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The hits just keep on coming for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Facing a dog-eat-dog battle to win a seat in the US Senate this year, Paxton has been talking up his efforts to save coal power plants. Why? Who knows! Either way, he’s facing an uphill battle.
No Country For Old Power Plants
Back in 2024, Paxton led a group of 10 other state attorneys general in lawsuit accusing three leading, decarbonization-focused asset managers — BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard — of illegally colluding against the US coal industry, forcing electricity ratepayers to pick up the tab for more expensive energy resources.
Since then, ratepayers have been picking up the tab, only it’s not the tab Paxton claimed. Since taking office, US President Donald Trump has ordered a series of old, outdated coal power plants to remain in operation past their retirement dates, shouldering ratepayers with a mounting bill for the unnecessary expense.
Be that as it may, Vanguard finally settled the Paxton lawsuit out of court last month, and Paxton loudly declared victory in a press release dated February 26.
However, on the same day, Vanguard issued a statement of its own, in which it reassured its investors that it would continue conducting business as usual. Just two days later, US President Donald Trump launched his war against Iran, fostering a spike global coal markets alongside oil and natural gas.
So much for asset managers illegally colluding against coal, or for that matter, any other fossil fuels. Long before Trump ordered the bombs to drop, wind and solar power were already firmly established as mainstream investment opportunities. Now the case for renewable energy investing is stronger than ever, no thanks to Vanguard but thanks to Trump himself.
Renewable Energy Investors Clap Back At Paxton
As of this writing, Blackrock and State Street have not indicated that a settlement is in their sights. In the meantime, renewable energy investing continues apace right in Paxton’s own backyard.
In one recent development, on March 5, the Florida-based solar developer Origis Energy announced a new $545 million round of financing aimed at supporting its utility-scale solar activity in Texas.
“The financing represents the next phase of Origis Energy’s multi-project solar complex in West Texas, which will total over 700 MW upon completion. The complex also includes the Swift Air Solar II and Swift Air Solar III projects, which reached financial close in 2025,” Origis notes.
Another interesting piece of news bubbled up earlier today, when the private credit investment manager Eagle Point Credit Management announced a senior secured term loan of $28.5 million to the Texas firm Heritage Energy Storage DevCo. The transaction is of particular interest because Heritage is focusing on small scale, distributed energy storage assets that avoid the long grid connection delays that can bedevil utility-scale renewable energy projects.
More Energy Storage For Wind & Solar Power, STAT
Regardless of the red-state rhetoric of Paxton and others of his ilk, the Texas grid is overflowing with wind and solar energy, making it a ripe target for energy storage investment.
“The financing supports Heritage’s strategy to develop, build and operate a network of sub-10 MW battery storage and solar projects across approximately 40 sites in Texas,” Eagle Point explains.
“The portfolio is designed to operate as a virtual power plant, enabling efficient participation in the ERCOT market while benefiting from faster interconnection timelines than utility-scale projects,” the firm adds, with ERCOT referring to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
ERCOT manages almost the entirety of the Texas grid, which is a tale unto itself. Unlike other states, the Texas grid is largely isolated from energy resources and transmission infrastructure beyond its borders, making ratepayers all the more vulnerable to extreme weather events and other grid disruptions. Consequently, ERCOT has been supporting wind and solar development in Texas for years, alongside energy storage, virtual power plants, and other systems that leverage in-state renewable energy resources (see more ERCOT news here).
The Virtual Power Plant Of The Future Is Coming For Your Fossil Fuels
If you caught that thing about virtual power plants, that is another element of interest in the Eagle Point transaction. The “virtual” in virtual power plants refers to smart grid technology that can motivate a network of far-flung electricity consumers to curb their use during periods of peak demand. If successful, a VPP can avoid the need to build a new gas peaker plant for high-demand periods. VPPs can also enlist EV batteries, stationary energy storage systems, and rooftop solar panels to discharge excess electricity into the grid as needed.
To be clear, stationary energy storage systems can be compatible with non-renewable energy resources. However, Heritage has indicated that its plan includes solar. In a press statement, Heritage CEO Tim Sanchez described the Eagle Point transaction as supporting “the development of more than 40 battery and solar distributed-generation sites across Texas.”
On its part, Eagle Point is leveraging the Heritage VPP project as a showcase for its nimble business model. “This transaction exemplifies Eagle Point’s ability to directly originate and deliver highly structured, asset-backed financing solutions under complex and time-sensitive circumstances,” explains Brittany Pinkerton, who holds the title of Principal, Infrastructure Credit at Eagle Point.
“Their distributed generation model, combined with strong collateral and downside protection, aligns well with our disciplined approach to infrastructure credit investing,” Pinkerton emphasizes.
Keep an eye on the goings-on over at Heritage’s parent company, Heritage Energy Holdings. The firm is marketing a sort of modified community solar model that enables ratepayers to tap into solar energy, without having to install their own rooftop or ground mounted solar panels.
What About Wind Power?
Yes, what about it? Texas first made its mark on the renewable energy transition with strong bipartisan support for a new transmission line bringing wind power from West Texas to energy-thirsty population centers in the eastern part of the state. However, that was more than 10 years ago, before partisan politics began to interfere. The flood of activity has dwindled to a trickle of activity, though some stakeholders continue to prepare for a fresh burst of activity after the current occupant of the White House leaves office as scheduled on January 20, 2029.
At Texas A&M University, for example, a team of researchers has also designed a new anchoring system for floating offshore wind turbines, apparently undeterred by the President’s chokehold on offshore wind leases in federal waters.
Photo: The case for renewable energy is stronger than ever before in Texas, despite the efforts of State AG and US Senate hopeful Ken Paxton to go to bat for coal power (cropped, courtesy of Texas Office of the Public Comptroller).
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