Bill Text: TX HB822 | 2011-2012 | 82nd Legislature | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relating to reducing mercury emissions from electric generating facilities; providing for an administrative penalty.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-02-23 - Referred to Environmental Regulation [HB822 Detail]

Download: Texas-2011-HB822-Introduced.html

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82R4593 SLB-D
By: Farrar H.B. No. 822

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to reducing mercury emissions from electric generating
facilities; providing for an administrative penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Chapter 382, Health and Safety Code, is amended
by adding Subchapter L to read as follows:
SUBCHAPTER L. MERCURY EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS REQUIRED
FOR ELECTRIC GENERATING FACILITIES
Sec. 382.551. DEFINITIONS. In this subchapter:
(1) "Annual emissions period" means the period from
May 1 of each year to April 30 of the following year.
(2) "Electric generating facility" means a facility
located in this state that generates electric energy for
compensation, including a facility owned or operated by a municipal
corporation, electric cooperative, or river authority.
Sec. 382.552. AUTHORITY TO REDUCE AIR CONTAMINANT
EMISSIONS. This subchapter does not limit the authority of the
commission to require reductions of emissions of any air
contaminant from any electric generating facility or class of
electric generating facilities.
Sec. 382.553. MERCURY EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS. (a) For each
annual emissions period, the total annual emissions of mercury and
mercury compounds from each electric generating facility may not
exceed 10 percent of the facility's total emissions of mercury and
mercury compounds during 2002, as reported to the commission.
(b) For an electric generating facility that was not in
operation for all or any part of 2002 or that was not operating at
full capacity for a period during that year, the commission may
impose for the facility a maximum allowable level of emissions of
mercury and mercury compounds that the commission computes from
convincing evidence and that corresponds to 10 percent of an
emissions level the commission estimates the facility would have
emitted had the facility operated at full capacity throughout that
year.
Sec. 382.554. ENFORCEMENT. (a) The commission shall
penalize an electric generating facility that emits in an annual
emissions period a quantity of mercury or mercury compounds greater
than that allowed for that period by Section 382.553 and commission
rules adopted under that section. The commission shall penalize
the facility by:
(1) assessing an administrative penalty, in an amount
determined by commission rules, for each unit weight of emissions
of mercury or mercury compounds by which the facility exceeded the
emissions limitation; and
(2) issuing an order reducing the quantity of mercury
and mercury compounds that the facility may emit in the next annual
emissions period by a quantity of emissions equal to the excessive
emissions in the annual emissions period in which the facility
emitted the excessive quantity of mercury or mercury compounds.
(b) In addition to the penalties required by Subsection (a),
the commission may penalize an electric generating facility that
emits in an annual emissions period a quantity of mercury or mercury
compounds greater than that allowed by Section 382.553 and
commission rules adopted under that section by:
(1) ordering the facility to cease operations; or
(2) taking other enforcement action provided by
commission rules.
SECTION 2. Sections 39.264(d), (e), and (r), Utilities
Code, are amended to read as follows:
(d) A municipal corporation, electric cooperative, or river
authority may exclude any electric generating facilities of 25
megawatts or less from the requirements prescribed by this section.
Not later than January 1, 2000, a municipal corporation, electric
cooperative, or river authority must inform the conservation
commission of its intent to exclude those facilities. An electric
generating facility excluded under this section is subject to
Subchapter L, Chapter 382, Health and Safety Code.
(e) The owner or operator of an electric generating facility
shall apply to the conservation commission for a permit for the
emission of air contaminants on or before September 1, 2000. A
permit issued by the conservation commission under this section
shall require the facility to achieve emissions reductions or
trading emissions allowances as provided by this section. The
conservation commission shall amend the permit to require as a
permit condition that the facility achieve emissions reductions as
required by Subchapter L, Chapter 382, Health and Safety Code. If
the facility uses coal as a fuel, the permit must also be
conditioned on the facility's emissions meeting opacity
limitations provided by conservation commission rules.
Notwithstanding Section 382.0518(g), Health and Safety Code, a
facility that does not obtain a permit as required by this
subsection may not operate after May 1, 2003, unless the
conservation commission finds good cause for an extension.
(r) [An applicant for a permit under Subsection (e) shall
publish notice of intent to obtain the permit in accordance with
Section 382.056, Health and Safety Code. The conservation
commission shall provide an opportunity for a public hearing and
the submission of public comment and send notice of a decision on an
application for a permit under Subsection (e) in the same manner as
provided by Sections 382.0561 and 382.0562, Health and Safety
Code.] The conservation commission shall review and renew a permit
issued under this section in accordance with Section 382.055,
Health and Safety Code.
SECTION 3. (a) The Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality shall adopt rules to implement the changes in law made by
this Act not later than March 1, 2012. The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality by rule shall provide for permits and permit
amendments as necessary for electric generating facilities to meet
the goals of and for the commission to enforce Subchapter L, Chapter
382, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, and Section
39.264, Utilities Code, as amended by this Act.
(b) The first annual emissions period to which Subchapter L,
Chapter 382, Health and Safety Code, as added by this Act, applies
is the period from May 1, 2013, to April 30, 2014.
(c) The amendments to Section 39.264, Utilities Code, made
by this Act do not apply to a violation of that section committed
before the effective date of the amendments. For purposes of this
subsection, a violation of that section is committed before the
effective date of the amendments if any element of the violation
occurs before that date. A violation committed before the
effective date of the amendments is covered by Section 39.264,
Utilities Code, as that section existed on the date on which the
violation was committed, and the former law is continued in effect
for that purpose.
SECTION 4. 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. If this
Act does not receive the vote necessary for immediate effect, this
Act takes effect September 1, 2011.