AUSTIN, Texas — Speaking at the Texas State Capitol building on Wednesday, Romey Swanson sounded the alarm on an encroaching power grid that endangers one of southwest Texas’ greatest natural treasures. Spanning nearly 200,000 acres in Val Verde County, the Devils River Conservancy boasts beauty on par with national parks — though most of it is privately owned.
And now, Swanson said the quest to protect the conservancy is under threat from an energy project that affects landowners across the state.
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Hundreds of Texans converged on Austin for a hearing of the Texas House State Affairs Committee on data centers and new high-voltage transmission lines. As the hearing started, about 50 people formed a crowd in the shade below the south steps of the Capitol building. Many in the crowd donned yellow bandanas or carried color-coordinated signs printed with the words “don’t ruin Texas” and “no 765kv transmission lines.”
“The water is clear enough to see the limestone beneath your feet,” said Swanson, executive director of the Devils River Conservancy, describing the river and springs that feed it.
Swanson explained how starting in the 1990s, ranchers placed conservation easements on more than 25 properties, barring development opportunities that would have altered the landscape, to create a corridor for wildlife, recreation and uninterrupted views.
“This is Texas conservation at its best,” Swanson said. “Private property, voluntary action, incentives instead of mandates and individual decisions adding up to something much bigger.”
But now, a power grid expansion is encroaching on the region. That expansion is necessary to prevent West Texas from experiencing power shortages, according to industry groups and the state’s power grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). But property owners, who could be forced to give up some of their land to make a path for new high-voltage transmission lines, say the project is moving too fast.
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The rally-goers called on Gov. Greg Abbott to come out against approval of the power lines.
“There is only one top state official we haven’t heard from and he lives right over there in the Governor’s Mansion,” said Dave Clark, a retired accountant who has worked with the nonprofit Friends of the San Saba to help landowners intervene in the regulatory review process. “Gov. Abbott, please stand with landowners and private property rights in Texas.”
What’s being proposed?
The Public Utilities Commission of Texas (PUCT) is currently weighing applications for three 765-kilovolt transmission lines connecting Texas’ central corridor along Interstate 35 to the oil and gas production hub of the Permian Basin. A state law passed in 2023 pushed for improved grid reliability in the Permian, as oil and gas production continues to expand, and the industry wants access to the grid rather than relying on remote diesel generators.
AEP Texas, the state division of one of America’s largest power companies, along with the city of San Antonio’s local utility CPS Energy are planning to build the 370-mile Howard-Soltice transmission line from south of San Antonio to near Fort Stockton, Texas.
Power company Oncor has applications before the PUCT to build two more transmission lines, each split into two sections. One power line is proposed to run about 400 miles from outside Fort Worth to deep within the Permian. And a third project developed by Oncor alongside the state-run Lower Colorado River Authority would connect a substation near Temple, Texas to another east of Pecos, Texas — a roughly 400-mile journey.
To build the transmission lines, the power companies will need the right to go through thousands of private properties across Texas. The structures that carry electricity across long distances require a 200-foot wide path and will reach 140 to 200 feet high.
If landowners are unwilling to part with their property willingly, power companies can use eminent domain to force sale of the right-of-way. That’s been a sticking point in transmission line construction nationwide. Last year, the Trump administration withdrew federal funds for a transmission line in the midwest, and earlier this month, it canceled three projects that had faced local pushback.
What’s the regulatory process?
Landowners affected by the transmission projects say the process favors the utility companies through a shortened timeline. The 2023 Texas law, House Bill 5066, cut the application review from one year to 180 days.
Prior to submitting paperwork, the power companies hold meetings in towns across the transmission line route. The companies create numerous route options, and once the application is filed with the PUCT, landowners whose property the line could cross are notified.
Two of the route options for the Howard-Soltice transmission line cross properties that have conservation easements within the Devils River Conservancy, Swanson told Straight Arrow. And a third route option comes to the edge of properties with a conservation easement.
“Applicants arrive on day one after months, possibly years, of engineering, legal work, routing studies, consultants and preparation,” Swanson said to the crowd in Austin. But landowners start that 180-day period with “an envelope in the mailbox,” full of regulatory jargon.
If they want to challenge a route, private property owners have 30 days to intervene in the legal proceeding that’s overseen by a panel of administrative law judges at the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings. The judges will review testimony and documents from landowners, the power companies and expert witnesses before issuing a recommendation on whether the project should move forward.
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Two of the three transmission lines have received a positive recommendation from the judges. But on Thursday, the judges forcefully recommended against approval on part of the Oncor and LCRA transmission line.
The judges’ decision states that 1,400 landowners were not properly notified and that it’s not clear whether enough power will be available to send to the Permian Basin through the line to justify its construction. They also concluded that there was “credible evidence of an alternative analysis — new and planned gas generation in the Permian Basin — that could reduce or eliminate the need” for the transmission line.
The judges’ recommendation is submitted to the PUCT, where commissioners make a final decision. A PUCT hearing was held Friday for the Howard-Soltice line, though a final decision was not made. Hearings for the other two power lines are expected in the coming weeks.
What is the energy industry saying?
From the utilities that build transmission lines to the oil and gas companies operating in the Permian Basin, the energy industry used the Wednesday hearing as an opportunity to warn against stopping or delaying the 765-kilovolt lines.
“Transmission planning is not a game of Jenga,” Jaren Taylor, a lawyer representing Oncor, told lawmakers. If one piece is pulled out, the entire plan can fall apart, Taylor said, because, “these transmission lines become base assumptions and then we build on them one after another.”
ERCOT has warned of possible rolling blackouts in West Texas “during low wind conditions at night, especially during transmission and thermal resource outages,” according to a letter from ERCOT chief operating officer Woody Rickerson. “This risk is expected to increase as additional loads are interconnected in this area.”
“The reality is a pause on the clock only stops the solution. It doesn’t stop the clock on the problem,” Texas Oil and Gas Association President Todd Staples said at Wednesday’s hearing.
Industry groups also said they may struggle to procure construction material if the projects are delayed.
Opposition grows
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and key members of the Texas Senate have already come out against approval of the power lines.
Following the hearing, 30 members of the Texas House of Representatives issued a statement asking the PUCT to deny the applications and allow the Texas legislature to reform the review process when it meets in 2027. The statement cited “multiple failures of due process owed citizens,” and said the 2023 law was never intended to fast-track “projects running transmission lines all across the state.”
Even film producer Connie Koepke and Willie Nelson’s daughter, Amy Nelson, voiced their opposition to transmission lines.
“We need more time to process all of this that’s happening to us,” Tucker said at the hearing. Her property lies on one of the proposed routes. “It’s a harsh reality.”
Swanson lives in Austin but travels to the Devils River region twice a month visiting with landowners that make up the conservation area. He told Straight Arrow that allowing power lines on their properties would “run completely afoul of that original intent and that investment that they made.”