{"id":400908,"date":"2026-08-08T04:54:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400908\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:54:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:54:11","slug":"gov-abbott-looks-to-break-up-utility-monopolies-in-austin-and-san-antonio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/400908\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Abbott Looks To Break Up Utility Monopolies in Austin and San Antonio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> is proposing legislation that would break up the municipal utility monopolies in Austin and San Antonio, allowing residents to choose their own utility provider.<\/p>\n

The proposal<\/a> would open the two cities\u2019 electricity markets to competition and prohibit municipal utilities from using utility revenue to fund their city governments.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s office estimates the changes could lower<\/a> electricity costs by 10 percent for the average Austin ratepayer and 13 percent for the average San Antonio ratepayer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must address the cost of electricity that is putting a growing strain on Texas households,\u201d said Abbott. \u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m proposing legislation to end the monopoly control that cities like Austin and San Antonio have over electricity services and give Texans the freedom to choose the provider that works best for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin and San Antonio residents are among the roughly five million Texans who receive electricity from municipally owned utilities. Unlike investor-owned utilities, which are regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, municipal utilities are run and overseen<\/a> by their respective city governments.<\/p>\n

Municipal utilities operate as vertical monopolies, controlling multiple stages of electricity service including generation, transmission, distribution, and the sale of power directly to residents.<\/p>\n

CPS Energy, San Antonio\u2019s municipally owned utility, pushed back on Abbott\u2019s proposal, saying<\/a> it \u201cconsistently maintains the lowest combined electric and gas residential rates in Texas and high reliability, including compared to investor-owned utilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Abbott also plans to prevent cities from using utility revenue to help fund their budgets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 30 percent<\/a> of San Antonio\u2019s general funding and 10 percent<\/a> of Austin\u2019s revenue come from their municipal utilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is taxation through electricity prices without representation, and it must come to an end,\u201d Abbott said<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the more than 100,000 people who live outside the city of San Antonio yet still have to pay the city for services they don\u2019t use.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers have scrutinized municipal utility general fund transfers as a hidden tax, since ratepayers have no direct vote on the transfer rate the way they would with a property tax election. A 2023 bill<\/a> that did not pass would have implemented restrictions on using utilities to fund the city budget and a May 2026 Senate interim hearing<\/a> revived the debate, focusing on water utility transfers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time that we get it across the finish line,\u201d Abbott said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The effort is part of Abbott\u2019s Keep Texas Affordable<\/a> agenda, which includes efforts to lower property taxes, tuition, housing and insurance costs.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\n Mary Berg is a writing fellow for Texas Scorecard. A student at UT Austin, her interests include economics, all things music, and the power of stories. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation that would break up the municipal utility monopolies in Austin and San…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,451,410],"class_list":["post-400908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-energy","tag-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400908","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=400908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}