Three anti-renewable energy bills that passed in the Texas Senate appeared to be on their death beds in the House as this year’s legislative session drew near its close June 2.

Industry advocacy groups, both renewables and fossil fuel advocates, came together to oppose proposed legislation that included senate bills (SB) 715, 388 and 819. The legislation could have derailed renewable energy projects across the state, impacting the electricity grid and prices.

Matt Welch, state director of the Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation, described this session as “the most extensive assault by volume we’ve seen in Texas” by opponents of clean energy expansion.

“We won this battle, but the war continues on. The proposals we thwarted are likely to resurface, and our adversaries are sharpening their tactics,” Welch said in an email. “This session demonstrated our resilience, the power of our message and the strength of our unified voice.”

The nonprofit advocacy group is among those championing an all-of-the-above energy strategy in Texas. The predominate electric grid in Texas, managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), is powered mainly by natural gas, wind and solar energy.

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SB 715 would have imposed firming requirements on renewable energy facilities, requiring backup power from batteries or natural gas. Backers of the bill claimed it would strengthen the grid, but opponents argued backup mechanisms already exist. Plus, the retroactive bill would have been costly for hundreds of existing projects, raised energy prices and deterred investment.

SB 388 would have required half of ERCOT’s generating capacity installed after Jan. 1, 2026, to be sourced from dispatchable generation, excluding battery energy storage systems. The bill essentially encouraged natural gas usage, given renewables rely on batteries for backup.

SB 819 would have prohibited the interconnection of a renewable energy generation facility with a capacity of 10 megawatts (MW) or more to a transmission facility unless an application for determination of public interest is filed with the Public Utility Commission of Texas. Electric cooperatives and municipal-owned utilities would be subject to the rule, which also included an environmental impact analysis for the renewable energy generation facility. Opponents said the bill could slow renewable energy development.

“There’s $150 billion of capex in Texas right now in wind and solar alone. Let’s start acting like it. It’s a meaningful part of the grid every day,” Judd Messer, vice president of Advanced Power Alliance, said during a legislative outlook session at a renewable energy conference in Houston in May. “If we didn’t have it last summer, prices would have been through the roof. We would have had conservation alerts every day. Instead, we had no scarcity and price volatility was way down.”

Neither of the bills made it beyond the committee stage in the House, and none were scheduled for consideration as of midday June 2.

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