By: Jackson S.B. No. 1151
 
 
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.  Subsection (b), Section 104.103, Utilities Code,
  is amended 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.
         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, 2011.