Resistance is mounting in Texas to a planned high-voltage transmission line, with landowners and legislators objecting to a route they say would run through areas with residences, schools, waterways, and state parks, KWTX reported.
The dispute over Oncor's nearly 200-mile Big Hill Line has quickly escalated into a fight over property rights, utility planning, and whether ordinary Texans are being asked to bear the costs of a fast-moving infrastructure expansion.
Here's what to know
Brad Buckley, a Texas state representative, said Oncor's proposed 765-kilovolt Big Hill Line has ballooned into something far larger than what lawmakers first contemplated, KWTX reported. The project would cross parts of Central and West Texas, with opponents saying many impacted landowners have been denied the opportunity to have their say.
The project dates to 2023, when lawmakers approved House Bill 5066, which tasked the Public Utility Commission with studying future grid infrastructure needs, particularly around the Permian Basin.
In April 2025, the PUC chose the 765-kV voltage level for its statewide transmission plan, despite Texas not currently having any transmission lines operating at that level. Thomas Gleeson, the PUC chairman, said the decision followed analysis from ERCOT and others on how best to expand the system, per KWTX.
Buckley noted that the proposed 765-kV lines can move up to six times more power than the more common 138-kV lines presently in use in Texas. The higher-voltage lines also require a much wider easement, taking up more land.
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He also sharply criticized the notice process, saying, "Quite frankly the utility … Oncor has just trampled those landowners," according to KWTX.
For its part, Oncor has argued that the 200-mile power line is essential to Texas's energy infrastructure.
At a House State Affairs Committee hearing, Oncor representative Jaren Taylor warned, "Today there is a very real risk of load shed in far West Texas, that means the lights going out. The 765kV projects are the solution to that problem," KWTX reported.
More background
Local residents say they have felt largely shut out of the process.
According to KWTX, landowner Erik Gulbranson said his family first received notice of the planned power line less than a month before a scheduled hearing on the matter. By that point, many attorneys were already committed to representing owners who had been notified earlier in the process.
Questions about environmental and health impacts have also been raised. Gulbranson said his family could wind up living about 300 feet from the line and is concerned about electromagnetic field exposure.
"The applicants and the doctors that they pay say that the EMF from these lines are safe for our children, but there are no long term U.S. studies," he said, as quoted by KWTX. "Our children would become the study."
Where can I learn more?
The fight over Oncor's Big Hill Line is part of a larger debate over how energy policy decisions affect property rights, local control, and public health. Similar tensions are playing out in disputes in the U.S. and abroad in recent years.
• In Texas, critics said a new homeowners law could restrict rooftop solar and small wind.
• In California, homeowners ran into new barriers to rooftop solar after a key rule change.
• In the U.S. and Europe, officials have weighed new crackdowns on greenwashing as scrutiny intensifies.
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