outside to get elected because the board and management controlled that, as they had for 40 years," said Fraser.  "We identified it, and obviously we're changing it."

            SB 921 would require elections for electric co-op boards of directors be open to any member that wants to run.  Co-op members would have to be notified of board meetings before hand, and all meetings would be open to any member.   Meeting records would have to be available to the public, and the state could audit financial transactions and operations of a co-op if approved by the Legislative Audit Committee.  The bill includes stiffer regulations for the Pedernales co-operative, prohibiting proxy voting in director's elections and requiring that directors be elected by district.

            Flower Mound Senator Jane Nelson praised the bill,  but called on Fraser to continue to monitor transparency and access at co-ops around the state and not just Pedernales.  "I don't think this is an isolated problem with just one co-op," said Nelson.

            Also approved was a measure that would set in place a regulatory frame work for carbon sequestration and storage in Texas.  Carbon sequestration is a process where  carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other sources are captured and placed in the ground instead of escaping into the atmosphere.  Carbon dioxide captured in this way can also be injected into dwindling oil wells to push additional crude out of the ground.  SB 1387, by Amarillo Senator Kel Seliger, would put the state Railroad Commission in charge of the process, requiring them to set up rules and regulations surrounding carbon sequestration and its extraction for industrial use. 

            The Senate will reconvene Thursday, April 23 at 8 a.m. to consider the Local and Uncontested Calendar, and will meet in regular session at 11 a.m.

(Austin  04-21-09) 

     The Senate passed a measure Tuesday aimed at moving Texas to the forefront of solar energy generation in the U.S.  The state already leads the nation in wind power generation, and bill author Senator Troy Fraser of Horseshoe Bay wants Texas to lead the way in solar power as well. "Texas is recognized as the national leader in renewable energy, especially in wind generation," he said.  "Senate Bill 545 allows our state to become more energy independent and to meet our renewable energy goals through the installation of solar generation."

            Over the next five years , the bill would create a $500 million incentive fund to offset the capital costs of distributed solar power, mostly residential rooftop panels, as well as utility-grade solar power.  Funds would be raised through monthly surcharges on electric bills; 20 cents for residential users, $2 for commercial users and $20 for industrial users.  The money will go toward rebates for homeowners who wish to install panels on their houses, and the Public Utility Commission will use the fund to incentivize the construction of large scale solar complexes.  Other provisions in the bill would prohibit homeowners associations from banning solar installations in most cases, and would require that homebuilders offer solar as an option to their customers.    

            Fraser believes the current wind power infrastructure could work well with new solar power generation.  "The way I'm hoping this will happen is that every place that there is a wind generator, I would love to see a solar panel there, so that during the day when the wind's not blowing, solar would be generating and we'd transmit it on those same lines that we've already installed," he said.  The bill now heads to the House for further consideration.    

            The Senate will reconvene Wednesday, April 22 at 11 a.m.

(Austin  04-17-09) 

     The Senate approved a bill late Thursday that would allow the state to access federal unemployment insurance funds as part of the federal stimulus package.  Gov. Rick Perry initially declined the money, because he believed that the one time payment could lead to future insolvency, in addition to requiring changes to the state's unemployment system in order to be eligible for funds.  Many legislators disagreed with the Governor's decision, and the Senate approved a series of reforms to Texas' unemployment system to draw down this money.
    The measure, SB 1569 by Tyler Senator Kevin Eltife, would change a person's unemployment benefit from one that calculates payments based on the four fiscal quarters previous to the most recent one, to a calculation based on the most recent four quarters.  It would also extend benefits to part-time workers who lose their jobs, and to those who quit their jobs based on compelling family reasons.  The bill now heads to the House for consideration.
    Friday, the Senate approved a bill aimed at streamlining the state's Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid system.  The bill's author, Senator and Health and Human Services Committee Chair Jane Nelson of Flower Mound, said the current system of state health entitlement programs is based on a "fee-for-service" model.  Under this model, doctors are reimbursed through Medicaid and CHIP for each service performed for a patient, meaning individual payments for office visits, tests, and other health care services.  "Under current law, payments continue even if a patient suffers serious harm from a preventable adverse event," said Nelson.  "This legislation begins to refocus our resources to reward quality outcomes."       
    The bill, SB 7, would direct the Department of State Health Services to develop several pilot programs to explore various strategies.  These include an obesity prevention pilot program, a pilot payment program based on quality of medical outcomes, and a pilot program to increase care co-ordination for Medicaid and CHIP recipients.  The bill would end the practice of reimbursing hospitals and doctors when treatments make the patient worse instead of better.  It would also require hospitals to submit data relating to uncompensated care.
    Though the Legislature had a short week, the Senate passed nearly 70 bills in regular session.  These include:
-    SB 1049, by Uresti, would raise the legal age to purchase cigarettes and other tobacco products to 19.
-    SB 1175, by Patrick, which would make it illegal for a lawfully detained person to refuse to identify themselves to a police officer.
-    SB 1123, by Duncan, would change the standard of causation for a person with mesothelioma who is making a claim in court.
-    SB 294, by Hinojosa, would authorize certain counties to levy a $50 vehicle registration fee to fund local transportation projects.
The Senate will reconvene Monday, April 20 at 11 a.m.

(Austin 04-16-09) 

     The Senate gave tentative approval Thursday to a measure intended to create a more reasonable standard under which patients with mesothelioma, a deadly form of lung cancer caused by asbestos, can claim cause.  While Texas at one time had the most lenient standard of proof in the nation, said Lubbock Senator Robert Duncan, a recent Texas Supreme Court ruling has made it too difficult for mesothelioma patients to prove the source of their cancer.  Duncan's bill, SB 1123, would move Texas to the same standard of causation used by most other states.  "We're not going to go back to the most liberal standard in the country for mesothelioma," he said. "We're going to adopt the most widely accepted standard in the country."
    A 2007 Supreme Court ruling found that to prove asbestosis, characterized by lung damage caused by exposure to asbestos, has similar symptoms to several other lung diseases.  Because of this, they raised the standard for proving causation in asbestosis cases to a quantitative measure, where plaintiffs have to prove an approximate exposure count in order to prove cause.  Since that time, that same standard has been applied to mesothelioma cases.  Mesothelioma, however, can have a latency period of decades, making it nearly impossible for patients to go back as much as 40 years to find qualitative proof of the exact amount of exposure to asbestos.  Duncan's bill would use what is known as the Lohrmann standard, which requires a plaintiff in a mesothelioma case to prove that exposure to asbestos was frequent, regular, and proximal.  It would not change the standard for asbestosis cases.  The bill is likely to face a final vote Friday.
    The Senate also tentatively passed a bill aimed at giving counties more money for transportation projects.  SB 294, by Senator Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa of McAllen, would permit county commissioner's courts to raise vehicle registration fees by $50 and increases the maximum amount for the optional county fee for transportation projects from $10 to $15.  The Legislature passed a similar bill last session, that piloted this program in two south Texas counties, and Hinojosa said he wants to give the same options to all 254 counties in the state.  The bill was amended to stipulate that if SB 588, which would allow counties to hold elections to increase certain fees for transportation projects, becomes law, fees levied under SB 294 could not stack on top of fees levied under that bill.
    The Senate will reconvene Friday, April 17 at 10 a.m.