American Stewards of Liberty has now intervened in two of the five segments for the transmission lines being proposed under the Public Utilities Commission of Texas’s Permian Basin Reliability Plan.
That plan will cost $33 billion, condemn 4,000 linear miles, and take over 60,000 acres of private property to construct.
Landowners will lose a minimum of $21.8 billion as land is condemned and properties are devalued. Transmission companies will pay a fraction of that in compensation to landowners. Yet, they are guaranteed to reap billions of dollars annually from the project.
American Stewards was granted Intervention status (permission) to legally intervene in the Drill Hole to Longshore segment dissecting 10 Texas counties and has now filed a second intervention in the Big Hill to Sand Lake segment that will detrimentally affect eight counties. There are five segments in total proposed by the state to transport electricity to the Permian Basin.
Now it appears the state is installing these transmission lines to power over 400 data centers. However, instead of allowing these centers to tap into the grid and raise consumer prices, the state should be focused on building local, reliable generation that won’t require 4,000 miles of new transmission lines.
ASL has joined with Texas Public Policy Foundation, among others, to come up with an alternative plan that won’t destroy private lands. ASL is also assisting multiple counties with transmission lines traversing their jurisdiction to form planning commissions to better represent and defend their local interests with the entities proposing this disastrous plan.
Texas Public Policy Foundation has produced a three-part series called “Fool Me Twice” explaining how Texas can solve its winter reliability problem without building destructive and unnecessary transmission lines and towers across the state.
Also, go here to listen to a discussion between Brad Swail with Texas Talks and Margaret Byfield on the growing controversy surrounding the proposed transmission lines. They discuss property rights, eminent domain, data centers, grid reliability after Winter Storm Uri, and the debate between local dispatchable power and large-scale transmission infrastructure.
They also discussed the effects on landowners, the rising cost of electricity tied to the transmission corridors, and the future energy policy of Texas.
