Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Tuesday February 24, 2026
Asterisk (*) denotes news stories that may be inaccessible because portions are behind a paywall
Good morning! Here are today’s Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Top Stories
E&E News By Politico – February 23, 2026
State of the Union: Republicans eager for Trump to talk energy
Republicans on Capitol Hill are expecting President Donald Trump to emphasize his administration’s bold approach to energy policy during his State of the Union address this week. GOP lawmakers said they hope the president talks about American energy dominance, gasoline prices and permitting — all issues Democrats are hammering the administration on. “I’d love to see him tout U.S. production,” said Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the Republican Study Committee. “We think there’s a big story to be told there.”
Pfluger, whose district sits atop the Permian Basin, added “we have a lot more to do” to increase domestic energy production. “The shale revolution tells us … that these wells decline pretty quickly, so they have to continue to drill.” But amid increasing electricity demand and prices, Democrats say Trump and Congress should focus less on simply more drilling and mining and more on renewable energy production. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the official Democratic response.
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Austin American-Statesman – February 23, 2026
Dozens of rural Texans rally at Capitol against data center development*
Rural residents gathered at the Texas Capitol on Monday afternoon to protest the growth of data centers, even as Texas is poised to surpass Virginia as the world’s largest data center market by 2030. The dozens of protesters, many of whom came by bus from Hood County, called on Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session focused on data centers. Texas has seen a rapid influx of data center development, with new research finding that the Lone Star State has 6.5 gigawatts of data center capacity currently under construction — equivalent to one-fifth of the U.S. data center capacity added to its pipeline last year. One gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes on average.
“We are here today to implore Gov. Abbott to take a sober look at the data center and power plant explosion in Texas and its devastating and irreversible impacts they will have,” said Brian Crawford, a Hood County resident and member of the Protect the Paluxy Valley activist organization. Data centers are large facilities that provide critical infrastructure to support digital activity and the growth of artificial intelligence. The facilities, seen as vital for national security and the future of technology, require massive amounts of power and water to run.
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Bloomberg – February 23, 2026
Texas Jurors Reach Verdict in First Business Court Jury Trial*
A Texas jury returned a verdict in the first ever jury trial in the state’s business court, siding with the plaintiff in a dispute over a billion-dollar crude oil delivery project. Reaching the verdict late on Feb. 20, 10 of the 12 jurors answered yes to every question in declaring Ted Powers a one-fifth owner of the venture. Powers, squaring off in court against three members of the Berry family, will now ask Judge Sofia Adrogué to enter an order for declaratory and injunctive relief.
“We are very pleased with the jury’s verdict,” Powers’ lawyer, Roland Garcia of Greenberg Traurig, said Monday. “The bottom line is people should honor their contracts. I said it at the beginning of the case and I said it at the end: a deal is a deal.” The trial came 17 months after the state opened the specialized court in September 2024 to attract businesses with promises of fast, predictable rulings. Texas lawmakers opted to give parties the option to have a jury decide a case, something that isn’t available in Delaware’s Chancery Court where such disputes are tried to judges. Powers, the jury determined, showed the Berry defendants executed a valid contract that gave him ownership and management rights. The jury calculated Powers’ attorney’s fees at $2.4 million, though it’s up to the judge on whether to award that amount.
The Latest TERse Tips
Eldridge Capital Management on Monday announced the closing of a $350 million lease facility with ProPetro Energy Solutions, a wholly owned subsidiary of ProPetro Holding Corp. — the facility will provide PROPWR, the power generation solutions division of ProPetro, with access to growth capital for the acquisition of new power generation equipment for its robust and growing commercial pipeline across oilfield, industrial, and datacenter sectors — see the press release
Fitch Ratings has placed Caturus Energy, LLC’s ‘B-‘ Long-Term Issuer Default Rating, ‘BB-‘ with a Recovery Rating of ‘RR1’ secured issue rating and ‘B-‘/’RR4’ unsecured issue rating on Rating Watch Positive — Fitch
Compression services company Axip Energy Services, LP and certain of its affiliates Monday announced that they have filed voluntary petitions for Chapter 11 relief in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas to facilitate a sale process for the Company’s assets and business operations. The Company intends to continue operating its business in the ordinary course throughout the Chapter 11 sale process — see the press release
A 3.1-magnitude earthquake was reported in Karnes County early Monday, according to the United States Geological Survey — KSAT
Entergy Texas has issued a Request for Proposals for a new dispatchable generation resource as part of its ongoing, long-term resource planning efforts to serve continued customer and industrial growth across Southeast Texas — see the press release
Clearway Energy Group and Clearway Energy, Inc. have announced that the Pine Forest Energy Center in Hopkins County, Texas, is now operational — Solarquarter
Update: Enbridge Inc is approving two renewable energy projects — 152-MW Easter onshore wind project near Amarillo, Texas, worth USD 400 million. It has a long-term power purchase agreement with Meta Platforms Inc for its generation — Renewables Now
Oil & Gas Texas
Energy Now – February 23, 2026
US Natgas Prices at Waha Hub in Texas in Negative Territory for Record 12th Day
U.S. spot natural gas prices for Monday at the Waha Hub in the Permian Shale in West Texas closed in negative territory for a record 12th time in a row as pipeline constraints trap gas in the nation’s biggest oil-producing basin, forcing some energy firms to pay others to take gas associated with their oil production.
Analysts have long said negative prices were a sure sign the Permian region, which spans West Texas and eastern New Mexico, needs more gas pipes. More pipes are on the way later this year, but just not soon enough to handle all the gas currently coming out of the ground in the basin. Permian gas production has hit record highs every year since 2013, rising to an average of 27.6 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) in 2025 – enough to supply about a quarter of U.S. demand. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected Permian production will rise to 29.0 bcfd in 2026 and 29.6 bcfd in 2027.
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Reuters – February 23, 2026
Diamondback misses profit estimates as weaker oil prices weigh*
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KUHF – February 23, 2026
Report finds 2024 fatal Deer Park hydrogen sulfide release caused by labeling, protocol issues
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found that refinery operators failed to clearly label equipment and follow written procedures, leading to a fatal hydrogen sulfide release in Deer Park nearly two years ago. The board released its final report Monday about the Oct. 10, 2024, fatal incident at the PEMEX Deer Park Refinery.
Two contractors were killed, and 13 additional workers were taken to nearby hospitals to be evaluated for exposure to toxic hydrogen sulfide. The incident started after two contract workers for Repcon, Inc. opened the wrong flange on mislabeled piping. More than 27,000 pounds of the toxic gas were released, and Deer Park and Pasadena issued shelter-in-place orders during the incident.
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Yenisafak (Turkey) – February 20, 2026
Trump confirms 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil en route to Houston
President Donald Trump revealed Thursday that 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil are currently being transported to Houston, Texas, aboard “extremely large ships.” Speaking at an event in Georgia, Trump said: “You’ve heard about Venezuela, and we’re helping them very much with their oil. They got a lot of oil… We took 50 million barrels of oil. It’s right now floating very nicely and in extremely large ships to Houston.”
Trump also commended Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, stating: “The president’s doing an excellent job, getting along great.” The remarks signal a significant thaw in US-Venezuela relations following months of heightened tensions.
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Reuters – Februry 23, 2026
ONEOK quarterly profit falls as pipeline divestiture impacts gas segment earnings*
Bloomberg – February 23, 2026
Trump’s Land Bureau Pick Is Key for ‘Drill Baby Drill’ Agenda
Former New Mexico Rep. Stevan Pearce’s energy interests and industry experience will make him a central figure in expanding oil and gas development on federal lands if he’s confirmed as Bureau of Land Management director, industry representatives say. But Pearce’s ownership in shares of oil and gas wells in New Mexico and his legacy in Congress of opposing federal lands protections, among other issues, prompted 81 conservation groups led by the Center for Biological Diversity to urge the Senate to oppose Pearce’s nomination. His confirmation hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25 before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
If confirmed, Pearce would oversee the BLM’s 245 million acres of federal land, mostly in the West, in addition to all federally-owned onshore oil and gas reserves. He’ll manage the federal oil, gas, and coal leasing programs, 263 Congressionally-designated wilderness areas and 31 national monuments, including Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
Pearce, a Republican, can be expected to ensure oil and gas, and agricultural and ranching interests are represented and maintained on federal lands, said Ben Sheppard, president of the Texas-based Permian Basin Petroleum Association. “He’s obviously a pro-oil and gas guy,” Sheppard said. “He’s going to bring a balanced perspective to the office of the BLM.”
Oil & Gas National & International
Politico – February 23, 2026
Interior barraged with lawsuits over Alaska oil plans*
Environmentalists and an Alaskan Native group sued the Interior Department last week over its efforts to expand oil and gas production on Alaska’s North Slope, posing another court challenge as the Trump administration seeks to hold an auction in the coming weeks. The coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska asking to invalidate Interior’s management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska — and any future lease sales.
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Houston Chronicle – February 23, 2026
Supreme Court agrees to hear from oil and gas companies trying to block climate change lawsuits*
The Supreme Court said Monday that it will hear from oil and gas companies trying to block lawsuits seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars in damage linked to climate change. The conservative-majority court agreed to take up a case from Boulder, Colorado, one of multiple lawsuits alleging the companies deceived the public about how fossil fuels contribute to climate change.
Governments around the country have sought damages totaling billions of dollars, arguing it’s necessary to help pay for rebuilding after wildfires, rising sea levels and severe storms worsened by climate change. The lawsuits come amid a wave of legal actions in California, Hawaii and New Jersey and worldwide seeking to leverage action through the courts.
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Oil Price – February 23, 2026
Goldman Sachs Hikes Year-End Oil Price Forecast by $6 Per Barrel
Even if it maintains the view of global oversupply this year, Goldman Sachs has raised its oil price forecast for the fourth quarter by $6 per barrel as inventories in advanced economies remain low. The Wall Street bank lifted its Q4 2026 price estimate by $6 to $60 per barrel Brent Crude and made the same upward revision of its WTI Crude price outlook, to $56 per barrel at year-end, on the back of lower-than-expected stocks in the OECD countries, according to a Sunday note cited by Reuters.
Early on Monday in Asian trade, the U.S. benchmark WTI Crude was trading 1% lower at $65 per barrel, and Brent Crude was down 1% at $71 a barrel amid uncertainties over the U.S. trade policies after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s so-called retaliatory tariffs.
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Marcellus Drilling News – February 23, 2026
TETCO Pipe Gets OK to Elevate, Replace 5.3 Miles in Greene County
The Texas Eastern Transmission Pipeline (TETCO), operated by Enbridge, is a major 8,580-mile interstate natural gas system connecting Gulf Coast/Texas supplies to the Northeast US. Originally designed for northbound flow, it now heavily supports bidirectional, southbound, and regional supply, including Marcellus/Utica gas.
A short 5.3-mile section of TETCO (actually four separate pipelines that make up TETCO) running through Greene County, PA, needs a fix to protect it from coal mining activities set to begin directly underneath the pipeline in that area.
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Politico – February 22, 2026
Analysts say Canada’s oil sands poised for megamerger after busy 2025*
Canada’s oil patch is ripe for a megamerger, analysts say, after a bumper year for deals has left relatively few smaller targets available. The value of deals executed or pending as of Dec. 31 totaled $37.8 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The value of those transactions exceeded that of any year since 2017, when international oil majors including Shell and ConocoPhillips began selling oil sands assets to local companies, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Since then, a wave of consolidation in the Canadian energy patch has put control in the hands of an increasingly smaller group of companies. Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy, ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil’s Imperial Oil account for roughly 85 percent of Alberta’s oil sands production. Any major deals would follow a series of massive transactions in the US shale patch in recent years, driven by efforts to improve efficiency in shale plays where drilling has become costlier and margins thinner. Exxon Mobil bought Pioneer Natural Resources in 2024 and Chevron’s purchase last year of Hess included significant shale assets.
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Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
Politico – February 23, 2026
House Science Committee takes on data center permitting*
As congressional lawmakers grapple with the regulatory landscape for artificial intelligence, one House panel is turning its attention to permitting reform for data centers. The House Science, Space and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight will hold a hearing Tuesday to examine the permitting processes associated with data centers and their energy sources. That’s something largely in the hands of states and localities. Committee Republicans say the hearing will examine how “lengthy timelines, expanding compliance requirements, and approval uncertainty” hamper data center construction and hinder American competition with China.
“Artificial intelligence will define the next era of economic and national security leadership, but it cannot advance without reliable, abundant energy,” said Science, Space and Technology Chair Brian Babin (R-Texas) in a statement. “I look forward to this hearing and to assessing whether our permitting system is enabling or impeding the infrastructure needed to power America’s AI future,” he added. The hearing comes as the full Science, Space and Technology committee appears to be gearing up to legislate on artificial intelligence and data centers.
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electrek – February 23, 2026
Texas is about to overtake California in battery storage
A new report finds Texas is set to overtake California in battery storage as US installs hit a record 57.6 GWh in 2025, up 30% year-over-year. According to the US Energy Storage Market Outlook Q1 2026 from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, installations are now four times higher than totals from just three years ago.
The US had a total of 137 GWh of utility-scale storage installed as of 2025, plus 19 GWh of commercial and industrial systems and 9 GWh of residential storage. Analysts expect the growth streak to continue. More than 600 GWh of energy storage is projected to be deployed nationwide by 2030, even as the Trump administration targets clean energy industries.
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Texas Tribune – February 23, 2026
Xcel will replace high-risk power poles after attorney general sues over 2024 wildfires
A Texas district court ordered Xcel, an electric utility with more than 200,000 customers in Texas, on Monday to replace poles within wildfire-prone areas it has identified as damaged, following an agreement between Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the utility.
In a news release, Paxton called the development a first step toward holding Xcel accountable for the 2024 wildfires that scorched through a million acres of the Texas Panhandle, killing scores of cattle and at least three people. Shortly after the devastation began, Xcel admitted the pole that sparked the fire was theirs.
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Politico – February 23, 2026
EPA dropped climate rules for cars and trucks. What about planes?*
President Donald Trump’s drive to shred the endangerment finding, the 2009 legal underpinning of EPA’s climate rules for cars and trucks, is putting a question on the aerospace industry’s radar: what the repeal might mean for similar rule for airplanes. EPA recently carried out Trump’s Day One order to repeal the finding that had girded decades of regulations on greenhouse gas emissions from road vehicles — and that Trump called “a disastrous Obama-era policy.” But his administration is pointedly not going after a second greenhouse gas endangerment finding issued by former President Barack Obama — one that applies to aircraft.
Repealing that finding would have serious repercussions for Boeing and other domestic fabricators. Aerospace manufacturers under international law must have federal greenhouse gas standards in place in order to be certified by U.S. authorities to sell planes to the rest of the world and to fly and land them at foreign airports.
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The Wall Street Journal – February 23, 2026
Clean Energy Manufacturers Set to Muddle Through Fresh Tariff Turmoil*
Manufacturers of solar, wind and batteries technologies are battling a fresh bout of uncertainty after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s tariffs regime. Investors, however, appear to be tentatively welcoming the ruling. On Friday, the Supreme Court said that by using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or Ieepa, to impose global tariffs without clear authorization from Congress, Trump had overstepped his mark and acted illegally.
In a swift response to the legal setback, Trump proposed new global tariff measures, raising a global tariff that will replace many of the duties ruled illegal to 15% from 10%. For manufacturers of green products, the legislative whiplash that came with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is once again endangering investment and raising costs, according to analysts and experts.
“This kind of environment for clean tech manufacturing is not good,” said Chris Aylett, research fellow at think tank Chatham House, focusing on environment and society. “If you have this extra uncertainty around tariffs it’s just an extra thing added to it.” Subsidy cuts, court cases and restrictions on imports have meant that most manufacturers of devices such as wind turbines and batteries are already taking a hit from the administration, and tariffs were only making the issue worse, Aylett said. “Anyone making big investment decisions or if you are importing from abroad then you would likely hold fire,” he added.
Regulatory
Austin American-Statesman – February 22, 2026
Texas can’t afford Trump’s rollback on climate change: Colin Leyden, Environmental Defense Fund*
After the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has the authority and obligation under the Clean Air Act to regulate climate-altering pollution like carbon dioxide and methane, the EPA gathered mountains of evidence of the threats posed to people’s health and safety. The 2009 endangerment finding made it clear why the agency needed to limit this pollution. Repealing the finding now is not only unlawful, it’s unwise. It will make life more dangerous and more expensive when Texans can least afford either.
Electricity prices could get worse, too. Since the cold, hard lessons of Winter Storm Uri, Texas has strengthened our infrastructure to keep power flowing to our homes and diversified our grid. In the last three years, no state has added more clean energy — which doesn’t contribute to the problem of climate change — than Texas. But the repeal comes as the Trump administration is also busy handing out millions of taxpayer dollars to help keep expensive, unreliable coal plants afloat while blocking faster, cheaper sources of energy that have helped our prices stay low, even as they’ve spiked in other states by double digits and our population — and demand — has grown.
And extreme weather is only going to get more extreme. That will push the cost of insurance even higher — if it’s available at all in some of the most disaster-prone parts of the state. (At the same time, the Trump administration has openly discussed dismantling FEMA and leaving states to shoulder disaster recovery on their own.) Texas homeowners insurance premiums have increased about 20% in each of the past two years. How are working families going to be able to afford to stay in an increasingly risky place to live?