{"id":138290,"date":"2026-01-26T10:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138290\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:47:09","slug":"a-towns-opposition-to-proposed-power-lines-sparks-discussion-about-the-cost-of-texas-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/138290\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00a0A Town\u2019s Opposition to Proposed Power Lines Sparks Discussion About the Cost of Texas\u2019 Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"

GLEN ROSE, Texas\u2014After a long journey north through Mexico\u2019s highlands, small songbirds with bright yellow faces descend upon mature canopies of ashe juniper trees in Texas\u2019 Hill Country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The golden-cheeked warbler nests nowhere else, faithful to the savanna-woodlands of Central Texas, and some, even, to the precise cedar they chose the year before. The birds of passage find a fork among the aged oaks\u2019 branches and weave splintered bark into a cup-shaped nest to raise their young before their annual return south.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The warbler\u2019s buzzy melody heard in and around Dinosaur Valley State Park has become synonymous with the changing of the seasons for bird enthusiasts\u2014the golden song of spring. These tiny migrants, weighing next to nothing, are endangered and have been for more than 30 years as their winter and breeding grounds disappear to development.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The land here could be next, threatened by a route of proposed high-voltage power lines that would require clearing part of this bird\u2019s habitat and would border part of the state park. It\u2019s but the latest flashpoint in a larger controversy across the state: How will Texas balance its growth while protecting its natural resources?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Or more succinctly: What is Texas willing to give up?<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine you\u2019re a golden-cheeked warbler, and you have flown all the way from Central America to your nesting ground in Texas and it\u2019s not there,\u201d said Rebecca Gibbs, a member of the Dinosaur Valley\u2013Paluxy River Protection Alliance. \u201cIt was there last year, and you were there, and you look for it again, and it\u2019s not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The\"TheThe Paluxy River. Preserved dinosaur tracks were found in its limestone bed. Credit: Arcelia Martin\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

Gibbs\u2019 protestations come as the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) is slated to decide next month whether the state\u2019s largest electric delivery company, Oncor Electric, should construct its new high-voltage transmission line project around the perimeter of the state park, about 75 miles southwest of Dallas, before extending to an existing substation in West Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These power lines are just one part of the state\u2019s efforts to expand Texas\u2019 independent power grid and related transmission systems to keep up with escalating demand driven by large-scale data centers, cryptocurrency mines, population growth and the electrification of the oil and gas industry. The PUC and the state\u2019s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), are spending billions to fortify the grid and keep large energy-consuming industries in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVisitors May Not Return\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visitors to Glen Rose, home to the preserved dinosaur tracks etched into the limestone bed of the Paluxy River, can see signs of protest against Oncor\u2019s proposed transmission line at nearly every turn. They warn of lost views and threats to wildlife and ecological balance. But the main risk is even closer to home: a threat to the area\u2019s largest economic engine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cA big chunk of our pie comes from tourism,\u201d said Somervell County Commissioner Jeff Harris. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge attraction to this area, the dinosaurs, the fossil rim, the camping opportunities.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some 230,000 visitors come to Dinosaur Valley State Park each year. Somervell County estimates that each one of those visitors ends up spending about $12 in the Glen Rose area.<\/p>\n

\"A\"AA sign in historic downtown Glen Rose, Texas. Credit: Arcelia Martin\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

The city leans into the kitschy legislative designation as the \u201cDinosaur Capital of Texas.\u201d In front of restaurants and along U.S. Route 67 are large plastic figurines of Sauroposeidon and Acrocanthosaurus, the dinosaurs whose fossilized tracks are preserved in the park.<\/p>\n

Somervell is the second smallest county in Texas, spanning 192 square miles, and residents soon felt hemmed in when they realized that the routes of the transmission lines would traverse the county and occupy a 200-foot clearing along two sides of the state park.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have so many square feet in this county,\u201d Commissioner Chip Joslin said. \u201cOur resources are even more precious to us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The power line installation is part of a plan launched by state lawmakers in 2023 that required regulators to work with grid operators to develop a reliability plan to prepare for the large forecasted energy demands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The following year ERCOT announced its $33 billion project calling for nearly 2,500 miles of new high-voltage power lines and more than 600 miles of 345-kilovolt lines and other upgrades to existing power lines. A few months later, the PUC approved that plan irrespective of voltage level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In January 2025, ERCOT filed a comparison of the relative reliability and economic benefits of constructing new 765-kV transmission infrastructure rather than simply expanding the existing 345-kV network to meet future system needs. On April 24, the PUC approved the region\u2019s first 765-kV transmission lines to meet the oil and gas industry\u2019s rapidly growing power needs. It\u2019ll be the highest voltage line in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These 765-kV lines can each carry up to six times the electrical capacity of the 345-kV lines largely used throughout the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

While 765-kV lines are being deployed in Texas for the first time, an Oncor spokesperson said, they\u2019ve been used elsewhere across the U.S. and Canada for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feedback is a critical part of the \u201cenvironmental assessment and routing study\u201d portion of the transmission project, the spokesperson said. It helps the company refine its preliminary routes before they are submitted to the PUC for further consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cOncor recognizes the cultural, educational, and ecological importance of Dinosaur Valley State Park,\u201d the spokesperson stated. \u201cAll proposed routes are still preliminary, and Oncor must present a geographically diverse set of routes in our application as part of regulatory requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

As leaders try to balance preservation and innovation across the state as they prepare to use eminent domain to cut a path for the massive power lines, Harris said Somervell County\u2019s smallness amplifies the scale. \u201cWe don\u2019t have room without it intruding on neighbors\u2014that\u2019s part of the problem.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unlike other counties, Harris said, ranches aren\u2019t typically tens of thousands of acres, where the feel of development across a property could be diluted. He said one of the largest properties in his precinct is upwards of 1,500 acres, with most measuring around 300.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been the squeaky wheel on this deal,\u201d Harris said. \u201cWe as a county, as a community, have made the noise and made it well known that we do not want that route.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just hopeful and prayerful that they listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a presentation shared at a Somervell County Commissioners meeting, a slide detailing why businesses and residents should be concerned read: \u201cOnce the landscape is scarred, visitors may not return.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those visitors, Gibbs worries, include the small songbird. The 200-foot clear-cut corridor along two sides of the park that\u2019s done for fire safety and maintenance would remove trees and woody vegetation utilized by the warbler.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

Matthew Boms, executive director of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance, an industry trade group, said that the regulator\u2019s job of striking the balance between development and preservation is difficult. It\u2019s why he commends PUC commissioners and ERCOT leadership for taking a \u201cforward-thinking\u201d approach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really easy to sit on your hands and wait for the growth to happen,\u201d Boms said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot harder and potentially more controversial to actually plan for the growth that\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the state\u2019s population and industries continue to boom, Boms said, Texas doesn\u2019t want to fall behind by continuing to use aging infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed the transmission yesterday,\u201d Boms said. \u201cAnd that was before all the data center load came online.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Right now, Texas\u2019 transmission system resembles an overcrowded highway, Boms said. The state allows more cars to come on without expanding lanes. The high-voltage transmission system will let Texas have more capacity on the transmission grid and move more electrons around different parts of the state, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Both Somervell County commissioners said they\u2019re not against growth or Texas\u2019 energy businesses. Not too far up the road from downtown Glen Rose, and barely visible from the top of the state park\u2019s overlook trail, is Comanche Peak\u2014a nuclear power plant that provides Texas with roughly 5 percent of its electricity. When it was being built in the 1970s, Harris said, the community was welcoming and saw the positive transformation the nuclear site could have for their little town.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Vista\"VistaVista from a lookout point at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Credit: Arcelia Martin\/Inside Climate News <\/p>\n

But they don\u2019t see how these power lines will do much other than harm their constituents. The commissioners are concerned about slashed property values and tourism revenue. And they\u2019re concerned about beauty. About the transformation of their residents\u2019 views.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have property owners that sit on their front porch and drink coffee every morning and look at a beautiful vista that\u2019ll be staring at these lines,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that there are no power lines viewable from the state park. Beyond park borders, a line of white poles trails away toward the horizon. There are also power lines on the way to the park.<\/p>\n

But none are as big as the 765-kV lines are likely to be. Most standard steel towers for these high-voltage lines are about 15 stories high. The tallest apartment building in Somervell is either two or three stories, the commissioners said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about power lines like you see up here,\u201d Harris said at the entrance of the state park. \u201cWe\u2019re used to those, and they\u2019re not much taller than the tree line. Now add 150 feet to that, roughly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout to the clouds,\u201d Joslin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed routes outlined by Oncor show that the power lines would likely cross the entrance of the park. \u201cIt\u2019s going to change the feel just because of the look of them,\u201d Harris said. \u201cYou\u2019re not getting out of Dallas and coming to nature where it\u2019s quiet and peaceful and lovely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposed southern route would traverse the property of Tom and Susan Pardee. In a letter<\/a> filed to the PUC, the Pardees said the ratepayers and landowners should not have to subsidize the development of data centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese data centers are owned and operated by the most capitalized companies in the world,\u201d Tom Pardee wrote. \u201cThese tech companies have access to the capital markets and can fund their own capital investments. The same can be said of the energy industry.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The PUC has received some 150 protest comments about the three proposed routes for the Dinosaur-Longshore line. Included were pleas on behalf of oak trees, filed by fifth-generation Texans, a judge and commissioners from Erath County, and cattle ranchers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Joslin, the Somervell County commissioner, filed a letter, too, in defense of the \u201cbeautiful little County.\u201d He wrote that the proposed lines and their steel towers would \u201cregretfully ruin this for eternity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of those making comments submitted just photos. They showcase the subtle hills where the transmission lines might go, seemingly asking without words how the state could obstruct this view. And showing, without words, how the open sky there remains a marvel, even in a hilly region of a state infamous for its long, lonely stretches.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t Say They Didn\u2019t Know\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gregg Marsh returned to his birthplace of Glen Rose after 34 years away. He was working along the Gulf Coast in Freeport, Texas, at a major chemical company.<\/p>\n

In moving back, Marsh became the fourth generation of his family to inherit the large tract now bordering Dinosaur Valley State Park on two sides where Oncor might run one of its power line routes. He also became an unlikely steward of the endangered songbird.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some five years ago, after he built a home on the land, a Texas Parks & Wildlife biologist recommended he have another biologist come verify that the golden-cheeked warbler nested in the wooded areas of his property, some 2,000 yards from his house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The recommended biologist played a recording of a male warbler\u2019s song and not five minutes later, Marsh said, a territorial little yellow and black bird flew up. The biologist caught the bird, tagged it with a numbered band and drew blood from its wing for DNA samples.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After proving that the species was on his property, Marsh joined a program involving both the state and federal government that paid him by the acre to improve the birds\u2019 habitat to ensure they came back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Small\"SmallSmall songbirds with bright yellow faces descend upon mature canopies of ashe juniper trees. Credit: Arcelia Martin\/Inside Climate News<\/p>\n

He was told to cut cedar trees with trunks from one to four inches, but not bigger. Marsh cleared the brush to allow the ground to get more sunlight and encourage tree growth. During a survey the next year, the biologist caught the same birds as the year before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Marsh said he submitted these findings and other research documents to Oncor in protest of the route that would require a 200-foot clearing through his property. \u201cThey can\u2019t say they didn\u2019t know,\u201d Marsh said. \u201cThey know the warbler is here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do whatever we can do to keep them here, and we\u2019re gonna try and keep Oncor away from here,\u201d Marsh said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the winter months, Marsh can watch cardinals, Carolina chickadees and American Goldfinches by looking out his back window. From there, he hardly ever sees the small bird he and his neighbors are fighting one of the largest companies of its kind over. The enjoyment lies in knowing they\u2019ll be there, even if they\u2019re beyond his line of sight, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s pleasure in knowing that come late February, a small fleet of golden-cheeked warblers will arrive on his family\u2019s land. The birds will once again end their annual migration from Central America among the old cedars he\u2019s maintained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTo know that you\u2019ve improved the habitat to the point where they want to come back,\u201d Marsh said, \u201cthat\u2019s the part that makes you feel like you\u2019ve done something for Mother Nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAbout This Story<\/p>\n

Perhaps you noticed: This story, like all the news we publish, is free to read. That\u2019s because Inside Climate News is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. We do not charge a subscription fee, lock our news behind a paywall, or clutter our website with ads. We make our news on climate and the environment freely available to you and anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not all. We also share our news for free with scores of other media organizations around the country. Many of them can\u2019t afford to do environmental journalism of their own. We\u2019ve built bureaus from coast to coast to report local stories, collaborate with local newsrooms and co-publish articles so that this vital work is shared as widely as possible.<\/p>\n

Two of us launched ICN in 2007. Six years later we earned a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting, and now we run the oldest and largest dedicated climate newsroom in the nation. We tell the story in all its complexity. We hold polluters accountable. We expose environmental injustice. We debunk misinformation. We scrutinize solutions and inspire action.<\/p>\n

Donations from readers like you fund every aspect of what we do. If you don\u2019t already, will you support our ongoing work, our reporting on the biggest crisis facing our planet, and help us reach even more readers in more places? <\/p>\n

Please take a moment to make a tax-deductible donation. Every one of them makes a difference.<\/p>\n

Thank you,<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tArcelia Martin\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tReporter, Texas Renewables<\/p>\n

Arcelia Martin is an award-winning journalist at Inside Climate News. She covers renewable energy in Texas from her base in Dallas. Before joining ICN in 2025, Arcelia was a staff writer at The Dallas Morning News and at The Tennessean. Originally from San Diego, California, she\u2019s a graduate of Gonzaga University and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GLEN ROSE, Texas\u2014After a long journey north through Mexico\u2019s highlands, small songbirds with bright yellow faces descend upon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[58498,15787,58499,3413,31213,58500,10657,58501,13847,42438,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-138290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-dinosaur-capital-of-texas","tag-dinosaur-valley-state-park","tag-dinosaur-valley-paluxy-river-protection-alliance","tag-ercot","tag-glen-rose","tag-high-voltage-power-lines","tag-oncor-electric","tag-paluxy-river","tag-public-utility-commission-of-texas","tag-somervell-county","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}