Committee turns data‑center bill into a legislative study; several energy, water and firearms measures advance or fail

The House Energy and Natural Resources committee voted Wednesday to convert House Bill 15‑79 into a legislative study of the impact of large energy consumers, including data centers, on the electrical grid and state regulatory structure, and then advanced the bill to the next stage as amended.

Representative Paul Novak, the bill presenter, said the subcommittee could not reach agreement across varied stakeholders and proposed making the measure a study during the 2526 interim. "This is a really important, really important topic, especially for this this committee, and the high energy uses usages of, data centers," Novak said.

The amendment adopted by the committee added direction that the study evaluate necessary upgrades, include cost estimates and how costs would be allocated. The panel also expanded invited participants to include investor‑owned utilities, rural electric cooperatives, municipal power providers, independent power producers, the Petroleum Council, and regional transmission organizations (MISO and SPP); language naming the attorney general's office was removed. The committee passed the amended bill by roll call; the clerk recorded the final tally as 10‑0‑3 and the motion carried.

Other energy and utility measures

House Bill 11‑11: Representative Novak told the committee the bill drew opposition and had reached an impasse; committee members moved and approved a do‑not‑pass recommendation, saying the study language had been folded into HB 15‑79. The committee's do‑not‑pass motion carried on roll call (vote recorded in the transcript as carried).

House Bill 1,400: The committee approved amendments to HB 1,400 that the presenter said cover transmission and generation siting permits and allow use of mitigation or other funds instead of a single fund currently required under the attorney general's department for wind energy. The amendment also added an emergency clause to speed work on a transmission line referenced by the presenter. The committee then voted to give HB 1,400 a due pass as amended; the roll was recorded as 11‑0‑2 and the motion carried.

Water/irrigation permit bill

House Bill 12‑01: Representative Brandenburg presented changes he said came from the State Water Commission and would let irrigation and water districts pursue conditional irrigation water permits in places where permits had been blocked for decades. The committee adopted amendment 01001 and voted to give the bill a due pass as amended; the clerk recorded the motion carried 11‑0‑2.

Firearms bills and related measures

The committee spent substantial time on a package of firearms bills and related public‑safety language. House Bill 15‑88 was amended in subcommittee and the committee adopted those changes. Noted changes in HB 15‑88 include increasing a referenced knife or blade length from 5 inches to 6 inches; retaining language that permits binary triggers but making use of a binary trigger in the commission of a crime an additional felony; an explicit university exception referencing section 62.10213 (parking lots) to allow campus policies to govern; changes to certain violations converting them from infractions to noncriminal offenses with specified fees; and a change so that a license is produced upon an officer's request rather than forcing a person to volunteer the information. After amendments and discussion, the committee voted to give HB 15‑88 a due pass as amended; the transcript records the final tally as 12‑0‑1 and the motion carried.

Several other firearms bills were handled across the meeting: - House Bill 13‑26 (self‑defense authorization language) was reported do pass, recommended to stand alone, and advanced by the committee. - House Bill 12‑96 was given a do‑not‑pass recommendation on the ground its language was contained in HB 15‑88; the motion carried. - House Bill 14‑11 received a do‑not‑pass recommendation and was rejected on roll call. - House Bill 13‑50 and House Bill 13‑52 were both given do‑not‑pass recommendations after subcommittee review of testimony and stakeholder positions; the motions carried. - House Bill 13‑65 was amended in subcommittee and later recommended do‑not‑pass as amended; the committee voted accordingly.

What the votes record and what stays for the floor

Committee members used roll calls for final committee recommendations. Several bills that the committee recommended for do‑not‑pass were described as overlapping with provisions adopted into larger or omnibus measures (for example, elements of HB 11‑11 and HB 12‑96 were reported as incorporated into HB 15‑79 and HB 15‑88, respectively). Multiple bills that were amended in subcommittee were advanced as amended to the full House.

The committee adjourned after finishing its work for the period and scheduled to reconvene after crossover.