Yesterday, Texas Governor Rick Perry signed into law TX S 505, a bill concerning "Painting and Marking Requirements for Certain Towers." Amateur Radio is not mentioned in any way, which is good news for us. This outcome didn't happen by accident; congratulations to everyone in Texas who contributed to such a fine outcome. For background, here is an excerpt from the Executive Committee minutes of October 4, 2014: 7.3. Mr. Imlay reported on state legislative efforts to regulate the visibility of meteorological evaluation towers that are installed temporarily to heights of up to 199 feet in order to evaluate potential sites for wind energy conversion facilities. Several fatal accidents involving low-flying aircraft have occurred. He outlined the basis for the argument that measures to insure aircraft safety are federally preempted, irrespective of the height of the obstruction. Nevertheless, a few states have adopted legislation to address the issue. While amateur and other telecommunications towers are not the intended targets of such legislation, not all statutes adopted to date include specific exemptions. The issue is expected to arise in more state legislatures in the coming year. The safety concerns arise because the meteorological evaluation towers, or METs, are spindly things with guy wires and not much on top and therefore are difficult for the pilots of low-flying craft such as cropdusters and helicopters to see. As originally introduced, the Texas bill included a rather awkwardly worded exception for telecommunication towers that has shown up in other states' legislation. The bill was cleaned up in committee, and as signed into law applies very specifically to METs and not to any other structures. Texas thus provides a good example for other states: legislation that squarely addresses the problem at hand without apparent unintended consequences. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ