TX Senate Business & Commerce — Charge 2: 765kV Lines & Property Rights (July 29, 2026)
Texas Senate Committee on Business & Commerce, interim hearing of July 29, 2026. Chair: Sen. Charles Schwertner. Room E1.012, Texas Capitol. PART 2 of 2 — Interim Charge 2: Managing the Impacts of 765-kV Transmission Lines on Private Property Rights. Part 1 covers Interim Charge 1 (state of the Texas electric grid). 156 witnesses registered on this charge, against 51 on Charge 1. CHAPTERS 0:00 Chair opens Interim Charge 2 2:26 Thomas Gleeson, Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas 59:14 Kyle Madsen, Right of Way Division Director, TxDOT 1:31:07 State Office of Administrative Hearings 1:40:42 Woody Rickerson, SVP & COO, ERCOT 2:14:51 Emily Jolley 2:28:02 Utility panel continues 3:16:27 Mark Bell, Association of Electric Companies of Texas 3:22:59 Todd Staples, President, Texas Oil & Gas Association 4:10:25 Invited panel excused 4:17:31 Landowner and property rights panel 4:24:25 Anne Terrillian 4:29:43 James Dudley, cattle producer and landowner 4:48:18 Chair calls the next panel 4:49:36 Gideon Powell 5:01:20 Chair calls Jimmy Fair and panel 5:04:31 Jimmy Fair 5:09:14 Brandon Johnson 5:57:46 Chair opens public testimony on Charge 2 8:19:21 Benjamin Tanner, Lazy G Ranch 9:53:11 Public testimony reopened 9:57:52 Public testimony closed 10:09:23 Committee stands in recess Testimony covers the right-of-way footprint of 765-kV versus 345-kV transmission, whether a 765-kV line can be co-located alongside existing 345-kV lines, the limits on siting transmission structures within TxDOT right-of-way, routing and CCN procedure at the PUC and SOAH, and the cost of the statewide and Permian Basin buildouts. Under questioning from Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, ERCOT's chief operating officer said he had never seen a right-of-way carrying five towers and that the comparison graphic was assembled for illustration; the most he had seen co-located is roughly three circuits at about 300 feet. PUCT Chairman Thomas Gleeson separated the roughly $33 billion statewide construction estimate from the $100 billion lifetime figure in circulation, which includes operations, debt service and authorized return, and said he could not source that figure. CAPTIONS This video carries an English caption track. It does not name speakers. The committee heard roughly 200 people across the full hearing and automatic speaker identification was wrong often enough to mislead, so the track carries the words only. The chapter list above is the guide to who is at the table. Hearing notice: https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/89R... Recorded from the Texas Senate public broadcast.
