Texas Energy Report NewsClips
Friday August 21, 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 fell slightly on Friday, but were on track for a second weekly rise as the stalemated U.S.-Iran war continues to disrupt supply from the key Middle East producing region.
West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 44 cents, or 0.5%, to $86.76 a barrel, after rising 2.3% in the prior session.
Brent crude futures fell 34 cents, or 0.4%, to $93.44 a barrel by 0646 GMT, after climbing 2.4% in the previous session.
During the previous five days of gains, Brent gained more than 7% and WTI climbed more than 8%, reaching their highest since July 24.
Prices have increased on concerns the inconclusive state of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran will mean the continued curtailment of supply from major oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
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Top Stories
Semafor – August 20, 2026
Republicans scramble to remake their stance on data centers
Related: AI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to elections — CNBC
Related: Politicians Who Once Championed Data Centers Are Now Bashing Them — State governors, including Greg Abbott and Josh Shapiro, are slowing development of the facilities as anger over AI spreads — The Wall Street Journal*
As populist pushback builds against the AI industry and data centers that power it, Republicans who have cheered the AI boom are scrambling to find a new identity as middle-ground pragmatists. Instead of a moratorium on building new facilities, a growing number of GOP candidates have called for “guardrails” to protect skeptical communities from unchecked AI growth, as well as the rollback of industry tax breaks. These Republicans’ rebrand also involves a bid for the high ground by attacking Democrats with more nuanced positions on data centers.
They’re aligned with President Donald Trump’s White House, which tried to blunt anti-AI activists’ momentum with a voluntary “ratepayer protection pledge,” released in March with industry promises to foot the bill for the power demand from new data centers. Data centers “could use a little public relations help,” Trump said on Wednesday. Democrats have a simple response on an issue where progressives have dominated: Remind voters that the industry prefers the other guy for a reason.
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Buenos Aires Times – August 20, 2026
Hamm’s Continental to buy 50% of Mercuria Argentina oil firm
Billionaire shale pioneer Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources Inc signed agreements to buy half of an Argentine shale oil firm owned by Mercuria Energy Group, with the firms promising more than US$4 billion of investment to expand production. Mercuria and Continental will become 50-50 joint venture partners in Phoenix Global Resources, the companies said on Thursday while announcing plans to treble Phoenix’s output to over 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent in the next five years. The combination will also add shale oil interests from José Luis Manzano’s Integra Capital, they said.
It’s the latest investment in Argentine shale oil from US investors this month after tech billionaire Peter Thiel reported a sizeable stake in Vista Energy SAB. Continental CEO Doug Lawler touted reforms from President Javier Milei, a Donald Trump ally on the international stage, as “ultimately helping pave the way for this significant partnership.”
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San Antonio Express-News – August 20, 2026
Texas leaders warn of ‘catastrophic’ effects from pausing plan for massive power lines*
Calls to pause plans for the state’s largest-ever transmission lines got a reality check as industry leaders warned lawmakers that halting the project could be “catastrophic.” The alarm was sounded by the state’s utility regulator, manufacturers and leaders in the energy industry who said operations in the energy-rich Permian Basin are already threatened by inadequate power supply. “Every day we don’t make a decision on building transmission just exacerbates that issue,” Thomas Gleeson, chair of the Public Utility Commission, told a House committee Wednesday.
West Texas energy operations already have faced challenges, said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association. He reminded lawmakers that operations in the Permian Basin shut down when they lost power during the winter storm of 2021 because they were not classified as critical infrastructure. “The consequences of not getting this right are catastrophic,” Staples said. The new 765-kilovolt transmission lines — which stem from a reliability plan ordered in 2023 by the same lawmakers who now are questioning the project amid rising outrage from Texans over what they see as largely unbridled industrial development — would help ensure power remains available in the region. Gleeson, whose Public Utility Commission regulates the state’s utilities, cautioned lawmakers that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has projected the possibility of rolling blackouts by next summer in West Texas as demand outstrips supply in the region.
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Houston Chronicle – August 20, 2026
25,000 Texas oil and gas wells could soon fail and become ‘zombie wells,’ watchdog group warns*
A new analysis of Texas oil and gas well data has identified 25,000 plugged wells at critical risk of failure, threatening communities across the state. The interactive map, created by the new watchdog group Future Heist, is just the latest effort to quantify the problem. The group estimates the number of potential “zombie wells” — plugged wells that spring back to life — is roughly 50 times higher than previously reported. Leaking zombie wells have become a scourge on Texas oil fields as the state contends with two overlapping issues: mounting pressure underground from oil and gas wastewater disposal and a growing number of decades-old well plugs unable to hold up against the pressure. When plugged wells fail, the industry’s toxic wastewater can flow up the well to the surface, contaminating aquifers along the way.
The problem also burdens the Texas taxpayer as high-cost plugging projects become more frequent. Onshore wells typically cost about $30,000 to plug, yet the Texas Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulator, has paid more than 10 times that amount to plug wells that are gushing with contaminated water — forcing it to request an unprecedented $100 million in additional funding last year to address them. It’s not clear if the commission maintains its own tally of leaking wells. A spokesperson did not immediately reply to a request for comment. An earlier estimate from the Houston Chronicle predicted there were at least 500 plugged wells at high risk of failure and 2,700 total wells — plugged or not — at high risk of leaking.
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Reuters – August 20, 2026
The Iran war energy crisis is just getting started: Ron Bousso*
The Iran war has pushed the global oil refining industry to the brink, signalling that diesel and gasoline prices may remain elevated for years. Deal or no deal, the global energy inflation shock is far from over. While oil markets adapted remarkably well to the abrupt loss of a fifth of global crude supplies from the Middle East during the conflict, workarounds for the refining industry have been far more limited.
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Inside Climate News – August 20, 2026
Pressure Increases for Texas to Allow Treated Drilling Waste Into Rivers and Rangeland
ORLA, Texas—Elected officials and industry leaders warn that Texas is at the “precipice” of running out of underground space to dispose of the nearly 1 billion gallons of wastewater that oil and gas production generates every day in the Permian Basin. The toxic wastewater, known as produced water, is usually injected underground into disposal wells. But these wells have increased underground pressure, triggering earthquakes and blowouts. Instead of underground injection, the oil industry is now seeking alternatives to treat and reuse produced water.
Industry experts made clear last week, at a legislative hearing in Austin and a conference in Midland, that a lack of disposal space could soon constrain oil production in the Permian Basin. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is developing two permitting programs for re-using treated produced water. The agency began accepting permit applications to discharge the treated wastewater into rivers in 2024 but has yet to issue any permits. The agency released a proposed rule earlier this year to allow treated produced water to be applied on land for irrigation or rangeland restoration.
The Latest TERse Tips
U.S. Under Secretary of Energy Kyle Hausteveit made a stop in El Campo Thursday, highlighting the department’s recent closing on a $3 billion loan to AEP — KIII
Texas Lacks Statewide Record of Water Use, Local Tax Breaks for Data Centers — During a lengthy hearing in the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, several public officials told the State Affairs Committee of the Texas House that agencies do not comprehensively track data centers’ water usage or the local tax breaks they receive; the state instead relies on survey responses — The Texan
Hunt Oil Company has entered into a new agreement with Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) aimed at supporting the expansion of Venezuela’s oil and gas production, positioning the Dallas-based company among the first US companies to take such a step — see the press release
ProPetro Holding Corp. Thursday announced the dual listing of its common stock on NYSE Texas, the newly launched fully electronic equities exchange headquartered in Dallas — see the press release
About 60% of respondents in Bloomberg’s Markets Pulse survey said the US debt situation will continue to worsen until it triggers a major crisis — Yahoo! News
US crude oil exports from the South Texas port of Corpus Christi fell below the 2 million bpd mark in July for the first time in three and a half years — Quantum Intelligence*
Another Texas billionaire is making a play for a troubled Canadian nickel and cobalt producer that is one of the top foreign investors in Cuba — Albert Huddleston, who recently sold family-owned shale assets for $5.2 billion, is an anchor investor in a proposal put forward by Glencore Plc and others to take control of Sherritt International Corp., according to people familiar with the matter — Bloomberg*
D CEO’s 2026 Energy Awards — Jim Burke, president and CEO of Vistra Corp., will receive the Legacy Award, joining an esteemed group of past recipients including Jay Allison of Comstock Resources, Joseph Foran of Matador Resources, Kelcy Warren of Energy Transfer, and the late T. Boone Pickens of BP Capital — Energy Transfer will also be recognized as energy Company of the Year for its work to serve Texas power and data center growth before one of its co-CEOs retires this winter — D Magazine
While visiting a massive ExxonMobil oil rig in Midland Monday morning, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright called the area “the core of the American oil and gas industry.” — his visit is all part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s “Great American Energy Comeback” tour, celebrating the innovation, workforce, and partnerships driving the nation’s growing energy industry.” — KWES
Houston-based ENGIE North America has signed a long-term power purchase agreement for 48 MWac of solar energy with the data centre operator, but in parallel, it has also entered into a long-term PPA with independent power producer ABEI Energy in order to source power from the 61-MWac Lubio Solar plant in north-central Texas to service the contract with QTS — Renewables Now
SpaceX and Tesla, the companies co-founded by Elon Musk, have broken ground on Terafab, a massive semiconductor manufacturing facility planned for Grimes County, Texas, that is expected to become the largest building in the world by floor space — SpaceX said the facility would have more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space and is designed to “build new compute at an unprecedented scale and speed.” In a post on X that day, Tesla described Terafab as “the largest chip manufacturing facility ever.” — Newsweek
TerraPower LLC, the only company building a utility-scale nuclear power plant in the US, expects to announce its next project this year — one intended for a data center — that would put the Bill Gates-backed company on track to break ground on its second project in 2027, Chief Executive Officer Chris Levesque said in a Tuesday interview. He declined to identify the customer — Bloomberg*
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Oil & Gas Texas
Bloomberg – August 20, 2026
West Texas Oil Producers Pushing Power Demand ‘Through the Roof’*
Oil and gas producers’ swelling power needs are hitting the West Texas region just as technology companies target the world’s most productive shale basin for data centers, sending electricity demand soaring. The top boss at Diamondback Energy Inc., one of the Permian Basin’s largest producers, predicts his company’s need for power will double over the next decade, even if it keeps production flat. Citigroup Inc. analysts warned Thursday that the region could even face outages next summer. “Electricity consumption for the Permian has just gone through the roof,” Diamondback Chief Executive Officer Kaes Van’t Hof said in an interview published Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. “It’s only gone up every year.”
That explosive jump in demand makes the Permian an extreme example of the growing need for electricity in much of the US. Consumption has been building in the West Texas oil fields for years as companies swap out legacy diesel-powered drilling rigs and frack pumps for more efficient electrified gear. Now the trend is being supercharged by development of data centers. Executives from Texas’s electric grid operator and state utility regulator spoke this week before the Texas House State Affairs committee about the need for more transmission lines in the region. They “argued the Permian buildout is needed for existing oil and gas demand and reliability regardless of data centers,” Citigroup analysts Ryan Levine and Amber Zhao wrote Thursday in a note to investors after monitoring the legislative meeting. “Far West Texas could face rotating outages as early as next summer.”
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World Oil – August 20, 2026
Continental Resources to acquire FireBird Energy, adding 32,000 boed in Permian
Continental Resources has agreed to acquire FireBird Energy II LLC, adding approximately 32,000 boed of oil-weighted production and expanding the company’s position in the Permian basin. FireBird, a portfolio company of Quantum Capital Group, holds approximately 54,000 net acres in the Midland basin adjacent to Continental’s existing operations. Current production is 69% oil, and the acquired assets include 307 gross operated development locations across more than six stacked-pay reservoirs.
The transaction represents the latest step in Continental’s Permian expansion. Including the FireBird acquisition, the company has increased its Permian acreage by more than 40% over the past 14 months “The Permian is integral to Continental’s portfolio, and we are extremely encouraged by the results we are seeing from our teams and assets in the basin,” said Doug Lawler, president and CEO of Continental Resources.
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Houston Chronicle – August 20, 2026
Smuggled Texas fuel is bankrolling cartels, state officials say*
Drug cartels smuggle fuel worth $12 billion to $21 billion a year from Texas into Mexico, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Fuel smuggling has likely surpassed narcotics as the cartels’ top income source, department officials told a state Senate committee last week. “Fuel trafficking is a threat that is operating in plain sight,” Col. Freeman Martin, the department’s director, told the state Senate Select Committee on Homeland and Border Security. “They’re loading fuel trucks …. or any container you can think of, and hauling it south.”
Fuel smuggling or trafficking, the illegal transfer or alteration of fuel across borders to avoid taxes and reap illicit profits, is a growing concern for Texas officials and the state’s oil and gas industry. “This is just as complex, just as dangerous, just as high-revenue for the cartels as the drug trafficking and human trafficking has historically been,” said Sen. Phil King, a Republican from Weatherford, a city outside of Fort Worth. The industry has also grown concerned about the theft of oilfield equipment and crude products, which is a separate but related issue, King said during the hearing.
The state created a multi-agency task force to tackle oilfield theft last year and Department of Public Safety officials told state lawmakers it is time for fuel trafficking to receive similar scrutiny. Cartels sometimes drive empty trucks into the U.S. and fill them up with legally purchased and tax-free fuel from licensed terminals, said Martin.The trucks are then driven off their approved routes to unregulated fuel sites. Cheaper products are blended into the fuel, customs documents are forged or altered, and the fuel is brought into Mexico, which has an underdeveloped refining industry, he said.
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KEYT – August 20, 2026
Federal Judge Modifies Prior Court Agreement to Allow Continued Oil Production Locally
A federal judge has upheld portions of an existing court order governing oil pipeline use locally and penalized Sable Offshore for violations of the agreement, but modified the court order to allow continued oil production operations and federal instead of state oversight.
“Sable has violated the express provisions of the Consent Decree, without justification,” explained U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson in this week’s ruling. “However, the injunction proposed by California is not the proper remedy here. For one, as of this Order, the Consent Decree has been modified to replace OSFM [California Office of State Fire Marshal] as the regulatory authority with PHMSA [U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration], and the pre-restart requirements of the State Waivers are no longer applicable. Nor, too, are OSFM’s approval of a Restart Plan or authorization. PHMSA, the current regulator, has authorized Sable to restart the pipeline. Therefore, Sable is no longer in violation of the Consent Decree, and proactive, injunctive relief is inappropriate. Rather, the appropriate penalty for Sable’s violations is dictated by the Consent Decree.”
Bloomberg – August 20, 2026
Exxon Warns Kazakhstan’s Top Oil Field to Peak Within Years*
ExxonMobil Holdings Corp. has told Kazakhstan that the country’s top oil field is already on the cusp of peak output and its production will slump sharply in the coming decade. The Spring, Texas-based supermajor is seeking to invest billions of dollars in a new oil project at the nation’s Kashagan development, a step that would help to cushion a slide in production at Tengiz, its top deposit. Tengiz output is set to plateau next year before sliding to about 500,000 barrels a day by 2035 — a slump of about 40% from its high, according to part of a company presentation made to authorities in Astana that was seen by Bloomberg.
Exxon has told Kazakhstan a potential $80 billion joint investment to expand the Kashagan field is contingent on resolving a long-running $150 billion dispute between the government and international companies and a $5 billion environmental fine, Bloomberg reported previously.
The proposed investment, in an equal joint venture with state-owned KazMunayGas National Co., would tap the undeveloped western part of the vast Kashagan reservoir, potentially producing as much as 600,000 barrels a day, Bloomberg reported. KazMunayGas contests Bloomberg’s reporting. Exxon’s production estimates for Tengiz were based on no large investments being made to boost output — something that may not be the case in reality, people with knowledge of the matter said, asking not to be identified because the presentation was private. Exxon declined to comment on the presentation.
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Reuters – August 19, 2026
SLB, Formentera working to activate drilling rigs in Venezuela, executives say*
Oil service provider SLB and private equity firm Formentera Partners are working to either reactivate oil rigs in Venezuela or import additional rigs into the country in the coming months, executives from both firms said on Wednesday during a conference in Houston. Energy-focused Formentera is in discussions with international service providers to bring oil drilling rigs into Venezuela, managing partner Blake London said.
Only two onshore drilling rigs were active in Venezuela at the end of July, according to data from oil service provider Baker Hughes, which is putting a ceiling on production capacity in the country, currently around 1.25 million barrels per day, according to official numbers. Many foreign oil service providers have found obstacles to importing specialized oil equipment, including permits and ground transportation, but they are working to move some from other countries while in talks with the Venezuelan government to ease the process, executives said at the conference.
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KUHF NPR – August 19, 2026
Texas-based oil companies among first to sign contracts with Venezuela
Two Texas-based oil companies are among the first to enter agreements with Venezuela, following the United States’ capture of President Nicolás Maduro earlier this year. According to Venezuelan state media, SLB and Hunt Oil Company signed contracts with state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA) on Tuesday in Houston. SLB is a Houston-based oilfield services company and Hunt Oil Company is an independent exploration and production company based in Dallas.
“Hunt Oil Company wants to play a constructive role in revitalizing and growing Venezuela’s oil and gas production,” CEO Hunter L. Hunt said in a statement. “We look forward to doing so with our unwavering commitment to train and advance the local workforce, to protect and preserve our surrounding environment, and to bring long-term benefits to the communities in which we will operate.”
Oil & Gas National & International
Yahoo! News – August 20, 2026
US Allows Early Sales of Winter Gasoline to Curb Prices
The Trump administration is authorizing an early shift to the sale of wintertime gasoline blends, its latest move to blunt fuel costs and supply concerns stoked by the war in Iran. The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday it was relaxing normal summertime gasoline requirements. The switch, which enables the use of a dirtier-burning wintertime fuel blend, typically happens in mid September.
The waiver allows the sale of gasoline blended with 10% ethanol starting Sept. 1. The administration said the move would boost the domestic gasoline supply by hundreds of thousands of barrels per day by effectively ending the summer-blend gasoline requirement early and said it should provide Americans more price relief at the pump.
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Bloomberg – August 20, 2026
Oil Giants Eye Jurassic Rocks Off Mexico in Search of Bonanza*
Latin America’s two biggest oil companies are betting big on a high-risk effort to unlock a vast trove of crude from rocks that haven’t seen the light of day in 160 million years. Petroleo Brasileiro and Petroleos Mexicanos have teamed up to probe a layer of the Earth’s crust beneath the Gulf of Mexico that’s older, deeper and potentially richer in oil than the world’s existing mega-fields. The physical, financial and environmental risks are enormous given the challenges inherent in drilling for crude miles under the sea floor through unstable, high-pressure shelves of stone.
The target is a geologic cluster off the coast of Mexico’s Campeche state that Pemex explored without success in 2018. It stands in stark relief to the gushers on the US side of the Gulf that pump oil trapped within rocks laid down roughly 20 million years ago. Instead, Petrobras and Pemex are seeking to delve into stone formations that are eight times as old, from an era when dinosaurs and ancient mollusks dominated the land and the seas. For Pemex, it’s a Hail Mary shot at revitalization as it grapples with smothering debt, shrinking oil output and a reputation for inefficiency and danger. But the effort matters to global oil markets, too, as the Iran war and other geopolitical disruptions in the Mideast have laid bare the peril of having so much supply concentrated in a single region.
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Bloomberg – August 20, 2026
Venezuela-US Oil Deals Remain Clouded in Secrecy (blog)*
Related: Venezuela pitches oil, gas investment opportunities at Houston showcase — Oil & Gas Journal
Venezuelan officials were in full sales mode when they visited Texas this week, negotiating deals with oil-hungry American executives. “We’re in the right place in this historic moment,” said Jovanny Martinez, vice president of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela SA, at an event in Houston yesterday. The country is focused on “clear-cut” participation contracts with foreign companies, he said. The push to bring US oil companies back to Venezuela is beginning to show signs of momentum. Oilfield-service giant SLB Ltd. and independent producer Hunt Oil Co. signed contracts with the Venezuelan government, while several others including Pacific Coast Energy Co. have recently indicated they’re close to putting pen to paper.
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S&P Global Platts – August 19, 2026
Ukraine eases customs checks on diesel from sanctioned ports
Ukraine has eased customs procedures for imported diesel fuel arriving from ports and terminals on its sanctions list, according to Ukrainian media outlet Enkorr. Ukraine’s energy customs office has received approval from the Security Service of Ukraine to allow unhindered clearance of diesel cargoes, with no additional checks or sampling, Enkorr said Aug. 18. The change means fuel shipments that would typically face heightened scrutiny can now move through customs without the delays associated with the additional verification procedures.
Ukraine’s energy customs office did not respond to an Aug. 19 request for comment on the policy change from Platts, part of S&P Global Energy. The relaxation of import controls comes as Ukraine seeks to bolster domestic diesel supplies as the global diesel market has significantly tightened due to the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict and the Russian export ban.
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ABC News – August 17, 2026
Will gas prices fall if companies build oil routes that bypass the Strait of Hormuz? Experts explain
“You’ve already got some projects in the works. I don’t see any turning back,” Tom Seng, a professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University, told ABC News. “Nobody wants to get stung without a solution again.” … The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, has begun construction on a new pipeline that will run from the country’s oil fields to the port of Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, circumventing the strait, the UAE announced in May. The project is expected to double the UAE’s exports through Fujairah to 3.6 million barrels a day by next year, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Energy Research.
Other projects are also in the works. Jordan and Iraq are partnering on a pipeline that could transport as much as 1 million barrels a day to a port in the Red Sea, a Jordanian state news agency said in June. Kuwait is holding discussions with Saudi Arabia and other countries about a possible pipeline to bypass the Strait, Kuwaiti Oil Minister Tariq Sulaiman Al-Roumi said earlier this month. “There are viable pipeline paths,” Hugh Daigle, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who studies petroleum, told ABC News. “It’s not impossible, but it’s a challenge of logistics.”
Utilities, Electricity & Renewables
KUHF NPR – August 20, 2026
ERCOT says it plans to complete governor’s data center audit by December
Related: Greg Abbott’s data center audit won’t be done before the election — Houston Chronicle*
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s main power grid, said it plans to complete the governor’s data center audit by December. ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) provided an update on the data center audit during a commission meeting Thursday. Last week, ERCOT said it planned to verify information submitted by about 250 to 300 large energy consumers included in “Batch Zero” — the first group of data centers and other large energy consumers to be brought onto the Texas power grid under new standards approved by ERCOT earlier this year.
ERCOT will also collect “community impact information,” as outlined in the governor’s directive. The state’s power grid operators will request this information from both large energy consumers eligible for Batch Zero and medium-sized energy consumers, which are requesting between 25 and 75 megawatts of power. As of April, ERCOT identified 157 medium-sized energy consumers, such as data centers and cryptocurrency miners, looking to connect to the grid.
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KCEN – August 20, 2026
Texas Administrative Law Judges say 765kV transmission line application should be denied
Judges from the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) have issued a recommendation that a proposed 765kV transmission line through Central Texas and other regions should be denied. Presiding Administrative Law Judges Linda Brite, Linda J. Burgess and Dee Marlo Chico signed the document on Thursday, Aug. 20. The recommendation is in reference to the proposed Bell County East-to-Big Hill 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission line, which has been under debate by Texas lawmakers and the Public Utility Commission (PUC).
According to the document, Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC and LCRA Transmission Services Corporation filed a joint application with the PUC to to amend their certificates of convenience and necessity (CCNs) to construct, own and operate the proposed transmission line. The line would reportedly stretch across Bell, Burnet, Concho, Coryell, Lampasas, Llano, Mason, Mills, San Saba, Schleicher, Tom Green and Williamson Counties. It is one of five extra-high-voltage transmission lines designated in the Permian Basin Reliability Plan (PBRP) that was developed by the PUC and ERCOT, according to the document.
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August 20, 2026
Texas Farm Bureau raises concerns about proposed transmission lines
Texas lawmakers heard concerns about the potential impacts of proposed 765-kilovolt (kV) transmission projects on farms, ranches and private property. Stephen Bauer, Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) District 10 state director and a Kerr County rancher, testified on behalf of the organization before the House Committee on State Affairs Aug. 19. The committee is studying the impacts of proposed 765-kV transmission lines on private property rights.
“Texas Farm Bureau understands the importance of a reliable electric grid. Our members depend on electricity every day, and we recognize that Texas will need infrastructure investments to support continued growth,” Bauer said. “However, projects of this size can have permanent impacts on private property, agricultural operations and rural communities.” Bauer said those impacts warrant a rigorous demonstration of need and stronger protections for affected landowners before projects are approved.
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Utility Dive – August 20, 2026
Electric co-ops press for repeal of gas power plant emissions rules
Chief executives of nonprofit electric cooperatives this week called on the federal government to repeal greenhouse gas standards for gas-fired power plants that they say are hampering their ability to meet surging electricity demand, particularly from large-load data centers. The rule, finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024, uses power plants’ capacity factor to determine how strictly their emissions are regulated.
New gas-fired plants with a capacity factor greater than 40% must meet a carbon dioxide standard based on highly efficient combined cycle combustion technology and install carbon capture technology to capture 90% of all CO2 emissions by 2032, according to a note from the law firm Holland and Hart. Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, said during a Wednesday press event that the rule’s 40% capacity threshold and its carbon capture requirement are “untenable,” and his trade association supports the Trump administration’s efforts to fully repeal the rule, and is “anxious” to see progress on that front. “This is a significant threat to our ability to do our job,” he sa
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Texas Tribune – August 20, 2026
TEXARKANA — When Scott Norton became president of the TexAmericas Center, he hoped the industrial park would attract employers that would bring much-needed jobs to North East Texas. Little did he know the industrial center would sit atop one of the country’s largest and richest lithium deposits, known as the Smackover Formation, and would also become a key location for mineral production in Texas. “[Lithium production is] a great opportunity not just for the Department of War and Red River Army Depot, but in the entire region when it comes to capital investment and job creation,” Norton said.
Lithium production in East Texas could create high-paying jobs, support local businesses and encourage cities to improve East Texas infrastructure, such as roads or public utility services. But it could also leave landowners struggling with high property values and a community dealing with infrastructure that doesn’t keep pace with rapid growth, leading to a bust that the state has seen before with the oil and gas industry.
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San Antonio Express-News – August 20, 2026
Your right to sell back power can protect ratepayers and the Texas grid*
Texas is facing an enormous energy supply challenge. Texas’ unmatched business climate and growing economy is attracting projects across the state — bringing with it massive demands on the electric grid. Massive electricity loads, spurred by hyperscale projects such as data centers, are lining up for interconnection faster than the grid can absorb them. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas backlog of potential large load projects seeking interconnection to the electric grid accounted for enough capacity to power 102 million single-family homes.
Compounding the dramatic increase in demand is that transmission projects routinely take three to five years to design, study, permit and build in ERCOT. Texas families are bearing the brunt of these delays, as retail electricity price increases in recent years have been higher for residential customers than for commercial and industrial customers. Nevertheless, a source of substantial electricity already exists in Texas that is beginning to relieve this pressure: advancing the right to sell back power. The right to sell back power means using smaller-scale electricity generation or storage systems located close to where power is needed, typically on the customer’s side of the line rather than at a centralized power plant.
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Oil Price – August 2, 2026
Tidal Energy Could Cover 57% of US Electricity Demand, NREL Study Finds
An Alaska-based tidal energy company is testing a new kind of small, modular turbine in the waters off of Massachusetts to try to take advantage of the United States’ vast and untapped tidal power potential. The turbine is being piloted in the strong tidal currents of Cape Cod to test the technology’s performance and durability in real-world conditions in order to explore whether it could be suitable for commercial scaling.
Tapping into the country’s tidal energy potential could be a major game changer for decarbonization and energy security in the United States. In 2021, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that the total energy potential of marine sources in the United States amounts to approximately 2,300 terrawatt hours per year, or 57 percent of the whole country’s electricity output in 2019. As such, “even if only a small portion of the technical resource potential is captured, marine energy technologies would make significant contributions to our nation’s energy needs,” the report found.
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Utility Dive – August 20, 2026
FERC approves SPP ‘topology optimization’ plan for cutting grid congestion
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved the Southwest Power Pool’s proposal for using “topology optimization” to reduce grid congestion and its related costs. Traditionally, grid operators respond to grid congestion by redispatching power plants, which can lead to higher production and congestion costs, SPP said in its May 21 proposal to FERC.
However, with grid-enhancing technologies, grid operators can use topology reconfiguration to change power flows as a less expensive way to handle congestion, according to SPP, which runs the grid in all or part of 17 states from north Texas to North Dakota. Under SPP’s plan, market participants will be able to submit proposals for reconfigurations due to power plant outages or grid constraints, or the grid operator itself may offer a reconfiguration, according to SPP’s application at FERC.
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The Wall Street Journal – August 20, 2026
Hyperscalers’ Off-Grid Power Push Comes With Risks*
Big tech companies are cobbling together off-grid power systems to match their rushed timelines for AI development. What if these systems are glitchy? Off-grid power comes with hefty price tags and operating risks. Tech giants are pursuing them anyway. Power providers, some of whom don’t have much data-center experience, are jumping at the chance to sign deals with deep-pocketed customers. But cracks have shown at the few on-site power projects that have started up, highlighting potential costs to both tech companies and their power providers. In the U.S., there are four operational data centers with off-grid or partially grid-connected power, according to data provider Cleanview. These are xAI’s Colossus and Colossus II, Crusoe’s Stargate Abilene and Vantage Data Centers’ Vantage VA 2. Three of these have already had reported issues.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that some data centers experienced cranks breaking off on combustion engines. The report also said that cracks had formed at gas-fired turbines powering xAI’s Colossus data center in Memphis, Tenn. In response to the report, Solaris Energy Infrastructure, which operates turbines for the campus, didn’t directly confirm or deny the existence of turbine cracks on its earnings call but said its turbines were “in great shape.” In an emailed statement, Solaris co-CEO Bill Zartler said the company has “not seen any extraordinary operating issues or failure rates on our generation equipment.” Cracked turbines and broken engine cranks both are major failures that require replacement, according to Nina Sadighi, founder of Eradeh Power Consulting, an electrical engineer who formerly worked at Amazon and Tesla.
Regulatory
Dallas Morning News – August 20, 2026
Texas must lead in secure battery power — Joe Pancrazio, University of Texas at Dallas*
At the University of Texas at Dallas, researchers are helping strengthen America’s energy future. Supported by the U.S. Department of Defense, our Batteries and Energy Storage to Advance Commercialization and National Security (BEACONS) program is advancing next-generation battery technologies, accelerating commercialization and developing the skilled workforce needed to support secure domestic energy-storage manufacturing. Our new battery prototyping facility will help small and midsize companies translate innovative ideas into technologies that serve both commercial and national security needs. This is a start, but not nearly enough. Texas should encourage greater use of secure, domestically manufactured energy-storage technologies whenever feasible. Our state needs to create incentive programs to support the growth of Texas-based battery manufacturing capacity to meet current and future needs.
It’s easy to imagine the positive economic impact of expanding our techno-industrial base in Texas, already the eighth-largest economy in the world. Like the Taiwanese companies building semiconductor facilities in North Texas, international companies that are concerned about Chinese dominance in the supply chain would likely find it very attractive to invest in U.S.-based battery manufacturing. At its heart, this is an issue of digital sovereignty. Texas cannot afford to treat batteries as an import commodity because secure batteries are critical for a resilient and robust digital infrastructure. If Texas is to wisely lead the country in a digital economy, it must also lead in securing the systems that power it.