AUSTIN – Thanks to prudent action by the Texas Legislature, relief is on the way for customers of the state’s gas utilities who were facing potentially high gas bills resulting from Winter Storm Uri.

On June 16, Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 1520, which directs the RRC and the Texas Public Finance Authority to work together to issue customer rate-relief bonds, the proceeds of which gas utilities would use to pay for the extraordinary cost of natural gas due to high demand during February’s winter storm.

The bonds would provide rate relief to customers by allowing gas utilities to recover the extraordinary cost of gas through customer bills over a longer time period, rather than potentially through a single billing statement. The bill provides financial relief to gas utilities that choose to apply for the bonds by providing for a low-cost source of financing to fulfill outstanding obligations to natural gas suppliers.

A gas utility that chooses to participate in the process would submit information and documentation to the RRC regarding its extraordinary costs to procure natural gas during Winter Storm Uri. The agency would review the application and, if the agency determines that issuing bonds is cost-effective, direct the Texas Public Finance Authority to issue bonds. The RRC sent gas utilities a Notice to Operators providing further information related to the bill.

“Throughout my time at the Railroad Commission of Texas and especially in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri, consumer protection has been a priority,” said Chairman Christi Craddick. “I am grateful to the Legislature for passing this important bill and look forward to working with my colleagues and agency staff to ensure that we prevent any undue burden on natural gas customers who might have experienced extraordinarily high gas bills otherwise.”

“High demand for energy during the storm caused gas prices to rise and utilities incurred extraordinary gas costs to procure the supply needed to maintain service,” said Commissioner Wayne Christian. “HB 1520 allows for the high cost of gas from the storm to be securitized, utilizing the creditworthiness of our state to lower interest rates. This will ensure our constituents do not receive large, unexpected bills from their natural gas utility provider in the wake of Winter Storm Uri.”

“I commend the members of the Texas Legislature for getting this across the goal line,” said Commissioner Jim Wright. “Winter Storm Uri was an unprecedented event, and Texans should not have to shoulder the cost alone. Securitization will allow gas utilities to remain afloat while lessening the burden on their customers.”

House Bill 1520 was authored by Representative Chris Paddie and sponsored by Senator Kelly Hancock.

Gas supply was uninterrupted for a vast majority of Texas residents during Winter Storm Uri: 99.5 percent of customers connected to natural gas maintained service during the storm.

Source: www.rrc.texas.gov

The Port Commission of the Port of Houston Authority met virtually in regular session on Tuesday. Port Chairman Ric Campo opened the meeting by sharing the “good news” that the Houston Pilots have taken the first step towards bringing longer vessels to the Houston Ship Channel.

Following the vote of 96% of the Houston Pilots in favor of bringing larger vessels to the channel, Chairman Campo reported that the Houston Pilot Board met last week to hear public comment on the matter. Joining with cargo industry members, including representatives of the petrochemical and container industry, Chairman Campo expressed his support of a Pilot Board rule to permit the change.

The rule would allow pilots to bring ships up to 1,120 feet in length to Port Houston’s Bayport and Barbours Cut terminals. Chairman Campo added that allowing these larger ships to call Houston will result in “more cargo and more jobs” and economic benefits for the entire Gulf region. Chairman Campo congratulated Houston Pilots Presiding Officer Captain Robert Thompson and the other pilots for gaining the experience to permit this change.

Chairman Campo also mentioned that the Port Commission met in a special session last week and authorized the Executive Director to negotiate the Project Partnership Agreement, or PPA, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Project 11, the latest Houston Ship Channel expansion program.

Port Houston’s leadership team recommended a PPA that could include all of the separable elements of the channel project, except for the reach of the Galveston Bay between Bayport and Barbours Cut.

Port Houston June 22 Regular Meeting highlights:

The Port Commission approved a nearly $37 million contract to purchase three dockside electric container cranes for Wharf No. 6 at Bayport. This new equipment and container yard are all part of the Bayport terminal 6, a $200 million development plan, to stay ahead of the continuing growth in cargo volume.

Port Houston continues to focus on sustainability as it facilitated three Sustainability Action Team workshops in June. Port Houston will also soon participate in the Future of Global Energy Conference, sponsored jointly by the Greater Houston Partnership and Center for Houston’s Future.

This month Port Houston joined the International Energy Agency’s Clean Energy Ministrial in launching a Global Hydrogen Ports Coalition, to advance global collaboration aimed at accelerating the use of hydrogen at shipping ports. Port Houston has also joined the BlueSky Maritime Coalition as a founding member, to target decarbonization in shipping through operational efficiency, policy, finance, and technology innovations.

Executive Director Roger Guenther said in his staff report, “Cargo tonnage continues to soar at Port Houston facilities.” Port Houston terminals have recorded an increase of 8% over last year, with a total of 1,315,166 TEUs so far in 2021. This is a 9% increase over a previous record year in 2019. “It seems that every week we are setting new records,” Guenther added.

Port Houston will launch its Business Equity procurement initiative in July. “We plan to provide an update to commissioners in July of those projects targeted for contract goal-setting, to support Small and Minority- and Woman-owned Business participation in Port Houston projects,” Guenther said.

The next Port Commission meeting is scheduled for July 20.

Source: porthouston.com

 Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first visit on Friday to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, following criticism from members of both parties for failing to go earlier despite her role leading the Biden administration’s response to a steep increase in migration.

Harris will visit the El Paso area, accompanied by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, according to a statement Wednesday from Harris senior adviser Symone Sanders.

Harris has faced months of criticism from Republicans, and even some frustration from those in her own party, for not visiting the area.

She was tasked earlier this year by President Joe Biden with taking on the root causes of migration from Central America to the United States, and so far she’s focused largely on outreach to local leaders and advocacy groups with the goal of improving economic and living conditions in the region. Harris has said her goal is to offer residents of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico hope for their future, so they no longer feel compelled to leave home for better opportunities.

Her aides have repeatedly insisted her efforts are distinct from the security issues that plague U.S. officials trying to handle a spike in border crossings. But Republicans have pointed to the failures by both Harris and Biden to visit the border to paint the administration as absent in a crisis.

Harris will arrive in the area just days before former President Donald Trump is to visit the border with a group of House Republicans and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Trump is certain to use the opportunity to drive Republican attacks on Democrats as soft on immigration.

The border issue shadowed Harris’ first foreign trip earlier this month, to Guatemala and Mexico, where she met with both nations’ presidents and local officials to discuss economic and humanitarian solutions to the significant outmigration from both countries.

During that trip, she sat for an interview with NBC News in which she dismissed a question about why she hadn’t made a trip to the border by responding, “I’ve never been to Europe,” and adding, “I don’t understand the point you’re making.” Harris and White House aides were subsequently forced to parry repeated questions about the decision and her remarks.

Harris said she was focused on “tangible” results “as opposed to grand gestures,” but she also said she might visit in the near future.

She has noted that as a senator from California, she has visited the border in the past, and she has asserted that unless the root causes of migration are addressed the situation there will never be fixed.

It’s unclear what Harris’ plans include during her visit to the area, but one migrant detention facility in El Paso, at the Fort Bliss military post, has drawn criticism from advocates who have described unsafe conditions and allegations of abuse toward some of the thousands of children housed there.

On Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the trip was “part of the coordinated effort between her office, her work, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, to continue to address the root causes and work in coordination to get the situation under control.”

While Psaki emphasized that border security is under Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas’ purview, she added that “it’s important every component of our government is coordinated” on the issue.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 180,000 encounters on the Mexican border in May, the most since March 2000. Those numbers were boosted by a pandemic-related ban on seeking asylum, which encouraged repeated attempts to cross the border because getting caught carried no legal consequences.

The numbers have led even some centrist Democrats to join Republicans in their calls for Harris to make a trip to the area. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat whose district stretches from south of San Antonio down to the southern border, wrote a letter to Harris earlier this month inviting her to “observe the ongoing humanitarian crisis and share the perspective of Americans who live there.”

“I believe it is critical that you meet with local stakeholders and residents, consider their concerns, and use their lived experiences to implement more effective policies,” he wrote.

Cuellar issued a tweet Wednesday thanking Harris for her plans to visit.

But his engagement on the issue underscores the potential political peril for Democrats on immigration. An AP-NORC poll conducted in April found that more Americans disapprove than approve of how Biden is handling the sharply increasing number of unaccompanied migrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

And Trump’s trip to the border marks another sign of how closely Republicans continue to align themselves with Trump and the extent to which they see the border as a winning campaign issue. The former president immediately took credit for Harris’ trip, speculating in a statement that the vice president would not have made plans to go if he hadn’t been headed there himself.

Psaki said the administration “made an assessment within our government about when it was an appropriate time for her to go the border.”

Source: www.click2houston.com

This comes after Gov. Greg Abbott said he would reallocate $250 million in state funds as a “down payment” for the project — while crowdfunding some of the remaining costs.

The identities of the donors and how much they donated to the wall construction are not readily available and can only be obtained through public information requests, a spokesperson for Abbott said. Eventually, Abbott’s office said, the total donations figure will be available online on a website that currently solicits people to donate.

Abbott has not given an estimate of the project’s total costs or details of how long the wall will be or where it will be located but said he expected it to be “hundreds of miles” long. He directed the Texas Facilities Commission to hire a program manager who will lead efforts to determine those factors.

The commission said in a statement Thursday it began work on creating a request for proposal for the program manager position, saying it would remain “transparent and compliant with State competitive bidding standards.”

Abbott also said he expects Texans to volunteer their land for the project and said he would send a letter to President Joe Biden asking the federal government to return land the Trump administration took from private property owners in Texas to build a border wall.

The Trump administration had met fierce resistance from private property owners unwilling to allow the federal government to build on their land. Land Commissioner George P. Bush said last week he would grant emergency authorization for the building of the wall on state lands, which makes up approximately 591,595 surface acres along the border.

Promises and calls for a border wall between Mexico and the U.S. were a hallmark of former President Donald Trump and his supporters, both during his campaigns and his presidency. Trump’s administration built about 450 miles of barrier, mostly in Arizona, according to The Washington Post. Trump is set to tour the border with Abbott next week. Vice President Kamala Harris will head to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday.

Construction on the federal wall largely stopped after Biden in January ordered federal agencies to pause construction on the barrier where possible. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told House lawmakers DHS is not requesting further border wall funding in its 2022 budget proposal to Congress.

Tensions over border security have risen between the Democrat president and the two-term Republican governor. Abbott has blamed Biden’s immigration policies for the increase of immigrants on the state’s southern border, saying in a disaster declaration that new federal policies have paved the way for “dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities.” Abbott has announced a partnership with the state of Arizona calling for other states to send law enforcement officials to help border states arrest and jail immigrants crossing the border.

There were 180,034 border crossings last month, and nearly 40% of those turned back had previously crossed. This is compared to fewer than 25,000 border crossings in late 2020, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. During the Trump administration, the highest recorded number of apprehensions was nearly 150,000.

Portions of the existing wall in Texas cost $26.5 million per mile to construct, federal lawmakers have said. The Biden administration has said building the wall cost taxpayers $46 million per mile in some areas along the border.

Texas’ border fundraiser has already surpassed a similar effort in 2011 by the Arizona Legislature. That effort received almost $270,000 by 2014, but the attempt was abandoned and the money reallocated after estimates for the final project stretched into the billions, according to The Arizona Republic.

Source: www.click2houston.com