Sec. 104.367. PROPERTY RIGHTS. (a) Customer rate relief bonds are the limited obligation solely of the issuing financing entity and are not a debt of a gas utility or a debt or a pledge of the faith and credit of this state or any political subdivision of this state.
(b) Customer rate relief bonds are nonrecourse to the credit or any assets of this state or the authority. A trust fund created in connection with the issuance of customer rate relief bonds is not subject to Subtitle B, Title 9, Property Code.
(c) The rights and interests of an issuing financing entity or the successor under a financing order, including the right to receive customer rate relief charges authorized in the financing order, are only contract rights until pledged in connection with the issuance of the customer rate relief bonds, at which time the rights and interests become customer rate relief property.
(d) Customer rate relief property created under a financing order is vested ab initio in the issuing financing entity. Customer rate relief property constitutes a present property right for purposes of contracts concerning the sale or pledge of property, notwithstanding that the imposition and collection of customer rate relief charges depends on further acts of the gas utility or others that have not yet occurred. The financing order remains in effect, and the customer rate relief property continues to exist, for the same period as the pledge of the state described by Section 104.374.
(e) All revenue and collections resulting from customer rate relief charges constitute proceeds only of a property right arising from the financing order.
(f) An amount owed by an issuing financing entity under an ancillary agreement or a credit agreement is payable from and secured by a pledge and interest in the customer rate relief property to the extent provided in the documents evidencing the ancillary agreement or credit agreement.
Added by Acts 2021, 87th Leg., R.S., Ch. 805 (H.B. 1520), Sec. 5, eff. June 16, 2021.
Structure Texas Statutes
Subtitle A - Gas Utility Regulatory Act
Chapter 104 - Rates and Services
Subchapter I. Customer Rate Relief Bonds
Section 104.361. Purpose; Railroad Commission Duty
Section 104.363. Extraordinary Costs
Section 104.364. Jurisdiction and Powers of Railroad Commission and Other Regulatory Authorities
Section 104.365. Regulatory Asset Determination
Section 104.366. Financing Orders and Issuance of Customer Rate Relief Bonds
Section 104.367. Property Rights
Section 104.368. Property Interest Not Subject to Setoff, Counterclaim, Surcharge, or Defense
Section 104.369. Customer Rate Relief Charges Nonbypassable
Section 104.370. True-Up Mechanism
Section 104.371. Security Interests; Assignment; Commingling; Default
Section 104.372. Bond Proceeds in Trust
Section 104.373. Repayment of Customer Rate Relief Bonds
Section 104.374. Pledge of State
Section 104.375. Tax Exemption
Section 104.376. Recoverable Tax Expense
Section 104.377. Issuing Financing Entity or Financing Party Not Public Utility
Section 104.378. No Personal Liability