The Texas Legislature Heats Up as February Begins

Things are hot and heavy at the 89th Texas Legislative Session as we head into February. And Sierra Club staff and volunteers have been busy. As of early February, 3,500 bills have been filed as legislators get their ideas submitted before the March 14th, 2025 deadline for filing legislation.

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s Priorities Take Center Stage

Last week, perhaps the single most powerful person at the Texas legislature - Lt. Governor Dan Patrick - released his priorities and bill numbers this week, essentially announcing 25 of his 40 top priorities. Topping the list was the budget, and SB 2, the pro-voucher bill by Senator Brandon Creighton that would initially set aside $1 billion for education savings accounts for parents who choose to send their children to private schools, but notably would grow exponentially over time. Last week saw a hearing into the evening on the bill, but it is expected that on Wednesday the Senate will approve it, most likely with all Democrats voting no and all Republicans voting yes. In addition to the voucher bill, Senate Bill 6 – Increasing Texas’ Electric Grid Reliability and Senate Bill 7 – Increasing Investments in Texas’ Water Supply.

Governor Abbott’s “State of the State” and Emergency Items

Not be outdone, on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott gave his “State of the State” address from a podium in an oil service company in north Austin, and laid out a number of priorities, including seven “emergency” items: cutting property taxes, a “generational investment” in the state’s water infrastructure, increasing teacher pay, beefing up vocational career training programs for students after high school, allowing the use of public dollars for private education purposes, stiffening the state’s bail laws and creating a cybersecurity hub in San Antonio. In addition to the water emergency item, Abbott announced other priorities, including reducing the cost of creating new homes by slashing regulations, and continuing to expand grid infrastructure, pointing to last session’s investment in power plants and the need for a “nuclear” renaissance. Again, like the Lt Governor’s announcement, the address was short on details which will come when legislation is actually filed.

While those bills have not been released, we expect that they will be introduced as soon as later this week by Charles Schwertner on the electric grid and Senator Charles Perry on water supply.

What’s Next for Texas Water and Energy Policy?

Speaking of which, Senator Perry spent part of the week speaking of his plans at the Texas Water Conference, attended by our own Evgenia Spears. Among his plans, he stated, are securing $5 billion from the state budget for water infrastructure and new water supplies, and $1 billion per year going forward through a constitutional amendment.

Sierra Club’s Stance on Grid and Water Legislation

The Sierra Club has not determined our position on big grid and water bills yet because we haven’t seen the actual language, but we already have some concerns based on our understanding of what might be in the bills. We need to prioritize water supply solutions that are sustainable like water conservation, water reuse, fixing leaky pipes and aquifer storage and recovery, before we consider spending money on moving water long distances through pipes, marine desalination or treatment of “produced” fracking oil and gas waters.

Similarly on grid reliability, the Sierra Club is opposed to more taxpayer money for either gas plants or “Small Modular Reactors” through the Texas Energy Fund as has been proposed in the budget bill, but instead focus on programs like backup power packages and energy savings programs. We should be prioritizing people over utility profits.

Budget Battles Begin: Sierra Club Advocates for Energy Efficiency

Speaking of the budget, Senate hearings on the budget for the state began this week and the Sierra Club was there, testifying on the budget for the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO). We called on the Senate to assure that SECO has the administrative staff - 18 FTEs (Full Time Employees) - needed to take in federal grants on energy efficiency, rebates and loan programs to make our buildings more energy efficient. Those funds are part of the Trump Administrations' executive order freeze, but most legal experts believe since they were already approved by the previous administration, Texas will eventually get the money, which includes $689 million for home and apartment energy efficient incentives and rebates.

Upcoming Budget Hearings on Texas Natural Resources Agencies

Coming up soon are budget hearings on natural resource agencies like the Texas Water Development Board, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department on February 11th, as well as a budget hearing on the Public Utility Commission on February 13th. Sierra Club will be there along with other advocates to make sure agencies have the budgets they need to properly regulate our industries.

Legislative Briefings: Sierra Club in Action

This week also was a week for legislative briefing and Sierra Club was involved in not one, but two. First, we participated in the Alliance for Clean Texas legislative briefing on January 29th. Both Evgenia Spears - speaking about our water quality work - and Cyrus Reed - speaking about our priorities on the electric grid and the budget - informed invited legislative staff about some of our concerns and solutions to make our state better. On Thursday, January 30th, we participated again, this time with the Texas Living Waters project, speaking to a packed room of legislative staff on our priorities. A copy of our priorities can be found here.

legislative briefings
Photo credit Suzanne King, National Wildlife Federation

What’s Next? House Committees and Legislative Movement

We are expecting that the new Speaker of the House - Dustin Burrows - will name committees this week. We are expecting a slight shakeup from last session with a new speaker in tow and with some key retirements.

Once committees are named, committees could begin meeting though it is unlikely that any bills other than the budget bill will have hearings soon. The Sierra Club will begin to reach out to the new committee members as soon as they are named.