Landowners treated unjustly by 765-kV transmission line Inbox

Bell County East to Big Hill 765-kV transmission line (PUC Docket 59475)

LANDOWNERS TREATED UNJUSTLY

Oncor and LCRA do not appear to have properly notified as many as 1,400 landowners of their proposed $2-billion, 200-mile, 5,000-acre Bell County East to Big Hill 765-kV transmission line. 16 Texas Administrative Code 22.52.(a) requires notification and a public meeting for all affected property owners. They had early public meetings in June 2025 but only notified about 2,800 landowners. Oncor & LCRA later added many new route links, after the public meetings, that impacted new landowners, who knew nothing of the project.

 

Oncor & LCRA should have notified those landowners affected by the new route links, but they did not. When Oncor & LCRA eventually filed their 59475 application, they notified 4,200 landowners. That means roughly 1,400 landowners were blindsided in early April 2026, where 2,800 landowners were properly notified in June 2025. Those 1,400 landowners appear to have been deprived of their rights to due process and are at an insurmountable disadvantage.

 

These disenfranchised landowners were given no opportunity to learn about project, no opportunity to attend public meeting, no opportunity to weigh in on community values, no opportunity to submit comments, no opportunity to describe their property and its features, no opportunity to get experienced legal services, no opportunity to coordinate with neighbors, no opportunity to protect their families, no opportunity to defend their legacies.

We will be pushing information out on this tragic situation to State elected officials very soon. We will also be filing a motion in PUC Docket 59475 soon asking for remedy and relief for these landowners, who per 16 Texas Administrative Code 22.52.(a).(5) are owed ten months of additional time to go through the process properly.

 

This 59475 project only impacts Central Texas, but ERCOT and electric utility companies like Oncor have their sights set on over 1,000 miles of new 765-kV transmission lines east of I-35 and I-37 under their Eastern Backbone projects.