On April 26, the Texas House State Affairs Committee held a hearing to consider a number of bills. Notably absent from the hearing were Senate Bills 6 and 7, which deal with improving energy grid reliability across the state of Texas. The issue of the grid was named a priority by both Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick for this legislative session.
SB 6 and SB 7 were the Texas Senate's primary response to grid reliability and were both passed out of the upper chamber on April 5. Both bills were referred to the House State Affairs Committee on April 17 and have been sitting motionless since.
According to Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the Texas House has implemented a deadline of May 20 for committees to take action on any legislation or resolutions originating from the Texas Senate. If a committee does not pass a Senate bill or resolution by the end of May 20, it is effectively rejected by the House. The Texas legislature adjourns Sine Die just nine days later on May 29.
On March 9, Patrick and Sen. Charles Schwertner released a joint statement announcing their support for SB 6 and SB 7. These two pieces of legislation are aimed at ensuring a reliable energy grid across Texas and attracting new sources of reliable thermal electricity generation.
On April 5, the Texas Senate passed SB 7 by a unanimous vote of 31-0 (page 28). The body also passed SB 6 by a vote of 22-9, with eight Democrats and one Republican opposing (page 29).
SB 6 would provide funding to build additional dispatchable energy generators to serve as a backup in case of emergency. SB 6 would provide $100 million per gigawatt, and limit the additional backup capacity to 10 gigawatts, meaning SB 6 could pay out $10 billion for new backup generation. The legislation would also provide low-interest loans to existing dispatchable generation.
SB 7 helps to "target investment" at dispatchable sources of generation, as well as allocating the cost of unreliability and intermittency to generators who contribute to that unreliability and intermittency.
Sen. Mayes Middleton, who voted for both bills, previously told the Austin Journal that "in a distorted market with intermittent, renewable technologies receiving an unfair advantage through heavy tax subsidies, there is a need to incentivize new, reliable, dispatchable generation that will perform when we need it most, especially when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. I believe both Senate Bill 6 and Senate Bill 7 take direct aim at leveling the playing field."