By: Hinojosa	S.B. No. 885
	(In the Senate - Filed February 27, 2013; March 5, 2013,
	read first time and referred to Committee on Natural Resources;
	March 18, 2013, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
	Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; March 18, 2013,
	sent to printer.)
	COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 885	By:  Hinojosa

	A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
	AN ACT
	relating to notice of utility rate increases.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
	SECTION 1.  Section 104.103, Utilities Code, is amended by
	amending Subsection (b) and adding Subsection (c) to read as
	follows:
	(b)  Instead of publishing newspaper notice, a gas utility
	may provide notice [to the public in an area outside the affected
	municipality or in a municipality with a population of less than
	2,500] by:
	(1)  mailing the notice by United States mail, postage
	prepaid, to the billing address of each directly affected customer;
	[or]
	(2)  including the notice, in conspicuous form, in the
	bill of each directly affected customer; or
	(3)  sending the notice by e-mail to each directly
	affected customer if that address is available to the utility.
	(c)  A gas utility may provide a customer with notice of the
	utility's intent to increase rates by e-mail as described by
	Subsection (b)(3) only if the customer has consented in writing to
	the use of the customer's e-mail address for that purpose.
	SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
	to a notice of a proposed utility rate increase provided on or after
	the effective date of this Act.  Notice provided before the
	effective date of this Act is governed by the law as it existed
	immediately before the effective date of this Act, and that law is
	continued in effect for that purpose.
	SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.
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