| (B) all administrative, civil, and criminal penalties,
and all plugging and cleanup costs incurred by the state relating
to those conditions have been paid or are being paid in accordance
with a schedule agreed to by the organization and the Commission;
and
(C) the report, application or certificate is in compliance
with all other requirements of law and Commission rules.
(3) All fees tendered in connection with a report or
application that is rejected under this subsection are nonrefundable.
(n) Mandatory surcharges. The Commission adopts this
subsection pursuant to Texas Natural Resources Code, §81.070,
to impose reasonable surcharges as necessary on fees collected by
the Commission that are required to be deposited to the credit of
the Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund, as provided by Texas
Natural Resources Code, §81.067, in an amount sufficient to enable
the Commission to recover the costs of performing the functions specified
by Texas Natural Resources Code, §81.068, from those fees and
surcharges. This subsection establishes the methodology the Commission
shall use to determine the amount of the surcharge on each fee, as
required by Texas Natural Resources Code, §81.070(c).
(1) For all fees subject to a surcharge under this
section, the Commission shall employ a projected cost-based recovery
methodology derived from budgeted cost projections approved by the
Legislature in the General Appropriations Act, which is dependent
upon revenue projections issued by the Comptroller in the most recent
Biennial Revenue Estimate. In establishing the surcharge amounts,
the Commission shall consider the factors and values set forth in
the following subparagraphs.
(A) The Commission shall ascertain the time required
to complete the regulatory work associated with the activity in connection
with which the surcharge is imposed using the number of full-time
equivalent positions (FTEs) appropriated by the Legislature for that
purpose during the applicable biennium, multiplied by the work hours
in a fiscal year, divided by the anticipated number of permit applications
processed in a fiscal year.
(B) The Commission shall use the number of P-5 Organization
Reports as a proxy to determine the number of individual or entities
from which the Commission's costs may be recovered. An Organization
Report is required to be filed and renewed annually by any organization,
including any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or other organization,
domestic or foreign, operating wholly or partially within this state,
that performs operations within the jurisdiction of the agency.
(C) The Commission shall determine how the surcharge
will affect operators considered to be large, based on operating more
than 10,000 oil or gas wells; operators considered to be medium, based
on operating more than 1,000 oil or gas wells, but fewer than 10,000
wells; and operators considered to be small, based on operating fewer
than 1,000 oil or gas wells.
(D) The Commission shall consider the balance of the
Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund at the beginning of the fiscal
year in which the surcharge is assessed.
(E) The Commission shall assume that the Legislature
intended that the agency's oil and gas regulatory program should be
self-funded. The Commission shall maintain an adequate balance in
the Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund such that the regulatory
program can withstand a decrease in industry activity without sacrificing
the health and public safety aspects of its regulatory work, while
also having funds available to respond to any emergency related to
oil and gas activity throughout the state. The Commission shall also
maintain a fund balance that is within the statutory fund limits as
determined by the Legislature.
(2) The Commission shall consider the factors set forth
in paragraph (1) of this subsection to determine the surcharge applicable
to all fees deposited to the Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund
in the following manner:
(A) the Commission shall first apply the premise that
the oil and gas regulatory program should be self-funded;
(B) the Commission shall then apply a cost-based recovery
analysis to the funding levels determined by the Legislature. The
Commission shall rely primarily on these two factors, but shall also
review all factors and values set forth in subparagraph (A) of this
paragraph; and
(C) the Commission will apply the surcharge rate to
all applicable fees as detailed in paragraph (3) of this subsection.
(3) Based on the factors and methodology set forth
in this subsection, the Commission has determined that a surcharge
rate of 150 percent will be necessary on all fees required to be deposited
to the credit of the Oil and Gas Regulation and Cleanup Fund.
(4) The Commission shall review the surcharge rate
determination under this subsection periodically but not less than
each biennium to confirm that the imposed surcharge is reasonable.
|
| Source Note: The provisions of this §3.78 adopted to be effective July 10, 2000, 25 TexReg 6487; amended to be effective November 1, 2000, 25 TexReg 9924; amended to be effective June 11, 2001, 26 TexReg 4088; amended to be effective January 9, 2002, 27 TexReg 139; amended to be effective October 12, 2003, 28 TexReg 8890; amended to be effective September 1, 2004, 29 TexReg 8271; amended to be effective December 19, 2005, 30 TexReg 8426; amended to be effective November 26, 2007, 32 TexReg 8452; amended to be effective September 13, 2010, 35 TexReg 8332; amended to be effective May 1, 2012, 37 TexReg 1315; amended to be effective August 27, 2012, 37 TexReg 6538; amended to beeffective December 16, 2013, 38 TexReg 9010; amended to be effective February 1, 2016, 41 TexReg 792 |
