Bill > HB4302

This bill modifies Texas utility regulations to establish a more streamlined process for electric utilities to recover vegetation management costs. The bill allows the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to review and adjust a utility's "vegetation management factor" (a financial mechanism for recovering costs related to maintaining vegetation around power lines) through new procedures. Key provisions include requiring utilities to collect vegetation management costs as contemporaneously as possible, allocating these costs among customer classes based on historical usage, and establishing an interim adjustment mechanism to either collect under-collected or refund over-collected amounts within 90 days. The bill also allows for longer recovery periods in cases of extraordinary vegetation management costs. Customers, municipalities, and the office of public utility counsel can protest proposed vegetation management factors, but only on the narrow issue of whether the factor reasonably reflects anticipated costs. The utility must apply to reconcile vegetation management costs at least every two years, and the PUC can establish specific timing for these reconciliations. Importantly, the bill specifies that these proceedings are not considered traditional rate cases, and the prudence of costs can only be evaluated in specific reconciliation proceedings. The bill is set to take effect on September 1, 2025.

Government Affairs

https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/History.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB4302