Texas is once again proving why it stands as America’s unrivaled energy powerhouse.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), more than 66% of planned U.S. natural gas pipeline capacity additions for 2026 and 2027 — roughly 29.7 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) out of a national total of 44.9 Bcf/d — originate in the Lone Star State.
This marks a second major pipeline expansion boom in just over a decade, far outpacing other regions like Louisiana (19%). While the Marcellus/Utica shale in the Northeast remains hobbled by partisan politics in New York that have blocked critical takeaway capacity for years, Texas and its booming economy moves inexorably ahead.
This infrastructure surge is a direct response to exploding demand across multiple sectors. Permian Basin producers, sitting atop the nation’s most prolific oil and gas play, have long grappled with stranded associated gas from thousands of oil wells. Gross natural gas withdrawals in the Permian hit record levels, exceeding 21 Bcf/d in recent years, but pipeline constraints have periodically led to flaring or negative prices at the Waha Hub in the southwest Texas panhandle. New pipelines are needed to unlock this resource, turning waste into wealth and boosting economic output.
The global LNG export market provides another powerful driver. U.S. LNG exports have surged, with Texas facilities playing a starring role, exporting billions in value and supplying allies worldwide. Projects like NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG and others along the Gulf of America coast require big volumes of reliable feedgas.
Permian supplies complement output from the Haynesville, Cotton Valley, and Bossier plays, feeding terminals that position America as far and away the world’s top LNG exporter. Without expanded pipelines, these export ambitions, and the jobs, tax revenue, and geopolitical leverage they deliver, could struggle to meet rising global demand.
Domestically, Texas power providers are racing to add natural gas-fired generation to the ERCOT grid. Over 130 proposed gas power plant projects could add up to 58 GW of capacity, driven by surging electricity demand.
Governor Greg Abbott’s Texas Energy Fund has already greenlit major facilities, such as a 1,350 MW plant in Ward County. These plants provide reliable, dispatchable power essential for a grid that has been overloaded with intermittent wind and solar capacity.
The AI and data center boom adds yet more urgency. Hyperscale facilities in Texas are increasingly turning to behind-the-meter natural gas generation — on-site power plants dedicated to the facility. Companies like VoltaGrid, Energy Transfer, and others are deploying gigawatts of gas-fired capacity for Oracle, Vantage, and other clients. In the Permian Basin region, developers pair associated gas with microgrids to power AI campuses directly. This approach not only meets explosive demand but also monetizes stranded gas while shielding local ratepayers.
These myriad converging demand drivers — Permian takeaway, LNG exports, ERCOT reliability, and AI infrastructure — have combined to create a compelling case for rapid pipeline expansion. Projects like the Blackcomb Pipeline (2.5 Bcf/d from Waha to Agua Dulce), Hugh Brinson, and Rio Bravo exemplify the momentum. This rapid buildout echoes the shale revolution’s earlier infrastructure wave but on an even grander scale, with tens of billions in investment flowing into the Texas economy.
What it all boils down to is the enduring reality that, despite a half-decade of incessant narratives about the supposed death of fossil fuels and a mythical energy transition, the world wants and need more natural gas. This second major, Texas-based pipeline boom in just the past decade also highlights the reality that, more than any other state, Texas is set to fuel America’s energy future.
While Texas is blessed with the geology and geography needed to step into this role, a state government which values the industry is equally critical to success. Governor Greg Abbott isn’t Kathy Hochul or Gavin Newsom: If he were, all these demand drivers would be forced to search elsewhere to fill their natural gas needs and the pipelines needed to deliver it. It’s a lesson that voters in other states should take to heart.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
Arizona State Representative John Gillette (R-LD30) issued a strong condemnation of Texas Democrats who have fled their state in an effort to deny the legislature a quorum over upcoming redistricting proposals. In fleeing the state, the leftist lawmakers have ground progress on not only the redistricting, but bills addressing the devastating Hill Country flood as well, earning them wide criticism, arrest warrants, and potential expulsion.
Texas State Representative Ann Johnson (D-HD134) defended the ongoing abdication of duty in a post to X saying, “Breaking Quorum is an exceptional and extraordinary act of last resort.” Johnson’s post ingored the fact that Democrat lawmakers did similar as recently as 2021 to delay mail-in ballot reform and before that in 2003 to also oppose redistricting.
Gillette’s response to Johnson was scathing. “Breaking quorum is a cowardly act,” he wrote. “You swore an oath, not only to the Constitution but your State as well as its people. Now you hide in leftist states. What a disgrace. You can try to church this up all you want….not working[.] Cowardice and criminal, sum up the democrat party.”
Breaking quorum is a cowardly act. You swore an oath, not only to the Constitution but your State as well as its people. Now you hide in leftist states. What a disgrace. You can try to church this up all you want….not working Cowardice and criminal, sum up the democrat party.
— Rep. John Gillette AZ House LD30 (@AzRepGillette) August 4, 2025
The Republican lawmaker’s response to a video post from Texas State Representative Ron Reynolds (D-HD27) made on an airliner was even more direct. Answering Reynolds’ claim to be “breaking quorum today to stop Texas Republicans from passing racially gerrymandered maps,” Gillette replied, “Cowardly P”ssy said what? Go back and do your job.”
Cowardly P"ssy said what? Go back and do your job.
— Rep. John Gillette AZ House LD30 (@AzRepGillette) August 4, 2025
As of this report, the Texas legislature has voted to empower its Sergeant-at-Arms to locate and arrest the more than 50 Democrat legislators who have abandoned the Special Session called by Governor Greg Abbott to respond to the flooding emergency on the Guadalupe River, and which has also taken on redistricting.
As reported by the Texas Tribune, House Speaker Dustin Burrows slammed the Democrats from the House on Monday saying they had “shirked their responsibilities,” and thanking those present. “You understand that the issues before us, disaster recovery, fighting for the families who lost loved ones in the floods, human trafficking and more, are not abstract policy debates,” Burrows said with a rebuke toward the Democrats. “Instead of confronting those challenges, some of our colleagues have fled the state and their duty.”
In 2022, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club crafted the blueprint to stop illegals from voting in our elections, authoring landmark legislation that was signed into law, becoming the first state in the nation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote with HB2492. Now, states around the country are taking notice and adopting our model, and just last week President Trump signed an Executive Order to do it nationally. Arizona was just the tip of the spear, and the dominoes are finally beginning to fall.
As of this week, two states require proof of citizenship to register to vote. Arizona was the first with HB2492. Earlier this year, Wyoming became the second. And now, the Texas Senate is considering a bill that is nearly identical to the Arizona Model, which would make them the third.
Arizona has long been at the forefront of this issue. In 2004, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved Prop 200 to require proof of citizenship to vote. After nearly a decade of litigation, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed us to only implement the requirement on our own voter registration form but prevented us from requiring it on the federal form. The result over the decade following the decision was the complete proliferation of the “Federal Only Voting” list, amounting to tens of thousands of potential noncitizens registering and voting in our elections…
A controversial Texas border security bill experienced major whiplash on Tuesday in federal court.
In a shocking development for the legal situation of SB 4, a majority of Justices at the Supreme Court of the United States lifted its administrative stay of the Texas law after it had twice paused enforcement. The pending case and actions before the nation’s high court occurred after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit had reversed a District Court decision to issue a preliminary injunction for the state border law, allowing the new policy to temporarily go into effect.
SB 4 was approved by the Texas Legislature in November 2023 and signed in December 2023. According to the bill summary, SB 4 would “amend the Penal Code to make it a Class B misdemeanor offense for a person who is an alien to enter or attempt to enter Texas directly from a foreign nation at any location other than a lawful port of entry;” and it would also “make it an offense for a person who is an alien to enter, attempt to enter, or be found in Texas after the person has been denied admission to or excluded, deported, or removed from the United States or has departed from the United States while an order of exclusion, deportation, or removal is outstanding.”
However, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its surprising order, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the Texas law, pending a decision on the merits of the case. The federal appeals court considered arguments from both sides on Wednesday, making an expedited opinion extremely likely on the enforceability of the law.
Before the late-night action at the Fifth Circuit, Arizona legislative Republicans reacted to the news from the Supreme Court. Senate President Warren Petersen said, “The Arizona Governor has vetoed legislation that would have given Arizona’s law enforcement the ability to protect our citizens from the invasion occurring at the southern border. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow Texas’ S.B.4 to go into effect shows that the Governor’s veto was rash and hasty. She will soon have the opportunity to do the right thing, as we will give her another chance to sign this bill into law to protect Arizonans from border-related crimes.”
🚨 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate Republicans Applaud SCOTUS for Allowing Texas to Protect its Citizens Against Biden's Border Invasion and Call on Hobbs to do the Same for Arizonans@votewarren@AZSenatorShamppic.twitter.com/73luDz0jQC
Senator Janae Shamp also released a statement after the court decision, focusing on her ongoing efforts to enact the Arizona Border Invasion Act into law. Shamp’s bill was passed by both chambers of the Arizona Legislature earlier this month but fell victim to the first veto this session from Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs. The first-term lawmaker wrote, “While Joe Biden continues to neglect the national security crisis of this border invasion that’s allowing deadly fentanyl, terrorists, human smugglers, child sex traffickers, rapists, murderers, and other dangerous criminals to forever change our communities and the lives of Arizonans, state legislatures across the country are rightfully overriding the failures of his administration and Arizona is no different. We are urging Hobbs to not fail Arizonans again, and to sign our legislation when it hits her desk.”
State Representative Austin Smith echoed Shamp’s comments, calling on Hobbs to join legislative Republicans in addressing the border crisis. He stated, “The states can defend their borders. Governor Hobbs sign the border bills, end this madness and dangerous influx of illegals coming to Arizona. Do your job and defend the state.”
The states can defend their borders. @GovernorHobbs sign the border bills, end this madness and dangerous influx of illegals coming to Arizona.
Other border related bills are currently making their way through the Arizona Legislature. Governor Hobbs is expected to oppose all Republican efforts to mitigate the border crisis from the state level.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
If all else fails, run and hide. That seems to be the motto for Katie Hobbs anytime she’s confronted with a challenge. We saw it during her 2022 gubernatorial campaign when she refused to debate Kari Lake. We saw it when she ducked reporters asking for her reasoning behind refusing to debate Kari Lake. We saw it when she hid in a restaurant bathroom after another reporter asked her why she didn’t like discussing politics. And now that she’s governor, it should come as no surprise that Hobbs has chosen the same approach when it comes to the border crisis.
During the last three years, the Biden administration has completely abandoned its constitutional duty to protect each state from invasion, and Texas had enough. The state moved to defend itself from an unprecedented flow of illegal immigration due to the federal government’s negligence. And it has so far been supported by governors from 25 states who signed a joint statement standing with Texas.
Given Arizona’s dangerous situation at our own border, you would think Governor Hobbs would sign on or at least have something to say. But once again, she has chosen to run and hide…
