Life: Powered

09/08/2026

The wind & solar lobbyist explaining why you need to pay for a $100 billion transmission line — for your own good, of course. 🤌
 
Texas doesn’t need more expensive mandates hidden in infrastructure bills. We need affordable, reliable energy that works when it’s hot, cold, and everything in between.
 
Who’s actually footing that tab? Texans. Every time.

09/04/2026

Life:Powered is now on SubStack!

We cover Texas energy policy, grid reliability, market structure, and the decisions shaping the state's power future several times a month on Substack. Subscribe for free to stay ahead of it.

Read our latest piece here: https://lifepowered.substack.com/p/data-centers-dont-have-to-break-the?r=916e3f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

06/16/2026

43 Texas lawmakers, including 34 House members and 9 senators, just filed an amicus brief asking the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC) to pump the brakes on three proposed 765-kV transmission lines before irreversible decisions are made.

The lines are part of ERCOT's Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP), and critics argue the $33 billion price tag, with lifetime costs approaching $100 billion according to a recent study from TPPF's Life:Powered initiative, was never voted on by the Texas Legislature. That same research found that adding 4-5 GW of gas generation in West Texas could eliminate the need for the lines entirely, with virtually identical impacts on energy prices and reliability.

Thousands of Texas landowners are facing potential eminent domain actions, and ordinary ratepayers could be left holding the bill, all for lines that, per the TPPF analysis, primarily serve large industrial consumers and data centers chasing wind and solar credits.

The PUC is set to review the first line segment on June 18. Read the full story in the link below.

03/04/2026

On February 12, the EPA rescinded the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding — what the agency called the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. And Life:Powered helped make it happen.

The original finding was the legal foundation for a wave of sweeping regulations that touched nearly every sector of the economy — from vehicle mandates pushing automakers toward forced electrification, to power plant rules, to methane regulations on oil and gas. The cost to Americans was staggering, and the benefits? Virtually nonexistent.

Life:Powered's research demonstrated that even eliminating ALL U.S. CO₂ emissions would reduce global temperatures by only about 0.05°C — a change too small to even reliably measure. The EPA's final rule adopted that same reasoning, and specifically credited climate modeling consistent with the analysis we submitted.

This is a major win for sound science, affordable energy, and every American family and business burdened by regulations built on a flawed foundation. And it's just the beginning — this decision sets the stage for the Supreme Court to revisit the ruling that classified greenhouse gases as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.

Read the full breakdown from our team below in the comments 👇

03/04/2026

01/22/2026

Howard Lutnick at Davos 2025: Energy Independence & Economic Sovereignty

Howard Lutnick delivers pointed remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, challenging conventional thinking on energy policy and national sovereignty. Speaking at the very forum he critiques, Lutnick raises fundamental questions about global energy transitions and manufacturing dependencies.

12/10/2025

Five years after Winter Storm Uri, is Texas ready for the next big freeze?

New research from the Texas Public Policy Foundation reveals a troubling pattern: Despite improvements in weatherization and emergency operations, the Texas grid's winter vulnerability is actually getting worse.

Here's what the data shows:
📊 Since 2021, nearly $50 billion has flowed into solar and battery storage—adding 31 GW and 17 GW respectively. But only 2.3 GW of net natural gas capacity was added (source: ERCOT capacity data).

📉 The winter reserve margin has dropped from 17.5% to 10.1%—well below the 15% target most utilities maintain (source: ERCOT MORA reports for January 2025 and 2026).

⚠️ The problem: Solar generates little during winter peak hours (before sunrise and after sunset), and batteries deplete within hours during multi-day cold snaps.

The recent cold snap from November 30-December 2 was a warning shot. If temperatures had been in the teens and twenties instead of the 40s, widespread outages would likely have occurred.
Texas fixed the operational problems from Uri but missed the root cause: a market that continues investing in resources that don't show up when winter storms hit.

The full analysis breaks down the numbers and what needs to change. This is Part 1 of a three-part series on Texas grid reliability.

Read the full report linked in the comments.