Sec. 11.31. POLLUTION CONTROL PROPERTY. (a) A person is entitled to an exemption from taxation of all or part of real and personal property that the person owns and that is used wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution. A person is not entitled to an exemption from taxation under this section solely on the basis that the person manufactures or produces a product or provides a service that prevents, monitors, controls, or reduces air, water, or land pollution. Property used for residential purposes, or for recreational, park, or scenic uses as defined by Section 23.81, is ineligible for an exemption under this section.

(b) In this section, "facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution" means land that is acquired after January 1, 1994, or any structure, building, installation, excavation, machinery, equipment, or device, and any attachment or addition to or reconstruction, replacement, or improvement of that property, that is used, constructed, acquired, or installed wholly or partly to meet or exceed rules or regulations adopted by any environmental protection agency of the United States, this state, or a political subdivision of this state for the prevention, monitoring, control, or reduction of air, water, or land pollution. This section does not apply to a motor vehicle.

(c) In applying for an exemption under this section, a person seeking the exemption shall present in a permit application or permit exemption request to the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality information detailing:

(1) the anticipated environmental benefits from the installation of the facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution;

(2) the estimated cost of the pollution control facility, device, or method; and

(3) the purpose of the installation of such facility, device, or method, and the proportion of the installation that is pollution control property.

If the installation includes property that is not used wholly for the control of air, water, or land pollution, the person seeking the exemption shall also present such financial or other data as the executive director requires by rule for the determination of the proportion of the installation that is pollution control property.

(d) Following submission of the information required by Subsection (c), the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall determine if the facility, device, or method is used wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution. As soon as practicable, the executive director shall send notice by regular mail or by electronic means to the chief appraiser of the appraisal district for the county in which the property is located that the person has applied for a determination under this subsection. The executive director shall issue a letter to the person stating the executive director's determination of whether the facility, device, or method is used wholly or partly to control pollution and, if applicable, the proportion of the property that is pollution control property. The executive director shall send a copy of the letter by regular mail or by electronic means to the chief appraiser of the appraisal district for the county in which the property is located.

(e) Not later than the 20th day after the date of receipt of the letter issued by the executive director, the person seeking the exemption or the chief appraiser may appeal the executive director's determination to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The commission shall consider the appeal at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the commission for which adequate notice may be given. The person seeking the determination and the chief appraiser may testify at the meeting. The commission may remand the matter to the executive director for a new determination or deny the appeal and affirm the executive director's determination. On issuance of a new determination, the executive director shall issue a letter to the person seeking the determination and provide a copy to the chief appraiser as provided by Subsection (d). A new determination of the executive director may be appealed to the commission in the manner provided by this subsection. A proceeding under this subsection is not a contested case for purposes of Chapter 2001, Government Code.

(e-1) The executive director shall issue a determination letter required by Subsection (d) to the person seeking the exemption, and the commission shall take final action on the initial appeal under Subsection (e) if an appeal is made, not later than the first anniversary of the date the executive director declares the application to be administratively complete.

(f) The commission may charge a person seeking a determination that property is pollution control property an additional fee not to exceed its administrative costs for processing the information, making the determination, and issuing the letter required by this section.

(g) The commission shall adopt rules to implement this section. Rules adopted under this section must:

(1) establish specific standards for considering applications for determinations;

(2) be sufficiently specific to ensure that determinations are equal and uniform; and

(3) allow for determinations that distinguish the proportion of property that is used to control, monitor, prevent, or reduce pollution from the proportion of property that is used to produce goods or services.

(g-1) The standards and methods for making a determination under this section that are established in the rules adopted under Subsection (g) apply uniformly to all applications for determinations under this section, including applications relating to facilities, devices, or methods for the control of air, water, or land pollution included on a list adopted by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under Subsection (k).

(h) The executive director may not make a determination that property is pollution control property unless the property meets the standards established under rules adopted under this section.

(i) A person seeking an exemption under this section shall provide to the chief appraiser a copy of the letter issued by the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under Subsection (d) determining that the facility, device, or method is used wholly or partly as pollution control property. The chief appraiser shall accept a final determination by the executive director as conclusive evidence that the facility, device, or method is used wholly or partly as pollution control property.

(j) This section does not apply to a facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution that was subject to a tax abatement agreement executed before January 1, 1994.

(k) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall adopt rules establishing a nonexclusive list of facilities, devices, or methods for the control of air, water, or land pollution, which must include:

(1) coal cleaning or refining facilities;

(2) atmospheric or pressurized and bubbling or circulating fluidized bed combustion systems and gasification fluidized bed combustion combined cycle systems;

(3) ultra-supercritical pulverized coal boilers;

(4) flue gas recirculation components;

(5) syngas purification systems and gas-cleanup units;

(6) enhanced heat recovery systems;

(7) exhaust heat recovery boilers;

(8) heat recovery steam generators;

(9) superheaters and evaporators;

(10) enhanced steam turbine systems;

(11) methanation;

(12) coal combustion or gasification byproduct and coproduct handling, storage, or treatment facilities;

(13) biomass cofiring storage, distribution, and firing systems;

(14) coal cleaning or drying processes, such as coal drying/moisture reduction, air jigging, precombustion decarbonization, and coal flow balancing technology;

(15) oxy-fuel combustion technology, amine or chilled ammonia scrubbing, fuel or emission conversion through the use of catalysts, enhanced scrubbing technology, modified combustion technology such as chemical looping, and cryogenic technology;

(16) if the United States Environmental Protection Agency adopts a final rule or regulation regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant, property that is used, constructed, acquired, or installed wholly or partly to capture carbon dioxide from an anthropogenic source in this state that is geologically sequestered in this state;

(17) fuel cells generating electricity using hydrogen derived from coal, biomass, petroleum coke, or solid waste; and

(18) any other equipment designed to prevent, capture, abate, or monitor nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, mercury, carbon monoxide, or any criteria pollutant.

(l) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality by rule shall update the list adopted under Subsection (k) at least once every three years. An item may be removed from the list if the commission finds compelling evidence to support the conclusion that the item does not provide pollution control benefits.

(m) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, if the facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution described in an application for an exemption under this section is a facility, device, or method included on the list adopted under Subsection (k), the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, not later than the 30th day after the date of receipt of the information required by Subsections (c)(2) and (3) and without regard to whether the information required by Subsection (c)(1) has been submitted, shall determine that the facility, device, or method described in the application is used wholly or partly as a facility, device, or method for the control of air, water, or land pollution and shall take the actions that are required by Subsection (d) in the event such a determination is made.

(n) The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality shall establish a permanent advisory committee consisting of representatives of industry, appraisal districts, taxing units, and environmental groups, as well as members who are not representatives of any of those entities but have substantial technical expertise in pollution control technology and environmental engineering, to advise the commission regarding the implementation of this section. At least one member of the advisory committee must be a representative of a school district or junior college district in which property is located that is or previously was subject to an exemption under this section. Chapter 2110, Government Code, does not apply to the size, composition, or duration of the advisory committee.

Added by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 285, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1994. Amended by Acts 2001, 77th Leg., ch. 881, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 2001.

Amended by:

Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1277 (H.B. 3732), Sec. 4, eff. September 1, 2007.

Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 943 (H.B. 3206), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009.

Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 962 (H.B. 3544), Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2009.

Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 962 (H.B. 3544), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2009.

Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 1006 (H.B. 2280), Sec. 1, eff. June 17, 2011.

Acts 2013, 83rd Leg., R.S., Ch. 964 (H.B. 1897), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2013.