Texas regulators delayed a vote Wednesday on a major power line project that has pitted ranchers and rural landowners against the state’s largest electric utilities.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas voted 5-0 to temporarily halt the approval process for the first of five transmission lines now working their way through the administrative hearings review.
The initial project would run from just east of Midland to the Permian Basin in the western part of the state to help deliver more power to oil and gas operations. The push for new Texas transmission lines — including ones that would be part of a larger transmission build-out — could cost ratepayers at least $33 billion and lead to more than 3,400 miles of extra-high-voltage power lines crisscrossing the state, from the northeast corner to West Texas.
Transmission plans are already creating a firestorm of complaints, with opponents saying roughly 200-foot-tall towers for 765-kilovolt transmission lines would irreversibly damage scenic and largely untouched areas. Landowners and residents have said they’ve been left out of the planning process and have little recourse to push back against the transmission lines’ proposed routes.
“Frankly, it’s an embarrassing process to be part of,” Brad Bayliff, an attorney representing landowners fighting against the transmission lines, said during Wednesday’s PUC meeting. “And to have done 100 of these [cases] and realize that these people are just overwhelmed by the system.”
Public testimony at the meeting highlighted the frustrations and anger landowners have over the proposed transmission projects and changes to how those projects are reviewed and approved. The issue echoes other transmission fights across the country as residents object to efforts to expand the energy infrastructure companies say is needed to satisfy growing demand.
Texas state lawmakers in affected districts report frequent calls from angry constituents over proposed 765-kV transmission lines. Earlier this week, 42 state lawmakers filed an amicus brief supporting a motion that would have commissioners study the ultra-high-voltage transmission projects holistically rather than on the case-by-case basis.
American Stewards of Liberty, a property rights advocacy group that filed the motion, argued that the PUC should not approve any of the projects until all of the currently proposed 765-kV transmission projects can go through an administrative review process.
State Rep. Brad Buckley, a Republican, said in an interview last week that the PUC should pause the transmission projects altogether until the state Legislature has a chance to weigh in once it convenes in January.
“There is significant concern from my constituents about the power line project — everything from why they are being proposed to how the process has played out,” Buckley said.
The transmission line proposals were born out of a 2023 law that required PUC and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, to study ways to provide more reliable power to the Permian Basin, including “extending transmission service” to areas with oil and gas production.
In response, ERCOT created the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, which was approved by the PUC in 2024. That plan calls for building five transmission lines across three pathways from Central Texas to the Permian.
Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said in a statement on Wednesday that working with affected parties is fundamental to building out electricity infrastructure.
“The fact remains: from 2015 to 2025, oil production in the Permian Basin increased by 430% and infrastructure has not kept pace,” Staples said. “There is an urgent need for transmission buildout in the region to ensure all electricity consumers can have reliable power and continue our modern way of life.”
ERCOT later proposed expanding the Permian Basin Reliability Plan, rolling it into a larger transmission build-out called the Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP).
The proposed STEP projects include several transmission lines in eastern Texas that have yet to begin the state’s approval process.
‘Extremely burdensome’
Meanwhile, another 2023 law cut in half the number of days for the state to review transmission projects. That, in turn, slashed the time landowners had to protest lines that could run through their properties.
Lawyers representing landowners Wednesday said the new 180-day process for reviewing these projects has made it almost impossible for landowners to fight back.
“When you have to go through, literally, hundreds of pieces of testimony just to be able to start formulating — not only additions to your case — but responsive pleadings and responsive testimony, and you have only days’ worth of turnaround, it is extremely burdensome,” said Lynn Sherman, a lawyer representing a landowner.
Jaren Taylor, an attorney representing Oncor Electric Delivery, agreed that the 180-day timeline is “extremely fast” for projects of this magnitude. Oncor is the utility that would build the transmission project discussed at Wednesday’s meeting.
However, Taylor pushed back against the idea of consolidating all of the high-voltage transmission projects and advocated for the commission to study them one by one.
These projects “come to you in discrete and individual pieces because they provide discrete and individual benefits,” Taylor said.
PUC Chair Thomas Gleeson said at Wednesday’s meeting he hadn’t yet decided whether the commission should consider all the proposed transmission projects at once or to do it piecemeal.
Gleeson proposed to table a decision on the transmission line discussed Wednesday until another transmission project it is connected to finishes working its way through the state’s review process. But he opened the door to potentially consolidating all of the transmission projects and considering them as a whole.
“This is the first one we’re dealing with,” Gleeson said of the project. “I want to be mindful of that and the decisions we’re making. But I don’t feel, in my mind at least, it’s as clear-cut that these [project discussions] should not be consolidated.”
In a statement, Oncor spokesperson Roxana Rubio wrote that 765-kV transmission projects will deliver power to millions of Texans across ERCOT’s region.
“We will continue to participate in the established regulatory review process and look forward to the Commissioners’ decision,” Rubio wrote.
Elena Folgueras, who represented the American Stewards of Liberty at Wednesday’s meeting, called the commissioners’ decision a “step in the right direction.”
“While the [vote] today is limited, it still reflects the reality that these cases are interconnected and should be evaluated as a single, coordinated build-out,” Folgueras said in an interview after the vote.
