PUBLIC UTILITIES

Hot temperatures across Texas are stressing the power infrastructure. But if your home loses electricity this summer, it’s not necessarily because of the state grid.

The cost of electricity in Texas is tightly tied to the price of natural gas, which has more than doubled since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

After last winter’s near-statewide electric blackouts, Texas lawmakers went after regulators they deemed responsible but tiptoed around the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas. Now voters have a chance, if they want it, to send the state a message.

Texas has long refused to connect its decentralized grid to two national power networks, but Hunt Energy Network CEO Pat Wood said the state could do so without additional oversight — and without state Legislature approval.

In the state’s power grid, electricity and natural gas are co-dependent. Here’s how the winter storm last year broke the system.

The most severe scenario considered by ERCOT for this winter — very high demand for power, extensive fossil fuel outages, and low renewable power production — does not capture the amount of power lost during February.

Next year’s primary elections start a year after a winter storm knocked out power across Texas — and the government response to that disaster could be on voters’ minds.

Oil and gas industry groups provided a list of names to the Railroad Commission for appointment to a council formed in response to the February power crisis. All four of the industry's top choices were selected.

When lawmakers find something in the law that they don’t like — or that their voters don’t like — they can always say they didn’t know what they were voting on. It happens more than you’d think.

Texas lawmakers passed major bills in response to the winter storm power outages that killed hundreds of Texans in February. But there’s still a lot to do.

While lawmakers took significant steps toward preventing another blackout, hardly any of the proposals passed during this legislative session will aid consumers in recovering from the February storm — but they’ll see higher utility bills.