NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar & Colleagues Call on DOE to Establish More Connections to the Texas Grid

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Greg Casar (D-Texas) led 21 other Members of Congress on a letter urging the Biden Administration’s Department of Energy (DOE) to establish more transfer capability between the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and its neighbors through the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor (NIETC) designation process. 

This letter represents an additional and new strategy from Casar and his colleagues to address the lack of electric interconnection and electric reliability in Texas. 

The DOE is working to designate geographic areas as NIETCs if they find that consumers are harmed by a lack of electric transmission in the area. The preliminary list of potential NIETCs, released on May 8, 2024, circumvents the Texas power grid, operated by ERCOT. Casar and colleagues are urging this to change.

If the DOE designates NIETC corridors into ERCOT or nearby ERCOT, this will open up $4.5 billion in federal financing to build electric transmission in and around the state.

“We understand the significant hurdles to interconnecting Texas, but leaving the state as anenergy island is a mistake,” wrote the Members. “As we work towards our shared goals it is clear that the key to achieving a reliable, clean, and affordable grid means addressing the critical transmission needs in Texas. We reiterate the importance of an interconnected Texas and urge you to use every tool at your disposal to accomplish that goal.” 

The letter mentions existing projects for interconnection like the Southern Spirit Transmission line, which will help consumers and begin interconnecting Texas — but alone falls short in addressing the transmission needs for the state. If DOE champions the critical, robust transmission needs in and around Texas, then consumers would experience huge gains in electric reliability and affordability — not just in the state but across the U.S.  

The letter is signed by U.S. Representatives Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Don Beyer (VA-08), Greg Casar (TX-35), Joaquin Castro (TX-20), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Veronica Escobar (TX-16), Adriano Espallat (NY-13), Valerie Foushee (NC-04), Maxwell Frost (FL-10),  Robert Garcia (CA-42), Al Green (TX-09), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) and Paul Tonko (NY-20). 

In February 2024, Casar introduced the Connect the Grid Act to require interconnection between ERCOT and its neighbors. A June 2024 MIT study found that interconnection could have prevented almost all of the blackouts ordered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) during Winter Storm Uri.

The state has long refused to connect its grid in an attempt to avoid federal standards and consumer protections. For the latest on the Connect the Grid Act, visit casar.house.gov/grid 

The full DOE letter can be viewed here.

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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio.  A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.