2026 Texas Chapter Annual Symposium

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EBA’s Texas Chapter is looking forward to hosting their next Annual Symposium in Houston, TX. View session information and panelists below, and register or sponsor today!

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10:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Texas’s Backbone and The Legal Fight Over the State’s Multi-Billion Dollar Transmission Buildout

Texas is undertaking the largest transmission expansion in its history with a multibillion-dollar build-out of new 765-kV lines, anchored by the Permian Basin Reliability Plan and now expanding statewide. For energy lawyers on the ground, this is playing out in real time through CCN dockets, SOAH hearings, and condemnation proceedings, as utilities, landowners, and ratepayer advocates litigate hard questions about need, cost allocation, and routing.

This panel brings together practitioners from different sides of that fight for a practical look at how the process is actually working: bringing a CCN application across the finish line under tight statutory deadlines, challenging “need” determinations as an intervenor, navigating cost recovery and allocation, and balancing reliability mandates against landowner and community impacts. Panelists will share frontline perspectives on a buildout that will shape Texas’s grid for decades to come.

Nicole Burleson Senior Associate, Energy Regulation Vinson & Elkins LLP

Hon. Lori Cobos President Cobos Strategies

Zach Brady Founding Partner Brady & Hamilton LLP

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM: Taking the Grid Private: Capital, Control, and the Regulatory Gauntlet

Private capital is flowing into regulated utilities at a record pace, driven by the capital intensity of AI-fueled load growth and the rate-base expansion it demands. The past year alone has produced the largest PE-backed power deal in history and a wave of take-privates and change-of-control transactions across the country, including ongoing, contested proceedings testing how state commissions police private ownership of the grid.

This panel looks past the headlines to the deal mechanics: how change-of-control review actually works at the state commission level, what conditions and commitments regulators are extracting in exchange for approval, how sponsors structure these transactions to satisfy investment-grade and ring-fencing requirements, and what ratepayer advocates are arguing when they intervene. Panelists will draw on live transaction experience to discuss whether private ownership is a genuine answer to the utility sector’s capital needs, or a new source of regulatory and ratepayer risk.

Will DuBois Partner Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP

Julien Dumoulin-Smith Power, Utilities and Clean Energy Equity Analyst Jeffries

Lunch and Keynote Remarks on Geopolitical Issues

The remarks will address how geopolitical risk and energy security are reshaping long-term energy investment decisions and competitive positioning across global energy markets. The Iran conflict highlights not only the strategic importance of Texas and the U.S. Gulf Coast, but also a broader structural repricing of security, reliability, and supply chain resilience across the global energy and chemical value chain. While the Middle East will remain a critical source of global oil, gas, LNG, and petrochemical feedstocks, recent events have reinforced the value of stable, integrated energy hubs. Over time, this should favor regions such as the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast, where feedstock availability, refining, petrochemicals, storage, pipelines, and export infrastructure are already deeply integrated.

Sandeep Sayal Vice President, Industry & Market Analytics Consulting Turner, Mason & Co

1:15 PM – 2:15 PM: Growing Texas Power Generation and the Role of Natural Gas

The state’s need for new power generation generally, and for large loads such as data centers specifically, is driving significant growth in natural gas-fired generation.  As power developers move forward with these multi-billion dollar investments, how should they think about finding the right and adequate gas supply, in terms of general availability for the life of their investment and, more importantly, in terms of specific connectivity through the extensive Texas pipeline network?  With the mix of interstate and intrastate pipelines in Texas, what issues exist for both and how can they be addressed?  How does ERCOT see itself interacting with all the new generators and with the expanding role of gas in the fuel mix?  And importantly, what legal issues do developers face when contracting for long-term service to a new generator?

David R. Braziel VP, North American Energy Markets Novi Labs

Vafa Mohtashami Senior Vice President- Asset Management and Wholesale Analytics NRG Energy

Erin Potter Sullenger Senior Counsel Williams

Hon. Robert Gee President Gee Strategies Group, LLC (Moderator)

2:30 PM – 3:30 PM: Catching Up to the Times: FERC’s NOPR on Blanket Certificate Authorizations and the Future of Pipeline Permitting

This panel examines FERC’s recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) proposing a significant expansion of blanket certificate authorizations for interstate natural gas pipelines. Traditionally designed to streamline approval of routine, lower-impact projects through automatic and prior notice pathways, the blanket program has long balanced permitting efficiency with regulatory oversight. The NOPR would broaden the scope of eligible activities, increase cost thresholds, and modernize the framework to reflect current infrastructure needs, with the goal of accelerating project development and reducing permitting burdens. Panelists will explore the legal, commercial, and policy implications of these changes, including impacts to capital planning, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory strategy, as well as the ongoing debate over maintaining appropriate environmental, landowner, and ratepayer protections in a more streamlined approval regime.

Carolyn McCormick Assistant General Counsel Boardwalk Pipelines

Mosby G. Perrow Special Counsel Sheppard Mullin

Katie Schiro Vice President, Regulatory Kinder Morgan, Inc.

3:45 PM – 4:45 PM: Energy Storage has Come of Age

Battery storage is the lead technology at present, but other technologies are also making progress.  Energy storage has become a critical component to ensuring reliable operations of the ERCOT system, and is affecting the entire electric market, from energy services, ancillary services, transmission-cost incurrence, capacity considerations, market redesign, etc.  This is creating a variety of legal issues, including how recent legislation is implemented in the Texas intrastate ERCOT market, especially with the surge in behind-the-meter prospects and the impending changes to how ERCOT transmission costs are allocated

Max Frey Vice President of Business Development Haven Energy

Mandy Meadors Director of Market Policy Plus Power

Michael Jewell Jewell & Associates, PLLC

Thank you to our sponsors

26 Texas Symposium bronze (1)

26 Texas Symposium bronze

Registration Type Early (ending October 22) Regular

Member $325 $375

Nonmember $400 $450

Student $25 $25

Nonmember Student $50 $50

CLE:

This program is eligible for approximately 5 CLE hours in 60-minute states and 6 hours in 50-minute states. Credit hours are estimated and are subject to each state’s approval and credit rounding rules. EBA is applying in Texas. Please contact Odwelley@eba-net.org if you do not see your state listed.

To Receive CLE Credit:

Please note, you must sign in at the CLE table each day to receive CLE credit. If you have met the participation requirements, you will then receive a personalized CLE affidavit via email from mcle-eba@americanbar.org for the program at which you attended at least one session to completion. Please check your spam or junk folders as these emails often end up there. Please note you will fill out one affidavit for the full event. Once you complete the affidavit, you will be able to download your certificate(s) of attendance and they will be emailed to you as well from mcle-eba@americanbar.org .

Scholarships:

EBA offers eligible student, government, and academic members discounts on the rates for most EBA programs which carry CLE credits, including EBA’s Annual and Mid-Year Meetings. EBA will, on a case-by-case basis, consider requests from members to attend EBA programs at a discounted rate. Discount requests must be made to EBA’s office at least fifteen days prior to the close of regular registration for the program in question. Requests will be considered by EBA if timely and complete. Discount requests must demonstrate a substantial financial hardship. Please submit your requests to jhannan@eba-net.org.