Attorney General Ken Paxton has secured a settlement that vacates the federal government's listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species, ending a rule his office said threatened Texas's oil and gas industry, the agency announced July 29.
AMERMIN, an Austin-based recycler and refiner of critical minerals, is renewing its call for federal export licensing on mill-ready tungsten scrap, warning in a July 29 news release that high-value material is leaving the country for overseas remanufacturing even as tungsten prices sit near record highs.
The state agencies that keep the lights on told a Senate panel Wednesday that Texas is planning for a grid nearly double the size of today’s — and that the surge is being driven by an unfamiliar customer: the data center.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas will consider three proposed behind-the-meter power arrangements for large electricity users, a new demand management framework for data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations, and several major electric utility rate cases during its Thursday meeting.
Two state administrative law judges have recommended that Texas regulators approve the Howard-Solstice 765-kilovolt transmission line along Route 4, a roughly 371-mile path estimated at about $2.18 billion, clearing one of the last procedural hurdles before the Public Utility Commission decides the case next month.
The Texas Senate's Business and Commerce Committee meets Wednesday to review the state of the electric grid, and the item that will get the most attention on its agenda is the rulebook meant to keep a wave of new data centers from raising costs and risking reliability.
Two state lawmakers have formally asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas to hold off on a final decision on the Howard-Solstice high-voltage power line — and on every other 765-kilovolt segment of the state's transmission plan — until after the Legislature meets in 2027, arguing the state has not tested whether cheaper alternatives could avoid the lines entirely.
The Texas Senate Committee on Business and Commerce will take invited and public testimony July 29 on ERCOT reliability and Senate Bill 6's large-load rules, and on how a fast-expanding network of 765-kilovolt transmission lines will affect Texas landowners.
The agencies that run the Texas power grid have told Governor Greg Abbott they need new legal authority to keep the state's data-center boom from raising electric bills and threatening reliability — and, in one recommendation, to stop a hostile foreign government from using a data center to disrupt the grid.
The Railroad Commission of Texas drew more than 1,100 attendees and over 60 exhibitors to its 2026 Regulatory Conference, setting a new attendance record for the agency’s premier annual educational event.