The overview
Amid growing electric demand, Senate Bill 6 seeks to strengthen Texas’ power grid and better protect residential customers from outages during emergencies.
“If we don’t do this right, we will someday again have what we had during [Winter Storm] Uri,” bill author Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said on the Senate floor March 19. “You had large loads online in a city, and next door you had communities that were dark—people literally died in their homes and froze to death. That can never happen again.”
Senators also said they hoped to make housing more affordable by loosening density restrictions for new neighborhoods. In large Texas cities, Senate Bill 15 would allow property owners in new neighborhoods to construct single-family homes on lots as small as 1,400 square feet.
Both bills are top priorities of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who leads the Texas Senate. They passed with bipartisan support and were sent to the Texas House.
The Senate also passed measures aimed at banning the sale of all consumable hemp products containing THC; prohibiting government entities from hiring lobbyists; and encouraging more competition in state-funded road construction projects on March 19. Bills must be approved by both legislative chambers to reach the governor’s desk.
A closer look
Senators unanimously passed SB 6, which King said would help improve grid reliability, protect residential consumers from outages and improve the state’s ability to forecast supply and demand.
Demand on the state grid reached a record 85,508 megawatts in August 2023, and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has estimated it will grow to about 150,000 megawatts by 2030.
“Businesses in the state are now seeking to bring facilities to Texas that consume unparalleled, tremendous amounts of power,” Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, said during a Feb. 27 hearing of the Texas Senate Business and Commerce Committee. “This includes data centers, AI computing, manufacturing facilities and several other types of industries that can consume more electricity in a single building than an entire municipality.”
In emergency situations, SB 6 would require customers that use 75 megawatts of power or more to switch to backup generators to reduce strain on the grid. Large customers would also need to install equipment allowing the state to remotely disconnect power from their facilities, according to the bill.
King said this would give utility providers more flexibility during extreme conditions and keep residential customers safe.
More details
Texas’ population growth has outpaced homebuilding since 2020, the state comptroller’s office reported in August, resulting in a widespread housing shortage.
Senators said SB 15, by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, would make housing more affordable and accessible by slashing restrictions on density in new neighborhoods. In cities with at least 150,000 residents, SB 15 would allow property owners to construct single-family homes on lots as small as 1,400 square feet without approval from local officials.
The measure would only apply to land larger than five acres that has not been mapped or platted, such as new neighborhoods.
“Senate Bill 15 will allow us to positively impact the housing affordability issue in the state of Texas,” Bettencourt said on the Senate floor. “Some cities in Texas contribute to the lack of affordable housing stock by having higher than necessary minimum residential lot standards [which] inhibit development of certain types of housing in areas where they could be otherwise developed.”
Bettencourt said SB 15 would mirror the city of Houston’s policy, which set similar regulations throughout the city in 2013, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Last spring, officials in Austin moved to allow single-family homes to be built on lots 1,800 square feet or larger in an attempt to permit more housing types and smaller homes.
“The cost to build versus what the average Texas family can afford has never been wider, and it's growing. ... Starter homes that used to be very accessible and abundant, they're no longer there, and it's heartbreaking,” Greg Anderson, director of community affairs for Austin Habitat for Humanity, told the Senate Local Government Committee during a March 10 hearing.
SB 15 passed the Senate in a 28-3 vote.
Also of note
The Texas Senate also passed legislation March 19 that would ban all forms of consumable tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, from being sold in Texas. SB 3, by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, would outlaw any products containing THC, a psychoactive substance and the main active ingredient in marijuana.
Perry and Patrick said some Texas retailers have “exploited” state law by selling highly-potent THC products and marketing them to children. Over 8,300 retailers across the state currently sell THC, Patrick said at a March 19 news conference.
“This is changing people's lives in short order because it's been marketed as something safe and legal, and it's anything but,” Perry said during the news conference. “The deception in this industry and what they have created and the lives they have ruined is unacceptable and unnecessary.”
On the Senate floor, Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said she was concerned SB 3 would put many retailers out of business and urged lawmakers to consider stricter regulations on the THC industry rather than an outright ban.
“I believe this bill goes too far, in that it would put out of business the consumable hemp industry in Texas,” Eckhardt said March 19.
Some Texas retailers told Community Impact they anticipated a THC ban would “do more harm than good” and cause financial strain for local businesses, according to previous reporting.
A Texas House bill proposes creating more oversight and tighter licensing requirements for THC products. The measure had not been scheduled for a House hearing as of March 21.
Perry’s SB 3, which senators passed 26-5, would allow retailers to continue selling CBD, a cannabis compound that does not have psychoactive or intoxicating effects, with tighter restrictions on how products are packaged and marketed.
Additionally, Patrick said the measure would not impact the state’s Compassionate Use Program, which allows certain Texans to use medical marijuana for conditions such as cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and post-traumatic stress disorder.
At a glance
SB 19, which senators passed 20-11 on March 19, would prohibit local government entities across Texas from hiring outside lobbyists to advocate for or against legislation at the capitol. The measure would still allow government employees to advocate for legislation on behalf of their employer.
SB 19 also would not bar full-time employees of nonprofit associations, such as the Texas Association of School Boards, from lobbying at the capitol.
“For too long, taxpayers' and parents' own tax dollars have been used to lobby against them in Austin. These taxpayer-funded lobbyists have squandered millions of dollars of your hard-earned dollars to lobby against border security, election integrity, parental choice in education, teacher pay raises, and even fought against property tax relief and reform,” bill author Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, said in a March 20 statement.
Middleton’s proposal now heads to the House.
One more thing
SB 35, by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, would limit the types of contracts the Texas Department of Transportation can use when building road projects. The bill proposes allowing TxDOT to enter into two “design-build” contracts each biennium, in which one firm designs and constructs a project. State law currently says six design-build projects can occur per biennium.
Nichols said this would encourage competition by requiring the department to use more “design-bid-build” contracts, in which TxDOT solicits bids for a project after it is designed.
“When you do design-build, it really narrows down who has the opportunity to even participate,” Nichols said on the Senate floor March 19. “Part of my concern is in that narrowing down, you can almost tailor the metrics down to the actual contractors you want involved.”
The measure passed with a 27-4 vote and was sent to the House.
