Texas Scorecard By Sydnie Henry April 2, 2026
Lawmakers expressed concerns about Chinese components in the grid. Texas senators spent Wednesday grilling electric grid officials, national security experts, and industry representatives in an hourslong hearing on how to keep the state’s electric system both secure and affordable amid explosive growth in demand.
Meeting for their first interim hearing, members of the Senate Business & Commerce Committee focused on foreign threats to the power grid, vulnerabilities in the equipment supply chain, and the mounting strain from data centers and other large industrial loads.
Committee Chair Charles Schwertner (R–Georgetown) opened by touting an American Legislative Exchange Council report ranking Texas 10th in electricity affordability, with average retail rates far below the national average. He warned, however, that maintaining that advantage will require tightening protections around critical infrastructure without driving up costs for consumers.
The committee first heard from ERCOT, the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT), and the Office of the Attorney General on implementation of the Lone Star Infrastructure Protection Act and follow-up legislation.
ERCOT officials described a two-track attestation system now imposed on every market participant and interconnecting entity: one disclosure covering corporate ownership and affiliations with China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea, and another covering grid equipment and services purchased from companies linked to those countries.
Entities must provide a five-year lookback on equipment sourcing and update ERCOT every 180 days when they buy covered equipment or services. ERCOT has terminated or referred for enforcement those that failed to respond and says nearly all respondents with foreign ties self-certified they do not grant hostile entities unauthorized access or control over Texas grid assets.
More:
https://texasscorecard.com/state/texas-senators-probe-foreign-threats-data-centers-in-sweeping-grid-security-hearing/
