House Bill 5200 would have had ERCOT evaluate grid-enhancing technologies (sensors, software and advanced conductors that raise an existing transmission line’s capacity). It passed the House 128-0 in 2025. The Senate never gave it a hearing.
Its author, State Rep. Rafael Anchía (D-Dallas), says no senator would carry it, and he plans to refile it for the session that opens Jan. 12. Lawmakers return to a large-load queue topping 400 gigawatts, mostly data centers, and a data center freeze Gov. Greg Abbott ordered in August pending an audit.
On this week’s Energy Capital Podcast, Joshua Rhodes talks with Anchía, who has represented House District 103 since 2005, about how a bill becomes Texas law and what the 2027 session holds for the grid.
* How a Texas bill dies. About 1,200 of the 8,700 bills filed in 2025 reached the governor. Anchía calls the process “a mechanism designed to kill legislation” and tells advocates to build coalitions between sessions.
* SB 6’s price of entry. The PUCT’s September rules under SB 6, the 2025 large-load interconnection law, requiring a $100,000 study fee and $50,000 per megawatt in security.
* Predictable rules. Anchía, once skeptical of Texas’s competitive market, says it works when the rules stay predictable, and names what undercuts it: shifting tariffs, threats to re-regulate, and favoring one fuel over another.
* Upgrades and new lines. He supports the 765-kilovolt lines the PUCT began approving in August. Utilities such as Oncor recover new-line costs more easily than upgrade costs, he says, so he wants grid-enhancing technologies made a condition of new builds.
* Winter risk after Uri. Experts tell Anchía a severe winter storm worries them more than summer peaks. He wants proof the Railroad Commission’s 2022 gas weatherization rules hold through one.
* The 2027 list. Anchía expects bills requiring data centers to disclose energy and water use and ending their taxpayer subsidies. He also wants a temporary fund, modeled on the old System Benefit Fund, for the Texans least able to absorb price shocks.
* Plus: his two decades in the House, from deregulation through CREZ, his predictions for the Nov. 3 Texas House and statewide races, and what a change in control of Congress would mean for Texas energy.
Abbott’s audit is still open, and its findings will reach a Legislature that Anchía expects to make targeted fixes to SB 6.
Chapters
* 00:00 – Meet Rep. Rafael Anchía
* 00:58 – How a bill becomes law in Texas
* 06:25 – When public input matters most
* 08:33 – Why HB 5200 stalled in the Senate
* 12:43 – 20 years of Texas energy policy
* 16:46 – What still needs fixing after Winter Storm Uri
* 19:18 – The data center rush and SB 6
* 22:27 – Why the governor paused data centers
* 26:05 – Steady rules vs. picking winners
* 30:29 – Bigger power lines and getting more from the grid
* 35:01 – Rewarding utilities for doing more with less
* 37:51 – Priorities for the 2027 session
* 40:14 – Election predictions for Texas
* 44:02 – If Congress flips: what it means for Texas energy
