THE PEOPLE VS. BIG ELECTRIC
A marathon hearing by the Senate Business & Commerce Committee took place at the Capitol on Wednesday, as landowners and other interests converged in an effort to influence where the 765kV transmission lines needed to power the Permian Basin’s energy expansion will transit Central Texas.
According to an update from Dave Clark with Friends of the San Saba (FOSS) River, senators listened to about five hours of testimony from landowners, along with five hours of invited testimony from experts and concluded with two hours of public comment that began around 7 p.m.
Many in the chamber were surprised when the first landowner to testify was country music legend Tanya Tucker, who has a place in Burnet County lying in one of the proposed paths.
She told the committee how her property, which she referred to as “…her little piece of Texas heaven,” would be impacted by the proposed Bell County East to Big Hill line and her concerns the lines that would alter her landscape forever.
Clark reports Tucker said she was mad about how the whole thing has been handled, protesting “This isn’t the way we do things in Texas.”
To conclude her testimony, Tucker sang the chorus from her song “Texas (When I die),” and said “God Bless Texas.”
Breakdown of the Hearing
With each witness allowed only two minutes, the landowners were “prepared, efficient with their time, and their excellent testimony caught the attention of the Senators on the Committee,” reports Clark.
Clark reports that 20 FOSS members were present for the hearing, 10 of whom offered public testimony including detailed comments about how they and their properties are being impacted. All told, 207 landowners spoke, by Clark’s count.
Many landowners and some Senators on the Committee called on the PUC to delay any final decisions about any of the 765kV applications until the Legislature establishes a regulatory processes for these massive transmission lines.
Sen. Jose Menendez of San Antonio said in his closing comments “I’ve come out of this thinking that we should look for ways to step in, to slow this process down, [and find ways] to give people due process.”
Also in attendance were McCulloch County Judge Frank Trull and all four McCulloch County commissioners, along with county attorney Greg Torres, who provided public testimony about the concerns local landowners have about the regulatory processes, private property rights, further damage to county roads following the July 2025 floods, and concerns about community values including agriculture and hunting, which are vital to their rural economy.
Slowing Things Down
Witnesses described the challenges and emotional distress they have encountered in dealing with the Public Utility Commission’s CCN application and contested-case processes, emphasizing that the compressed, high-pressure timeline of 180-days only allows 90 days for landowners to defend their properties.
According to Clark, the senators on the committee ultimately acknowledged that reducing the timeline from 365 days had not been a success, as Vice Chair Phil King noted in his closing remarks, “This process has been a mess.”
Sen. Jose Menendez of San Antonio said in his closing comments “I’ve come out of this thinking that we should look for ways to step in, to slow this process down, [and find ways] to give people due process.”
