NEW Sierra Club Report: Texas Utilities Deliver Mixed Results on Affordable Energy for Customers

AUSTIN, Texas – As the country faces a rapid and significant shift in its energy landscape due to the data center boom, the Sierra Club’s Dirty Truth report is exposing just how much cost and pollution utilities are passing on to customers. This year’s Dirty Truth, released today, shows that most Texas utilities aren’t doing enough to deliver affordable, clean energy, despite electricity bills increasing faster than inflation – particularly in the Lone Star State.

According to this Sierra Club analysis, developed using utility-reported data, the 75 utilities nationwide scored a collective F – the lowest score since the first year of this report in 2021.   Three major Texas utilities scored as follows:

• The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) got another F – after years of Fs – the lowest score of all utilities in Texas and a sign it is making no progress to lower prices and pollution. By keeping the Fayette coal plant open east of Austin, near La Grange, and planning for zero investment in affordable renewables, LCRA is failing customers. LCRA sells its power wholesale to 29 cities and 4 rural electric cooperatives across Texas, so its operations have far-reaching impact.
   
• Xcel Texas has maintained its B grade, largely due to forward-looking plans to retire the expensive, dirty, and water-guzzling Tolk coal plant in the Panhandle as the Ogallala Aquifer continues to dwindle. 
   
• CPS Energy in San Antonio scored a C as it has made some investments in additional solar and battery storage and is closing one coal unit, but it is doubling down on gas as part of its current and future portfolio. 

Statements from the Sierra Club

“LCRA professes a mission to enhance Texans’ quality of life while keeping open a dirty, expensive coal plant and investing almost nothing in the most affordable forms of energy,” said Cyrus Reed, legislative and conservation director of the Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter. “In fact, LCRA got one of the lowest clean energy scores in the entire United States even though reversing course would help lower bills for its city and co-op customers. If LCRA wants to truly improve our lives and be a good steward of our water resources, it needs to retire coal and build more clean, water-conserving solar, battery storage, and geothermal resources and fewer water-hungry, polluting gas plants.”
 

“It’s clear when looking at the abysmal nationwide score that our utilities are failing customers during such a crucial time. It’s refreshing to see Xcel Texas get a B after its solid commitment to retire the Tolk coal plant earlier than planned,” said Josh Smith, senior attorney for the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. “This was such an important step – largely driven by the region’s water scarcity and the plant’s immense water needs – and Xcel Texas is also planning significant renewables to provide affordable energy to its service area. This is a reminder that utilities do have choices when planning for a future with increasing demand – and they should be taking the road less costly.” 

To produce each utility’s grade, Dirty Truth focuses on three metrics that gauge impacts on affordability and public health due to fossil fuel pollution: 

1. Utility efforts to retire coal plants by 2030. Burning coal for energy is outdated, extremely expensive, and it releases toxins into the air that are detrimental to health.
2. Utility efforts to not build new gas plants through 2035. Gas prices are volatile, and gas power plants are much more expensive than solar, wind, and battery storage – and are a significant contributor to climate change.
3. Utility efforts to build clean energy through 2035. Clean, renewable energy is the most affordable energy available today and uses little water resources.

In an interactive webpage, users can see their utility’s score and what progress – if any – the utility has made toward transitioning to cleaner, more affordable energy.