Bill Text: TX HB4087 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub

---

Bill Title: Relating to the treatment for ad valorem tax purposes of pollution control property.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Republican 2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-11 - Committee report sent to Calendars [HB4087 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB4087-Comm_Sub.html

---

84R22426 SMH-F
By: Smith, Stephenson H.B. No. 4087
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 4087:
By: Parker C.S.H.B. No. 4087

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the treatment for ad valorem tax purposes of pollution
control property.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 11.31, Tax Code, is amended by amending
Subsections (k) and (m) and adding Subsections (m-1) and (m-2) to
read as follows:
(k) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall
adopt rules establishing a nonexclusive list of facilities,
devices, or methods for the control of air, water, or land
pollution, which must include:
(1) coal cleaning or refining facilities;
(2) atmospheric or pressurized and bubbling or
circulating fluidized bed combustion systems and gasification
fluidized bed combustion combined cycle systems;
(3) ultra-supercritical pulverized coal boilers;
(4) flue gas recirculation components;
(5) syngas purification systems and gas-cleanup
units;
(6) enhanced heat recovery systems;
(7) exhaust heat recovery boilers;
(8) heat recovery steam generators;
(9) superheaters and evaporators;
(10) enhanced steam turbine systems;
(11) methanation;
(12) coal combustion or gasification byproduct and
coproduct handling, storage, or treatment facilities;
(13) biomass cofiring storage, distribution, and
firing systems;
(14) coal cleaning or drying processes, such as coal
drying/moisture reduction, air jigging, precombustion
decarbonization, and coal flow balancing technology;
(15) oxy-fuel combustion technology, amine or chilled
ammonia scrubbing, fuel or emission conversion through the use of
catalysts, enhanced scrubbing technology, modified combustion
technology such as chemical looping, and cryogenic technology;
(16) so long as [if] the United States Environmental
Protection Agency regulates [adopts a final rule or regulation
regulating] carbon dioxide as a pollutant or if any other
environmental protection agency of the United States, this state,
or a political subdivision of this state adopts a final rule or
regulation regulating carbon dioxide for that purpose, property
that is used, constructed, acquired, or installed wholly or partly
to capture carbon dioxide from an anthropogenic source in this
state that is geologically sequestered in this state;
(17) fuel cells generating electricity using hydrogen
derived from coal, biomass, petroleum coke, or solid waste; and
(18) any other equipment designed to prevent, capture,
abate, or monitor nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds,
particulate matter, mercury, carbon monoxide, or any criteria
pollutant.
(m) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section,
if the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality confirms that the facility, device, or method for the
control of air, water, or land pollution described in an
application for an exemption under this section is a facility,
device, or method included on the list adopted under Subsection
(k), the executive director [of the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality], not later than the 30th day after the date
of receipt of the information required by Subsections (c)(2) and
(3) and without regard to whether the information required by
Subsection (c)(1) has been submitted, shall determine that the
facility, device, or method described in the application is used
wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for the control of
air, water, or land pollution and shall take the actions that are
required by Subsection (d) in the event such a determination is
made.
(m-1) Notwithstanding Subsections (g-1) and (m), if the
executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
confirms that the facility, device, or method for the control of
air, water, or land pollution described in an application for an
exemption under this section is a facility, device, or method
described by Subsection (k)(16) and is part of an advanced clean
energy project as defined by Section 382.003, Health and Safety
Code, and determines that an established market for the sale of
carbon dioxide captured from an anthropogenic source for use in
enhanced oil recovery does not exist in the county in which the
project is located, the executive director shall determine that the
facility, device, or method described in the application is used
wholly as a facility, device, or method for the control of air,
water, or land pollution and shall take the actions that are
required by Subsection (d) in the event such a determination is
made.
(m-2) A determination by the executive director of the Texas
Commission on Environmental Quality under Subsection (d) that a
facility, device, or method is used wholly or partly as a facility,
device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution
or a determination by the executive director of the commission
under Subsection (m) that a facility, device, or method described
in an application is used wholly or partly for that purpose because
the executive director has confirmed that the facility, device, or
method is included on the list adopted under Subsection (k) does not
limit the authority of the chief appraiser under Chapter 23 to:
(1) evaluate whether the facility, device, or method
also facilitates an increase in the production of goods at the
facility at which the facility, device, or method is installed or
the sale of a marketable product at a profit in the ordinary course
of business of the facility; and
(2) take any resulting income into account if the
chief appraiser uses the income method of appraisal to determine
the market value of the facility.
SECTION 2. Sections 11.31(k) and (m), Tax Code, as amended
by this Act, and Section 11.31(m-2), Tax Code, as added by this Act,
are intended to clarify rather than change existing law.
SECTION 3. Section 11.31(m-1), Tax Code, as added by this
Act, applies only to ad valorem taxes imposed for a tax year
beginning on or after January 1, 2016.
SECTION 4. (a) Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this
section:
(1) this Act takes effect immediately if it receives a
vote of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, as
provided by Section 39, Article III, Texas Constitution; and
(2) if this Act does not receive the vote necessary for
immediate effect, this Act takes effect September 1, 2015.
(b) Section 11.31(m-1), Tax Code, as added by this Act,
takes effect January 1, 2016.