Fuel Mix and Emissions Disclosure

Summary

Disclosure Requirements

As part of Texas’s 1999 electric utility restructuring legislation, the state’s retail electric providers (REPs) are required to disclose certain information in the form of a standardized “Electricity Facts Label” (EFL) to residential and small commercial customers. This label, which must be disclosed upon request, includes details regarding sources of electric generation, such as the provider’s fuel mix percentage for renewable energy and emissions. Each REP shall update its EFL for each of its currently offered products or products offered during the preceding calendar year no later than July 1 of each year.

Green and Renewable Marketing Requirements

A REP may market an electricity product as “green” if all of the product’s fuel mix is renewable energy, Texas natural gas, or a combination thereof; and all statements representing the product as “green,” if not containing 100% renewable energy include a footnote, parenthetical note, or other obvious disclaimer that “A ‘green’ product may include Texas natural gas and renewable energy."

A REP may market an electricity product as “renewable” or label an electricity product on the EFL as “renewable” only if all of the product’s fuel mix is renewable energy or all statements representing the product as “renewable” use the format “x% renewable,” where “x” is the product’s renewable energy fuel mix percentage.

Renewable energy technologies are defined by statute to include those that “rely on energy derived directly from the sun, on wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, wave, or tidal energy, or on biomass or biomass-based waste products, including landfill gas. A renewable energy technology does not rely on energy resources derived from fossil fuels, waste products from fossil fuels, or waste products from inorganic sources,” (PURA §39.904(d)).