Over the last half-decade, a troubling trend has emerged in Texas: Electricity costs have soared while sizzling summer temperatures have made access to reliable air conditioning a requisite to survival.
Beginning in the spring of 2026, Public Health Watch’s team of reporters started speaking with Texans about their struggles to pay their energy bills, the sacrifices they’re making to get by and the health threats they’re facing along the way.
The result is our new series, “Powerless,” which examines how Texas’s rising energy rates are connected to policies pushed by state leaders and corporate power providers, with the aim of maximizing profits and limiting regulation. Told through the eyes of economists, energy experts and everyday Texans from across the state, this project illuminates how corporate greed and government failure have created both an affordability crisis and a public health crisis in the energy capital of America.
‘POWERLESS’
Senior Citizens in the Rio Grande Valley Are Paying the Price for Oppressive Heat
Summer heat is becoming more deadly for the elderly in South Texas with record-breaking temperatures and rising costs for electricity. This is the second installment in our ongoing series, “Powerless.”
‘POWERLESS’
As Texans’ Electricity Costs Soar and Temperatures Rise, a Public Health Crisis Brews
This is the first installment of “Powerless,” a series from Public Health Watch examining how rising temperatures and skyrocketing electricity costs are placing Texans in danger.
A Storm Reveals How Texas’s Energy Market Is Manipulated for Profit
Texas is unique in that it runs its own grid in a largely deregulated market that rewards scarcity, not reliability.
