The Texas House of Representatives gave final approval on May 23 to Senate Bill 2627, which deals with improving energy-grid reliability across the state of Texas. The issue of the grid was named a priority by both Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick for this legislative session.
On March 9, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Senator Charles Schwertner released a joint statement announcing their support for Senate Bills 6 and 7.
These two pieces of legislation are aimed at ensuring a reliable energy grid across Texas and attracting new sources of reliable thermal electricity generation.
SB 6 was originally passed by the Texas Senate on April 5.
It did not advance in the House of Representatives, so SB 2627 was filed in the Senate and quickly passed out to be its replacement, the Texan reported.
SB 2627 serves the same purpose as the original SB 6, which would create a specific fund to provide incentives and low-interest loans for the construction of new natural gas generation plants, the Texan reported.
Before passing SB2627, the Texas House amended the bill several times, meaning the House-passed version was different than the version that the Senate passed.
According to the Legislative Reference Library of Texas, due to the fact that the House made changes to the Senate version of SB 2627, the Senate must vote on whether to accept those changes. If it does not, a Conference Committee report is formed, containing members of both the House and Senate, according to the reference library. The conference committee reaches a compromise between the House and Senate versions of the bill, which is then recirculated to both chambers, which must pass the compromise version in order for the bill to be sent to the governor.