SPECIAL REPORT: Texas Feels the Iran Oil Shock with Michael Webber Even with more domestic energy production, Texas is still exposed to global oil shocks, higher fuel costs, and infrastructure limits triggered by the war in Iran.

Find our full conversation here: tinyurl.com/n6vcs5zm

Texas produces a lot of light sweet crude, but Gulf Coast refineries were built for heavier imports.

In a conflict tied to Middle East oil flows, that mismatch helps explain why Texas fuel prices remain exposed to global disruption.

Data Centers: Opportunity or Threat?

In the latest episode, I talk with Michael Webber about electricity demand growth, data centers, and why Texas energy problems are more about peak than energy.

We also solve the three-body problem (jk!) and talk about life and learning in the age of AI.

The U.S. grid isn’t one electricity market. Regions like ERCOT, PJM, and CAISO all run different systems with different rules for pricing & reliability.

Max Kanter explains how GridStatus data can act as a ground source of truth, allowing different constituencies to have conversations about energy

Electricity doesn’t have one price. It has 70,000+ nodes.

Max Kanter explains nodal pricing, and why GridStatus mapped 20,000+ nodes with 5-minute updates. Texas congestion and “market outcomes” look different at the node.

The New Rules Behind ERCOT Prices with Andrew Reimers ERCOT just flipped a major switch on how it buys reliability; the ripple effects hit prices, batteries, and investment signals that Texas depends on.

Link to the Full Conversation: tinyurl.com/4ku76shm

New episode of the pod is live!

I spoke with Andrew Reimers, ERCOT’s Independent Market Monitor, about what makes the IMM role distinct in Texas.

We cover ERCOT’s isolation, independent oversight, and how that context shapes debates over reserves, DRRS, RUC, and NPRR 1309 vs 1310.

ty!

Since @joshdr83.bsky.social doesn't post here all the time.

Texas setting new grid records. 78% of energy needs this morning were supplied by renewables.

The large load queue in ERCOT continues to be... large...

www.ercot.com/files/docs/2...

In the desert?

“My family has a lot of heritage in this land, but my kids don’t want to ranch, so other ways of earning income from the land are important to keeping it in the family.”– George Riggs, Former Pecos County Commissioner

“The truth is that the sheep that graze on the grass that grows under the solar panels are more agriculturally productive than the dryland cotton I used to run on it!” - Allen Gully (farms over 3,000 acres on the edge of San Angelo)

“[Because of the better roads that the wind farm put in place, I can] make it clear across the ranch in just a few minutes along the same path that used to take me twenty.” - Former Republican Texas State Representative John E. Davis

“It’s great to see these types of projects coming to our region...For smaller, rural schools, the added revenue can make a significant difference – especially for funding enrichment and construction projects.”- Michael Davis, Former Superintendent for Cushing ISD

“Wind energy sales produce a passive income that does not materially interfere with the AG operations or other uses of the property. In times of drought, electric power sales continue to create rainfall-independent financial stability... – Michael Manning, Bar T-Black Angus Ranch

“The cows love wind turbines, they walk around them all day and follow the shadows that they cast. We now have good roads on our land that make it easier to take care of our cattle. I wish we had more of them on our land…”– Louis Brooks Jr., Louis Brooks Ranch, LTD.

“Wind has been a Godsend – it allows flexibility in budgeting by providing a constant source of revenues that you know will be there when you need them.” — Don Allred, Former Oldham County Judge.

What do real landowners and local officials think about wind and solar projects? We asked them in our last report that focused on Texas:

txrenewables.net

See below for what they said.

Texas Shows How Trump’s Anti-Green Moves Threaten a Red Economy The state faces an energy crunch, but Trump’s budget bill will hurt renewable power — Texas’ fastest growing electricity source.

“We’re in an energy crunch,” said Joshua Rhodes, an electricity expert and research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. “We should be doubling down on everything we can build right now. Making things more expensive is antithetical to that.”

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

US aluminum producers need cheap, clean power. That may be tough to… Century Aluminum and Emirates Global Aluminium want to build the nation’s first smelters in decades, but must compete with data centers for a limited…

It's AI vs. Al for cheap power

“Ultimately, this is about energy,” said Matt Meenan, VP of external affairs for the Aluminum Association.

“I think we’re going to have a hard time becoming fully self-sufficient for primary Al in the U.S.”

www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

It is Texas! #knowthyaudience

Why Texas’s ‘cut-throat’ approach to net zero is paying off Trump’s anti-green agenda has put him on an unlikely collision course with supporters in the state

On why the cheapest form of energy does well in Texas:

“[Texas] set up its markets to be cut-throat,” says Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at [UT Austin]

By contrast, in many other parts of the US, there is no competition at all, says Rhodes.

www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/80aac07...

Oh hey, IdeaSmiths CTO @joshdr83.bsky.social did this analysis!

The short version: voting to attack wind and solar is a vote to raise electricity prices and escalate chances of outages and shortfalls.

Engineer mountain was just calling out to me!

Renewable energy survived Texas attacks. Its future now depends on Trump. Texas bills targeting solar and wind power are dead, so the state’s flourishing renewable energy industry remains alive and well — for now.

It’s official: Texas bills targeting solar and wind power are dead.

Here's a recap of the arguments that worked, as the renewable energy industry tries the same appeals to lobby against Trump's "big, beautiful bill." www.houstonchronicle.com/business/ene...

Investing in US technology and US supply chains delivers benefits that reach far and wide.

"I'm a husband, father, and softball coach, and welding puts food on the table, smoked ribs on the grill." – Lee Evans, Welder, Grenzebach, Newnan, GA.

Learn more: bit.ly/43vszfW

#AmericasSolarCompany

Happy Texas Sine Die to those who celebrate!

You know what comes after A for Abundance? B for Billions of dollars of local taxes and landowner payments $50B to be approximate.

static1.squarespace.com/static/652f1...

Oh man, that would be awesome