Flashes of yellow were all around the Texas Capitol grounds on Wednesday as legislators gathered to consider two of the most controversial issues in Texas politics: data centers and transmission lines.
The color — displayed on bandanas, pins, shirts, and dresses — has become the symbol of a grassroots movement dedicated to blocking the buildout of 765-kilovolt transmission lines across the state. A coalition of those groups gathered on the steps of the Capitol building in the morning as testimony got underway for the House Committee on State Affairs’ interim meeting dedicated to the backlash against the transmission lines and data centers.
At the protest and nine-hour hearing that followed, lawmakers heard a variety of recommendations, including from local officials arguing for more local control of data center proposals and more time to reform the process behind approving transmission lines across Texas. Though discussed in separate hearings, landowners and protesters said the issues are connected.
“Data centers need energy … and the fact that there have been so many proposed throughout the state, I think these issues go hand in hand,” said Jada Jo Smith, founder and president of Hill Country Preservation Coalition, the grassroots organization that organized Wednesday’s protest.
The bipartisan coalition, made up of Republican legislators, Democratic statewide candidates, landowners from rural Texas, and environmentalists, is starting to break through on both fronts.
Following a July Senate Business and Commerce Committee interim hearing on both topics, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and committee chair Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, called on the Public Utility Commission to scrap the 765 kV project entirely. Days later, Gov. Greg Abbott announced a pause on approvals for data centers to connect to the electric grid until an audit of data centers seeking to connect was completed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state grid operator.
While neither action spells an end to the debate around either issue — nor a halt to the transmission plans altogether — activists said they believe the tide has turned in their favor.
Mia Sarot, founder of the Hill Country Land and Legacy Alliance, sported a yellow button and bandana tied to her wrist as she spoke to the crowd of 40 people outside the Capitol, lamenting the need for the groups to have organized in the first place while celebrating their impact on the policy decisions made by state officials.
“Yellow means we’re paying attention,” Sarot said. “It isn’t a threat, it isn’t a political party, it doesn’t belong to any one organization and you don’t need anyone’s permission to wear it. It simply says, ‘I’m here, I’m paying attention, I’m asking questions and I’m participating.”
Inside the Capitol, lawmakers on the legislative panel spent hours deliberating the transmission lines, particularly three first-of-their-kind 765-kilovolt lines that would slice through tens of thousands of acres of private property.
For months, landowners have questioned the 180-day administrative window regulators have to approve or reject the proposal, arguing it was not enough time for residents to contest the plans. Most pleaded with lawmakers to halt the plan entirely and give lawmakers more time to reform the administrative process.
Lawmakers appeared receptive.
“When (the transmission plan) was brought to me, the 180 days was suggested, and it was suggested based on the Permian Basin Reliability Plan,” said state Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo. “Not y’all deciding that we’ve got to run lines all the way across the state. So that’s where the 180 days came from, and I agree. I think we need to relook at that.”
State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, questioned transmission service providers, such as Oncor and AEP, about whether the proposed routes were the correct solution. He said most of the opposition stemmed from issues with the routes.
“We’re talking about really a routing issue, and I think everybody in this room is upset about the routes,” King said. “When we’re figuring out if we’re not going to do … 765s, what’s the alternative for transmission?”
Representatives from Oncor, AEP, and CPS Energy, which would be tasked with deploying the build-out of the lines, said that if approved, they would work with landowners whose properties are along the proposed routes to make modifications and diminish the impact to the land.
And while they were receptive to a delay, they said that decision would come with a number of ramifications, including disrupting construction schedules already in discussion and the ability to secure necessary equipment on time. Adrian Rodriguez, chief operating officer and president of AEP Texas, said they buy themselves a slot for when equipment becomes available, adding that losing that place in line could result in higher costs.
“If we lose our place in those lines, given the 765 kV transmission line build that is occurring in other grids in this country, there is a high demand for these slots,” he said. “We have the potential to lose those slots,
