{"id":404841,"date":"2026-08-12T20:42:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404841\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T20:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T20:42:46","slug":"abbott-proposes-opening-austin-and-san-antonio-electricity-markets-to-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404841\/","title":{"rendered":"Abbott Proposes Opening Austin and San Antonio Electricity Markets to Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gov.<\/a>Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation that would change how electricity is sold in Austin and San Antonio by opening the cities\u2019 markets to competing providers and restricting the use of municipal utility revenue to support city government operations. Image for illustration purposes.<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

Texas Border Business<\/p>\n

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation that would change how electricity is sold in Austin and San Antonio by opening the cities\u2019 markets to competing providers and restricting the use of municipal utility revenue to support city government operations. If approved, the proposal would end the exclusive control municipal utilities currently have over electricity service in the two cities.<\/p>\n

The proposal would allow customers to select an electricity provider rather than receiving service exclusively through their municipally owned utility.<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Image for illustration purposes<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must address the cost of electricity that is putting a growing strain on Texas households,\u201d Abbott said. \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 approximately 5 million Texans who receive electricity through municipally owned utilities. Unlike investor-owned utilities regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, municipal utilities are operated and overseen by their respective city governments.<\/p>\n

Municipal utilities can control several stages of electricity service, including generation, transmission, distribution and the sale of electricity to customers.<\/p>\n

CPS Energy, San Antonio\u2019s municipally owned utility, defended its current structure in response to Abbott\u2019s proposal. The utility said it \u201cconsistently maintains the lowest combined electric and gas residential rates in Texas and high reliability, including compared to investor-owned utilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another part of Abbott\u2019s proposal would prevent cities from using utility revenue to help finance their general budgets.<\/p>\n

About 30% of San Antonio\u2019s general funding and 10% of Austin\u2019s revenue come from their municipal utilities, according to city government documents cited in the original source material.<\/p>\n

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

Abbott also pointed to more than 100,000 people who live outside San Antonio but receive utility service from the city. He argued that those customers contribute financially to city services they do not use.<\/p>\n

The use of municipal utility revenue to support city government has previously drawn attention from Texas lawmakers. A bill introduced during the 2023 legislative session would have placed restrictions on the use of utility revenue to fund city budgets, but the measure did not pass.<\/p>\n

The issue returned during a Texas Senate interim hearing in May 2026, when lawmakers examined municipal utility transfers, with attention focused on water utilities.<\/p>\n

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

The proposed electricity changes are part of Abbott\u2019s Keep Texas Affordable agenda, which also includes measures addressing property taxes, college tuition, housing and insurance costs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing legislation that would change how electricity is sold in Austin and San Antonio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2067,132,134,133,141767,18830,10807,46563,8239,451,141023,82951,392,141768,50226,82,27,81353,6806,12835,293,97107],"class_list":["post-404841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-affordability","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-consumer-choice","tag-cost-of-living","tag-cps-energy","tag-electric-bills","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-energy-market","tag-energy-policy","tag-greg-abbott","tag-municipal-utilities","tag-public-utilities","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-border-business","tag-texas-economy","tag-texas-energy","tag-texas-legislature","tag-utility-rates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404841","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=404841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}