Energy companies, grid planners and officials believe Texas needs more electricity capacity to meet growing demand in West Texas. As AFN has reported, the proposed transmission lines would move power from East Texas to the Permian Basin in West Texas to help with oil and gas electricity demands.
Some Texas leaders and landowners want state regulators to stop the project because they believe it is unnecessary, unfair to property owners, and too expensive.
Because of pushback from citizens, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Sen. Charles Schwertner (R) recently called on state regulators to deny pending applications for the lines until lawmakers overhaul the system next session.
Brent Bennett of the Texas Public Policy Foundation testified against the lines at a recent Senate hearing.
"The concerns right now are around process," he relays. "The landowners who testified after me, particularly Cathy Webking, gave a really good kind of summary of the combination of the shortened timeline and then also the massive size."
Country singer and Texas native Tanya Tucker, who lives on a ranch in Central Texas, also testified against the lines.
"Most transmission projects are in the less than 50 to 100 miles," Bennett explains. "100 is very long, even in Texas."
The proposed lines are 300-mile segments going all the way across the state.
In the future, Bennett says they would add to Texans' electricity bills.
"If we're not able to make the case that the lines are not needed, then I could foresee them denying the applications," he tells AFN. "It could be they refile right away, or it could be they wait until after the legislative session to change some of the processes and give the landowners more time."
Refiling, he says, kind of gives everyone a chance to redo it, "and everyone's kind of ready this time."
Bennett agrees there will be more energy demand but says there is too much reliance on solar and wind power; he argues that natural gas could be used to generate electricity in West Texas.
