A Free Market Proposal for Texas’ Electricity Sector

Join AIER’s Bastiat Society program in Dallas for an event with Glen Lyons. Glen Lyons retired from Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2022 after working in many parts of the corporation, ending as the leader for electricity policy and regulatory advocacy. He also proudly served as a member of the ERCOT Board of Directors for three years.

Texas’ electricity sector is facing a collision between crushing demand growth and increasing costs and fragility. New facilities are already experiencing long delays to get a grid connection. And it’s happening in a heavily regulated sector that isn’t capable of speed or rapid innovation. This presents us with a big challenge as we need electricity supplies that are faster to market, more innovative, and don’t add to the cost or reliability burden that the grids are already facing. Glen will present his policy proposal to help address the challenge, “Consumer Regulated Electricity” or CRE. CRE would have Texas allow for the creation of new electric utilities that would focus on the new load growth, could design their new utilities from a clean sheet of paper, move much faster than the existing sector, innovate, and by being islanded, that is, not connected to any regulated grid, wouldn’t impose new costs or reliability concerns on the existing grids. As a result, CRE wouldn’t need oversight by the Public Regulatory Commission (PUC). As one commenter recently said, “it sounds like a free market!” Glen will also provide a short overview of Texas’ electricity sector as that drives the need for CRE. You can learn more about CRE at https://www.advocates4cre.org or by following it on LinkedIn at Advocates for CRE.

The event will take place from 6-8 PM and will include pizza and beer/wine. This event is free and open to the public.

Please share this invitation with any friends or colleagues who might be interested in joining our discussion. We're looking forward to another fantastic event and can't wait to see you there!

More about the speaker: Glen Lyons has 40 years of energy experience. He retired from his career at Exxon Mobil Corporation in 2022 after working in many parts of the company and in many capacities. His last role there was leading U.S. electricity policy and regulatory advocacy. Glen also proudly served as a member of the ERCOT Board of Directors for three years and was the Chairman of the Texas Industrial Energy Consumers, the nation’s largest trade association for large electricity consumers. In 2023, Glen and Travis Fisher, the Director of Energy and Environmental Studies at the Cato Institute, wrote a paper titled, In Search of a Market to Improve Reliability in the U.S. Electricity Sector, in which they first developed the vision for Consumer Regulated Electricity. Glen also recently submitted a paper for peer review to the Journal for New Finance titled, “Climate Change Demands Free Markets”. In his retirement he is a self-described advocate for free markets and consumers.