🔴Relating to the resilience of the electric grid and certain municipalities

🔴 SB 75: Closed-door control over Texas grid “resilience”

What it says it does:
SB 75 says it will protect Texas from future blackouts by creating a statewide plan for grid security and disaster resilience. It promises to study every threat to the ERCOT grid, from winter storms to cyberattacks and electromagnetic pulses.

What it actually changes:
It creates a new Texas Grid Security Commission inside the Division of Emergency Management. That commission is not elected. It includes state agencies, ERCOT, and utility representatives. It can hold closed meetings, classify its work as confidential, and operate outside public information and open meeting laws. It also invites contractors and private experts to advise without public bidding or oversight.

Who is pushing for it:
Supporters in the files include the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Secure the Grid Coalition, and Protect the Texas Grid. These groups and related defense or security vendors testified in support.

Who benefits:
Utilities and grid security contractors gain long-term influence over what counts as “resilience.” Policy groups that pushed for this bill gain seats at the table to shape future rules and vendor standards.

Who gets left out or exposed:
Local governments, small co-ops, and consumers. The state provided no new funding for compliance, so cities and ratepayers may bear the costs. The public also loses access to information about how resilience standards are set or which companies profit.

Why this matters long term:
SB 75 centralizes power over the grid inside an unelected, largely private commission. It opens a path for “security” exceptions to limit transparency. Once this model takes hold, similar closed-door decision-making could expand to other systems like water, transportation, and hospitals.

What to watch next:
Watch how the commission defines “resilience standards” and who receives contracts to carry them out. Also watch for cost recovery filings from utilities, which could raise bills to fund unfunded mandates created by this plan.

Bottom line:
SB 75 builds a new security framework for Texas energy infrastructure, but it does it in a way that hides decisions, increases costs for locals, and shifts control from the public to insiders. Texans need grid reliability, but also the right to see who is making those decisions and why.

#SB75 #TexasPolicy #TexasGrid #EnergyInfrastructure #StayInformed