Smart electricity meters have long been criticized by those who say they present a health risks and infringe on individual rights. Now, with legislative action to allow property owners to deny meters failing, municipalities are picking up the slack.

A sunset bill that continues the operations of the Public Utility Commission of Texas won approval Wednesday from the House, though the legislation would adjust how the commission works.

Cost-cutting and fiscal transparency will likely dominate the upcoming legislative session, but lawmakers don't have high hopes for reforming the System Benefit Fund, a pot of $850 million not being used for its intended purposes.

At a public meeting held Tuesday by the Public Utility Commission, a state representative suggested that the commission create a way for customers to opt out of having smart electric meters installed at their homes.

With the arrival of higher temperatures now boosting energy demand in the state, higher electricity prices aren't likely to prove popular with Texans. But as Dave Fehling of KUHF News reports for StateImpact Texas, some say that's the only way to avoid rolling blackouts.

Of crucifixions, sagebrush lizards, political primaries and brownouts. 

At a committee hearing Tuesday about the impact of drought on power generation, state senators voiced concerns that a lack of adequate water could harm Texas' long-term growth.

Will the lights stay on in 2012? Even Texas grid operators, who are coming off a tumultuous year, cannot say for certain. A lot will depend on the weather — namely, whether the state suffers through another piping-hot summer.

The chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on managing wind energy, how electric cars could change the grid and what he's learned by monitoring his electricity consumption at home .

Rolando Pablos, the former chairman of the Texas Racing Commission, will fill the empty slot at the Texas Public Utility Commission. Separately, the state's electric grid operator announced that its board chairwoman, Laura Doll, is stepping down.

On Friday morning, a small group of Texans, including the chairman of the Public Utility Commission, will brief White House representatives on the smart-meter rollout and related issues in the state.

The power failures earlier this month have called into question one of Texas' most basic tenets: that we do everything, including deregulation, better than anyone else.

During a meeting today of the Public Utility Commission, chairman Barry Smitherman said that the Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to "disarm the U.S. economy," with a raft of rules covering everything from fly-ash waste from coal plants to new rules on greenhouse gases. 

The impoverished border town of Presidio is home to the largest battery system in the country: a $25 million contraption that's the size of a big house. That's not as weird as it seems. Partly because of an affinity for wind energy, the state has a number of experiments going in "energy storage" — often referred to as the "holy grail" of energy technology, because it can modernize the grid by more efficiently matching people's demand for power with the generation of electricity.

Galbraith's three-parter on the battle over wind power transmission lines, Grissom on a convicted killer who got probation, Aguilar on how the U.S. census counts inmates in the Texas prison system, Stiles launches a new interactive tool tracking the candidates for governor, Hamilton on the Texas A&M University System's latest accountability measure for faculty, Hu's interview with Democratic megadonor Steve "Back to Basics" Mostyn, Philpott on how the Texas economy compares to that of other states and Ramsey on the start of the 2010 election sprint: The best of our best from Sept. 6 to 10, 2010.

Texas already harvests more wind power than any state in the nation, bringing the promise of clean energy to millions of homes and businesses. Trouble is, getting that power from remote, windy West Texas to the big cities requires a massive, $5 billion network of transmission lines — which property owners in the Hill County and elsewhere don't want in their back yards. As construction gets under way on the new lines, an army of lawyers and angry landowners is working to stymie the state's renewable energy plans. Part one of a three-part series.

Hu compares and contrasts the official schedules of four big-state governors (including Rick Perry) and picks the 21 Texas House races to watch, Ramshaw on a 19-year-old with an IQ of 47 sentenced to 100 years in prison, Stiles on Perry's regent-donors, Galbraith on a plan to curb the independence of the state's electricity grid, Thevenot on the turf war over mental health, Grissom on whether the Texas Youth Commission should be abolished, Aguilar on a crucial immigration-related case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Ramsey's interview with GOP provocateur Debra Medina and M. Smith on how changes to campaign finance law will affect judicial elections in Texas: The best of our best from August 23 to 27, 2010.

Texas has always operated its own electricity grid, separate from the two other grids that span the rest of the nation. But a project quietly emerging in eastern New Mexico could curb that independence — and affect energy prices here in ways that remain much in dispute.