Portfolio: The New Texas Energy Barons

From November 2025 DCEO magazine

This feature was a sequel to 2024’s “The Long Runway for New Energy Demand.” The 2025 feature focused on how North Texas-based firms are meeting increased energy demand driven by AI and data centers. In it, I examine the relationship between Texas ERCOT grid and PJM. Also the increased gas movement from Texas westward and Texas’s leadership in data center development is highlighted.

Since this publication, I find the comments by Jim Burke, CEO of Vistra, offer a realistic viewpoint of the timelines for power and energy in the AI infrastructure race.

Link here to digital version.

A backgrounder video pre-publication:

An interesting comment from Mackey McCrea, co-ceo of Energy Transfer, was that data centers were fighting for capacity. He noted that in our June 2025 interview and that trend has continued to the present. I’ll be writing a piece about that in the near future.