7-30-26

Texas Energy Report NewsClips

Thursday July 30, 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

Oil prices erased some of their previous gains on Thursday, despite escalating attacks in the Gulf as investor focus shifted to supply flows through the ​key chokepoints in the region.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 64 cents, or 0.76%, to $83.82 a barrel.

Brent futures fell 96 cents, or 1.06%, to $89.78 a barrel as of ‌0418 GMT.

Brent settled up 7.91% in the previous session and WTI up 6.56% in one of the sharpest spikes of the Iran war, reversing a 5% plunge on Tuesday ​after a pause in hostilities in the five-month conflict.

Prices surged as U.S. President Donald Trump threatened ​on Wednesday to hit Iran “very hard” after an Iranian missile attack on Tuesday on ⁠a U.S. base in Jordan.

On Wednesday, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia attacked Iran-backed paramilitary forces in Iraq, the first ​time that Saudi had publicly joined U.S. air strikes, in retaliation for drone attacks on Saudi oil targets launched ​from Iraq.

Top Stories

AOL – July 29, 2026

Shell, Phillips 66 weigh sale of stakes in $3.5 billion US pipeline Explorer, sources say

Shell and Phillips 66 are working on a potential sale of their stakes in the company which owns the Explorer refined products pipeline, in a deal that could value the major piece of U.S. energy infrastructure at around $3.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said. The move reflects how heightened demand for energy infrastructure assets, especially from financial buyers, has boosted valuations and encouraged existing owners to sell and reinvest proceeds in core or higher-growth parts of their businesses.

Shell and Phillips 66 currently hold around 61% ownership of the legal entity which holds the pipeline, which transports gasoline, jet fuel and other fuel products from Texas, through the Midwest, to end points including the outskirts of Chicago. Investment bankers at Greenhill, a Mizuho affiliate, and RBC Capital Markets, have been retained to run an auction process for the stakes, with deliberations currently at an early stage.

__________________________________

The New York Times – July 29, 2026

Why Republicans Aren’t Funding a Key Senate Race Yet*

Mr. Paxton finds himself in a unique situation among Senate candidates, according to interviews with a dozen Republicans with ties to his campaign. Republican donors still hold grudges from a bruising primary. The state, with its 18-plus television markets, is an epically expensive setting. And his Democratic opponent, James Talarico, has proved to be a particularly strong fund-raiser. Perhaps the most striking piece of Mr. Paxton’s money woes is the high-stakes game of chicken that two of the Republican Party’s biggest money committees, along with their allied donors, are playing. Both of those groups, the Senate Leadership Fund and MAGA Inc., are not so secretly hoping that the other one swoops in to boost Mr. Paxton with tens of millions in spending, the Republicans said. Neither group has reached for its wallet yet. “Somebody is going to have to spend big money,” said Dan Eberhart, an oil executive who is raising contributions for Mr. Paxton. “We’ll see who blinks.” …

All of this makes fund-raising an urgent priority this summer for Mr. Paxton. Yet his relationships with donors in the state remain frosty, including the Texas network of former President George W. Bush, which he has regularly criticized. Holdouts include moderates like the G.O.P. megadonor Ken Griffin, who is said to have no plans to help Mr. Paxton, and longtime right-wing backers like the oil industry’s Wilks brothers and Tim Dunn. Mr. Paxton has made individual calls to some Cornyn-aligned givers seeking six-figure checks, a person with knowledge said. But some Cornyn donors have declined even to return calls from the Paxton camp, multiple Republicans said.

__________________________________

The Wall Street Journal – July 29, 2026

New Mexico Is Divided Over What to Do With $75 Billion in Oil Cash*

Santa Fe — In a beige office park on the edge of town not far from a Walmart, waves of oil-and-gas money are crashing on Jon Clark’s desk. A flood of $7.6 billion arrived in 2024, followed by an additional $5.3 billion in 2025. This year, Clark, New Mexico’s state investment officer, is projecting $5.4 billion. New Mexico’s oil-and-gas bounty has helped build a $75 billion investment fund that would be the envy of Wall Street. New Mexico has become the second-largest-producing oil state in the country, behind Texas, and soaring crude prices from the U.S. war with Iran are translating into another burst of revenue. The question for the state now: What to do with it?

When energy prices were low early this year, about $160 million flowed into the largest bucket of New Mexico’s fund each month from royalties paid by energy companies pumping on publicly owned land. That jumped to $241 million in March after the Iran war sent crude prices higher. More cash is expected to arrive from taxes on oil-and-gas sales.  “We’re going to increasingly be part of how the state pays for everything moving forward,” Clark said. “The potential for impact is almost limitless in the long term.” Clark leads the New Mexico State Investment Council, which manages a sovereign-wealth fund projected to hit $100 billion by the end of the decade, surpassing Alaska to become the country’s largest. The fund expects to pour at least $3 billion into the state budget this fiscal year alone, and officials project it will overtake the oil-and-gas sector as the state’s largest revenue source as soon as 2039.

__________________________________

Bloomberg – July 29, 2026

The US Is Making the Most Fuel Since Pre-Covid. It’s Not Enough.*

US refiners are turning crude oil into products like gasoline and diesel at a pace not seen since before the Covid-19 pandemic, but even that is unlikely to rein in soaring prices soon amid a historic fuel crunch. Refineries last week processed 17 million barrels of crude oil a day, according to the Energy Information Administration, in a full-throttle effort to meet global and domestic fuel demand. That’s the highest weekly average since September 2019. In the Midwest, refineries processed the most crude on record in a week.

Global fuel supplies are perilously tight, incentivizing refiners to go all-out to capture exceptionally strong profit margins, said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at Kpler. Fuel markets have been left with little cushion after outages stemming from wars in Ukraine and Iran. “Super-sized refining margins continue to encourage refiners to run as hard as possible, resulting in a solid draw to crude inventories,” Smith said. Despite the surging processing rates, US consumers aren’t likely to see much relief at the pump soon. US fuel markets still look tight, with gasoline and diesel futures rising. That means further headaches for US drivers staring down $4-a-gallon gasoline and another wrinkle for central bankers desperate to tamp down inflation.

__________________________________

KUT NPR – July 29, 2026

Data centers are being built across Texas every day. Here’s what goes on inside one in Austin

Tommy Minyard remembers University of Texas at Austin officials laughing at him when his team requested more space for their data center on campus back in 2005. He needed 15,000 square feet and 10 megawatts of electricity — enough energy to power roughly 5,000 single-family homes. “They said, ‘No, no, no, we’re gonna give you one megawatt of power and 5,000 square feet,’” said Minyard, the director of advanced computing systems at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). “We filled up the one megawatt of power the next year.” On the outside, the TACC just looks like a warehouse. But on the inside, it looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Rows upon rows of computer servers are stacked on top of each other throughout the room. The servers are densely packed and constantly running. …

It’s painfully loud inside. The noise is generated by over 500 fans working to cool the stacks of machines, which generate heat — like your laptop after working all day without a lunch break — that needs to be dissipated for the servers to function properly. Minyard said the heat generated by computer servers is a main challenge for data centers. The servers need to be cooled somehow, and big environmental trade-offs come with each option. Air cooling with fans is loud and requires a lot of electricity. Evaporative cooling uses less electricity, but it’s noisy and water intensive. Minyard said TACC experimented with using solar panels on the building’s roof to power some of its servers, but found they only generated enough electricity to power three of its server racks — a tiny portion of the data center.

The Latest TERse Tips

Entergy Corporation reported second quarter 2026 earnings per share of $1.03 on an as-reported and an adjusted (non-GAAP) basis — see the press release — see the earnings call highlights

A new campaign is calling for the timely completion of a major electric transmission project aimed at meeting growing power demand across West Texas — Power West Texas launched Tuesday to support the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, saying the region has waited years for the electric grid to catch up with rapid growth — KOSA

Baker Hughes said on July 27 it expects global spending by oil and gas producers to decline modestly this year as weaker investment in Europe and the Middle East outweighs growth in Latin America, offshore Africa and North America’s onshore market — Big News Network

The DOE says the SPR is at 307.650MM barrels on Tuesday, bringing it soon within range of 270-to-300MM barrels, widely regarded as the so-called “tank bottom,” although the DOE has said the SPR can be reduced to as little as 70MM barrels

After spending nearly six months mired in negative territory, Waha natural gas cash prices staged a sharp turnaround this summer as new pipeline capacity began relieving chronic egress constraints in the Permian Basin — Natural Gas Intelligence*

Xcel Energy says Peter Carter has been elected to its board of directors — Carter serves as the president of Delta Air Lines, where he drives the company’s enterprise strategy, global policy matters and global market position — see the press release

RRC, Texas Tech build partnership to strengthen oil and gas inspector training — Odessa American

Texas is Dominant Biggest Solar Farms in the US — Energy Digital

By utilizing models like Texas’s Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ), the report emphasizes aligning infrastructure development with immediate load growth to bridge the gap between demand and traditional planning cycles — read the full report at ESIG

Elon Musk’s solar ambitions have shifted from powering homes to powering Tesla’s AI era — Business Insider

Oil & Gas Texas

The New York Times – July 28, 2026

Drilling for Oil the Old-Fashioned Way in ‘Little Texas,’ Indonesia*

The old red truck’s engine was jury-rigged to control a pump tied to a three-legged tower cobbled together from teak logs and rope. Sujiyanto sat in the cab of the vehicle, cigarette in hand. He released the gas pedal, sending the pump hundreds of feet underground before hauling it back up filled with crude oil. “This is how we extract oil from the ground,” said Mr. Sujiyanto, 51, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. Around him on a recent Wednesday, smoke rose over the hills, which were dotted with teak derricks. The smell of oil lingered in the air and the ground was slicked black. Nearby, a group of men used their bare hands to crank out a pump stuck into the ground.

“We are actually happy when oil prices rise, because our income increases,” said Mr. Sujiyanto, who has been working here for around 15 years. Next to his truck, three other men worked at separate stations. One sat inside a hut beside the pump, maneuvering it with a long wooden stick. Two others, equipped with buckets, scooped oil that had pooled around the well at the base of the derrick. For an hour, they worked in sync to collect the oil that totaled up to 200 liters, or a bit over a barrel. Then, they moved onto another well.

__________________________________

E&E News By Politico – July 29, 2026

Trump bets Chevron’s fall lets him rewrite rules for imperiled wildlife

For decades, presidents of both parties and the Supreme Court have agreed that federal law prevents developers from destroying habitat critical to vulnerable wildlife. The Trump administration is now making the case that a landmark Supreme Court ruling ending judicial deference to federal agencies gives it room to reverse that longstanding interpretation. The problem: Many environmental lawyers say the high court’s 2024 decision doesn’t go nearly that far. If they’re right, one of the administration’s biggest efforts to narrow the Endangered Species Act could face an uphill battle in court.

“There will be a bitter fight over this rule in the courts,” said Ben Cowan, an environmental attorney at the firm Troutman Pepper Locke. Earlier this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule that said the agencies will no longer define “harm” of protected plants and animals to include habitat changes that could be detrimental to a species’ survival. The rule change upends an approach that has been the law of the land since the Supreme Court decided in 1995 that federal regulators reasonably included habitat protections in safeguards for two vulnerable birds.

As the impetus for its new rule change, the Trump administration cited the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which ended Chevron deference. That practice refers to the high court’s 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which concluded that courts should defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of laws like the ESA when the wording is ambiguous.

__________________________________

The Telegraph (UK) – July 29, 2026

Texas oil tycoon plots $5bn Saudi oil refinery to break Hormuz blockade

A Texas oil tycoon is plotting a $5bn (£3.8bn) oil refinery to bypass Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Marc Gunderson, the founder of MWG Enterprises, has joined forces with two Middle East investment funds to develop the new terminal, which could reduce Iran’s grip on exports from the Persian Gulf. Three potential sites have been chosen in the Gulf of Oman, where tankers using it would not have to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has effectively closed the vital trade route since the US and Israel bombing raids started in February, sending oil and gas prices surging. Oil prices rose 4pc to $88 a barrel on Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East escalated ‌following US and Saudi strikes in Iraq and an intercepted Iranian missile attack on US forces. The new oil refinery plan is being developed by Mera Oil, a US-Saudi joint venture between Mr Gunderson’s MWG and Saudi Arabia’s AHQ and Patel Family Office. The company has not officially named the candidate sites, but they are thought to include Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates, or Sohar in Oman.

__________________________________

Upstream – July 29, 2026

Baker Hughes lands massive gas turbine order from Texas power developer

Baker Hughes has won an award from US mobile power generator Dynamis Power Solutions for dozens of gas turbines for both oil and gas development and data centre projects, the energy services contractor announced Wednesday. The order was for 76 NovaLT16 gas turbines along with gearboxes and generators. The equipment will be capable of generating a total of 1.3 gigawatts of mobile power “across a wide range of data center projects and oil and gas applications”, Baker Hughes said.

Baker Hughes did not disclose the value of the deal. Baker Hughes has leaned into gas turbine orders for data centre development in the last two years. The contractor revealed a turbine deal with Kodiak Gas Services in July and also announced turbine awards last year from Turbine-X Energy and Frontier Infrastructure.

__________________________________

Texas Tribune – July 29, 2026

Paxton lawsuit prompts end of federal endangered species protection for Texas lizard

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has ended endangered species protections for a Texas lizard that were introduced in 2024 after state Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the federal government over the designation. The dunes sagebrush lizard is a roughly 2.5-inch-long reptile native to the Permian Basin has faced threats from oil and gas exploration and development in the region for decades, according to biologists. After the species was designated as endangered by the Biden administration and granted federal protections in 2024, Paxton sued, arguing the Wildlife Service did not use “the best scientific and commercial data” when it declared the lizard endangered.

The end of the dunes sagebrush lizard’s endangered classification came as part of a settlement on July 21 in a lawsuit between the federal government and Paxton’s office. The agreement vacates the 2024 classification, which will require the Wildlife Service to reassess the lizard’s status. In a statement, Paxton applauded the wildlife service’s pending reassessment and framed the initial classification as a misstep that did not consider habitat restoration efforts.

__________________________________

Texas Tribune – July 29, 2026

Corpus Christi City Council rejects $60,000 community gift to benefit water desalination plant

The Corpus Christi City Council voted 5-4 to reject a $60,000 gift intended to cover the cost of applying for a federal grant to help build a city-owned water treatment plant. The Tuesday night vote confirms the strength of the anti-desalination bloc in the City Council, a month before members are expected to vote on whether to revive plans to build the $978.8 million Inner Harbor desalination plant.

Business and community leaders pledged the money in hopes of moving forward on a desalination plant capable of providing a drought-resistant water supply by removing salt from seawater collected from Corpus Christi Bay. Tuesday’s vote came three weeks after a bitterly divided City Council declined to apply for the grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which has a program offering up to $120 million to help build desalination plants across the country. Five council members opposed spending money and time applying for a grant for the proposed Inner Harbor desalination plant — a project that has not yet been approved and would take three years to build.

Oil & Gas National & International

Reuters – July 29, 2026

Drone hits gas storage tanker at Egypt’s Mediterranean port, Ambrey reports*

A drone hit a U.S.-owned gas storage tanker at Egypt’s ‌Mediterranean port of Damietta, British maritime security firm Ambrey said on Wednesday, in an initial assessment that could signal a further spread of conflict across the Middle East. A statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry confirmed a fire at the port but made no mention of a drone attack and did ​not provide a cause for the incident.

Port services firm Inchcape said in a separate message two gas tankers ​had caught fire at Damietta. The drone hit floating storage tanker Energos Winter, causing a fire that ⁠spread to another vessel, Gaslog Salem, three trading sources familiar with the incident said. Two separate security sources said the ​likely cause of the blast was assessed as a drone strike. The Energos Winter was reportedly struck by an unidentified projectile ​on its starboard side, causing a fire that was extinguished, British maritime risk management group Vanguard said.

__________________________________

Reuters – July 29, 2026

US-Saudi consortium advances plans for $5 billion Gulf refinery*

The MERA Oil consortium of U.S. and Saudi Arabian companies is advancing plans for a $5 ​billion integrated refinery and export corridor in the ‌Gulf aimed at boosting regional energy infrastructure, its partners said on Wednesday, as the Iran war continues to disrupt energy flows.

• Texas-based ​energy development company MWG Group, the Patel Family ​Office and PWS, an associate company of Saudi ⁠industrial conglomerate AHQ Group, have entered the final ​stage of site selection for the refinery, which will ​have capacity of 200,000 barrels per day.
• The consortium has narrowed the site selection process to three locations in the Gulf Cooperation ​Council six-nation bloc.
• The preferred host is expected to ​be confirmed by the end of 2026, the companies said, without ‌providing ⁠specific locations.
• The integrated refinery will be linked to deepwater port infrastructure, large-scale storage of crude and refined products, and marine export facilities.
• MERA Oil said the planned project ​is located ​outside the ⁠Strait of Hormuz and aims to provide an export platform with direct access to ​international shipping routes.

__________________________________

Reuters – July 29, 2026

The US is helping to fuel the Chinese factories it’s competing with: Gavin MaGuire*

A curious pattern is emerging in U.S.-China trade. Washington has spent years trying to rebuild domestic manufacturing, reduce dependence on Chinese supply chains and shift strategic production back to American soil. Yet commodity flows suggest the United States is simultaneously becoming an increasingly important supplier of the raw materials that keep China’s industrial ​machine running.

The Wall Street Journal – July 29, 2026

How China Went From Dream Customer to a Nightmare for Big Oil*

China is more in control of its oil consumption than anyone realized. That will unsettle oil bosses. During one of the worst energy crises in history, brought on by the Iran war, the crude market’s top customer cut imports by 40%. China’s need for oil has turned out to be pretty discretionary, which gives Beijing sway over where oil prices head next. “We tend to joke among ourselves that China is the OPEC of oil demand,” says Homayoun Falakshahi, head of crude oil analysis at Kpler.

Utilities, Electricity & Renewables

Texas Tribune – July 29, 2026

“A deal with the devil”: Religion motivates data center opponents in Texas

Matt Long stood before the Granbury City Council at an April zoning meeting to oppose the influx of proposed data centers in Hood County, likening them to a spiritual abomination. “I’d consider us a Christian city inside a Christian county,” said Long, a member of the county’s development commission who lives near Granbury. “As Christians, do we think that trading 2,100 acres of natural beauty for godless technological complexes is moving us closer to the creation, or further away?”

“Do we think that entering into negotiations with Google, Meta and Amazon are closer to making a covenant with God, or making a deal with the devil?” he asked the council. Christians, Long concluded to applause, must stand up to data centers. Controversy surrounding data center construction has roiled Texas in recent months, fostering a bipartisan coalition of opposition, particularly among rural and suburban residents. With at least 248 planned data center projects and 335 in operation, Texas is poised to become a leader in data center development.

__________________________________

Texas Tribune – July 29, 2026

ERCOT: Texas’ power grid meeting record demand now, but could falter when it doubles by 2032

The demand on Texas’ energy grid by 2032 will be nearly double a record that was set last week, and state regulators say they will need more varied electrical generation to meet that demand. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) forecasts the statewide electric demand will reach roughly 175,000 megawatts — one megawatt can power 250 residential customers during peak hours — in six years, driven by a massive influx of data centers, along with Texas’ growing population and other industrial projects as the economy continues to boom, the council’s CEO Pablo Vegas told the state’s Senate Business and Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

Regulators said they are confident the grid will meet that demand thanks to an influx of solar power and battery storage, but also cautioned that the state needs more natural gas power generation to keep the lights on when the sun goes down and solar quits generating electricity. “Texas is continuing to grow beyond data centers significantly,” said Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission of Texas. “We’re doing great as a state and continuing to win on almost every front. There is still going to be a need to serve all the rest of the non-data center load, and that is going to require a balanced mix of resources to do that.”

__________________________________

KXAN – July 29, 2026

‘It’s like your home being invaded’: Texas landowners challenge massive power line project

After months of controversy and pushback, Texas senators examined a major transmission line project and its impact on landowners Wednesday. On July 29, the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce hosted a special hearing to discuss the state grid and discuss a proposed 765-kilovolt transmission line network tied to the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, designed to strengthen the state’s electric grid and accommodate growing demand. “There are a lot of people that are really impacted by this,” said Mia Sarot with the Hill Country Land and Legacy Alliance, one of the groups representing landowners in the path of the proposed lines.

Lawmakers said testimony from landowners would help inform potential changes to the transmission line approval process, including notification requirements and opportunities for public participation. “There are three lines that run from Central Texas, a little bit north and a little bit south kind of San Antonio area, and also into the Permian Basin. So there are many, many counties involved and thousands of people,” Sarot said.

__________________________________

KFOX – July 29, 2026

City asks state to extend data center electricity cost protections to Borderland ratepayer

The City of El Paso is urging state regulators to ensure residents served by El Paso Electric receive the same protections from data center-related electricity costs as customers in the state’s main power grid. City officials announced Wednesday that they have submitted formal comments to the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), asking the agency to extend residential ratepayer protections being developed in response to Gov. Greg Abbott’s June 10 directive on data center growth.

The filing follows action taken by the El Paso City Council on June 23, when members amended the city’s legislative agenda to support policies aimed at preventing residential customers from paying for infrastructure costs associated with large data centers. According to the city, while the governor’s directive focuses on customers within the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid, El Paso residents are served by El Paso Electric, which operates outside ERCOT. City leaders argue those customers should receive the same protections.

__________________________________

Austin American-Statesman – July 29, 2026

Tesla to buy entire output of new solar farm in Texas, most from another in Arizona*

Tesla Inc. wants to use more solar energy and is purchasing the entire output of a planned Texas solar farm and nearly all the power generated by a solar plant being built in Arizona to make it happen. The Austin maker of electric vehicles, batteries and robots has signed a long-term purchase agreement for power from Lumen Farm, which is set to be built in Anderson County, about 100 miles east of Waco. Zelestra, the renewable energy company developing the project, said the plant will have 140 megawatts of capacity.

Separately, Tesla also is buying 90% of the output of a 509-megawatt hybrid solar and battery storage project being built in Arizona, according to developer ContourGlobal. Both are major projects but far from the largest in either state. A plant with generation capacity of at least 1 megawatt is considered utility-scale.  Zelestra said it anticipates starting construction of Lumen Farm by 2027 with full operation by 2029. A spokesperson for the company said the project will finalize contracts for construction and procurement of the main equipment this year. ContourGlobal’s Project Sterling project in Arizona is on track to be operational in 2028. Zelestra’s relationship with Tesla goes back at least to 2024, when the companies reached a power-purchase agreement for 57 megawatts from Zelestra’s Brazatortas I, II and IV solar plants in the Castilla-La Mancha region of Spain, where Zelestra is based.

__________________________________

Texas Tribune – July 29, 2026

Energy agencies want more authority over Texas data centers

Texas’ power grid operators are calling for state lawmakers to expand their authority to regulate data centers, following a recent directive to rein in these facilities from Gov. Greg Abbott. In a letter to the agencies last month, Abbott directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) to take action to ensure that data centers lower residents’ energy bills when the facilities connect to the grid and require data centers to pay for the costs of their electric infrastructure. The governor also directed the commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the state’s electricity grid, to review their authority and “identify actions that can be taken under those authorities to safeguard Texans, their property, and resources.”

PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson responded to the governor’s letter this month, outlining the steps the two agencies had already taken to prepare for an influx of data centers to the state. Most of the policies began before the governor’s directive and were undertaken in response to a state law passed in the 2025 legislative session. Gleeson said the PUCT and ERCOT have adopted new requirements for data centers looking to join the grid. He said they’ve also taken steps to ensure existing power plants continue to provide energy to everyday Texans, even when those facilities will power a new data center.

__________________________________

Houston Chronicle – July 28, 2026

Texas electricity demand keeps breaking records. The added demand of data centers will raise prices: Chris Tomlinson*

Texas shattered the record for electricity demand last week, and this week we’ll likely set another record. The grid managed just fine, without any need for emergency text messages, mandatory power cuts or brownouts. The grid is strong thanks to an all-of-the-above strategy, which is exactly how the Electric Reliability Council of Texas is designed. But the huge electricity needs of AI data centers is threatening to throw a new wrench in ERCOT’s delicate balance of pricing and demand.  ERCOT starts planning 24 hours in advance with a weather forecast and an estimate for how much power will be needed. Generators bid in their lowest prices per megawatt-hour, and ERCOT keeps contracting until they have the amount they need. When the power is consumed the next day, every generator gets paid the same price as the most expensive megawatt.

On Aug. 10, 2023, ERCOT set a record of 85,508 megawatts and called on all Texans to conserve energy. But this year, ERCOT met 91,308 megawatts without any problem. Natural gas provided 52% of the mix, solar 18%, coal 11%, wind 8%, nuclear 5% and battery storage 3% for the 7 p.m. hour on July 22.  Renewable sources like solar, batteries and wind are the fastest-growing segment of the Texas fuel mix and provide the cushion. Without them, ERCOT could not have met the record demand last week or this week. They are why the grid has more than 100,000 megawatts ready to meet our needs.

__________________________________

KOAT – July 28, 2026

Xcel Energy unveils power expansion plan to meet growth

Xcel Energy is planning a major expansion of its electric generation fleet to keep pace with growing demand across Texas and New Mexico. The utility announced a proposed portfolio of projects totaling nearly 4,000 megawatts of new capacity that would come online by 2030, pending regulatory approval.

The proposal includes new wind farms, solar facilities, battery storage and a natural gas power plant designed to provide electricity when renewable resources are unavailable. Company officials said the mix of generation sources is intended to balance affordability with grid reliability as communities continue to grow and electricity use rises.

__________________________________

Utility Dive – July 29, 2026

DOE mulls changes to Biden-era transformer rule, raising utility concerns

The Trump administration is considering revising energy efficiency requirements for distribution transformers that were approved two years ago to wide industry acclaim, generating fresh concerns among utilities and other electric sector stakeholders about grid expansion bottlenecks. The new rules, set to go into effect in 2029, adjust transformer efficiency targets to require the use of more amorphous electrical steel in the critical grid equipment, along with the grain-oriented electrical steel, or GOES, that’s most common now.

DOE’s 2024 rule change ultimately took a middle-ground approach, allowing the use of both GOES and amorphous steel to ensure manufacturers can meet the growing need for grid equipment. When the rule was finalized, timelines to acquire new distribution transformers were running 18 months or longer, and the fear was that a rapid restructuring of manufacturing and steel supply chains would worsen the situation.   Stakeholders at the time praised the rule for balancing efficiency gains with market realities.

Regulatory

Renewable Energy World – July 27, 2026

FERC takes action to streamline reviews for hydropower projects with ‘minimal’ environmental impact

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) recently unanimously approved measures to simplify its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review procedures for hydropower-related actions with what it describes as “minimal environmental impact.” These regulatory changes are meant to increase efficiency and accelerate approvals while upholding environmental standards, FERC said. “We must move important approvals forward quickly while ensuring we fully meet our NEPA obligations,” FERC Chairman Laura V. Swett said. “Today’s actions are practical, common-sense solutions that streamline our hydropower environmental review processes and allow us to better focus our efforts on reviewing large-scale projects.”

Congress has enabled federal agencies to create categorical exclusions, the use of which satisfies NEPA without the need to prepare an Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Statement, for certain types of actions that normally do not ‘significantly affect” the quality of the human environment. According to research by the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences at George Washington University, under the FAST-41 framework categorical exclusion permits are typically completed in under six months, with a median of 0.95 months. Non-federal hydropower licenses have a median of 33 months to complete on the other hand.

__________________________________

The Wall Street Journal – July 28, 2026

U.S. Environmentalists Go Easy on China*

A senior judge of China’s Supreme People’s Court participated in an March 2023 online seminar sponsored by a U.S. environmental-law group and used the platform to talk up Xi Jinping’s climate-change policies. It was a strange presentation for an American legal nonprofit to support, especially one that is supposedly politically neutral and has received millions of dollars in federal grants. But it was on brand for the Environmental Law Institute, a Washington group that says it has trained thousands of American judges on climate-change issues and the law.

Issues central to ELI’s judicial-education campaign have come before the American judiciary at many levels—from state trial courts in California and Hawaii to the U.S. Supreme Court in Suncor v. Boulder, which the justices will hear in their fall term. What’s become clearer is the machinery driving this litigation campaign. A new report, “ELI and Communist China,” from the national-security organization State Armor shows how a group that presents itself as a neutral environmental organization has promoted a pro-China agenda. Earlier this month, an ELI spokesman told the Daily Signal that its work with China concluded in 2024 and “was no different than our typical work in the United States—sharing evidence-based best practices on environmental regulation, not advancing the interests of the Chinese government or the Chinese Communist Party.”

__________________________________

gCaptain – July 29, 2026

The Case for the Jones Act: American Commerce, Workers, Security: James L. Henry

For more than 130 days, President Trump has waived the Jones Act, letting foreign ships carry cargo between American ports. Supporters of the waiver call this free trade. It isn’t.  Moving oil from Texas to New Jersey is domestic commerce, not trade, any more than a UPS truck crossing state lines is trade. Once you accept the “trade” framing, you’ve already lost the argument. This is a domestic commerce rule, not a trade barrier, and it shouldn’t be treated as one.

Waiver advocates also argue the Jones Act fleet is fully booked anyway, so the waiver costs nothing. That’s false. Vessels have sat idle for months waiting for work, brokers report they can’t secure contracts for clients, and an analysis by Navigistics Consulting found that in the waiver’s first 60 days, nearly 90% of the diverted voyages could have been handled by Jones Act vessels. The harm is real. It just hasn’t been tallied until now. The American maritime industry commissioned PwC, one of the Big 4 accounting firms, to model what a long-term waiver would cost.