Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa says she will freeze home power rates on her first day. She takes office Jan. 19. She said that "within an hour of taking the oath of office," she will "declare a high-cost emergency" and "freeze electricity rates." Her plan would keep the freeze "until we have laws to ensure that data centers and other high-load users pay for themselves."
A freeze is a price control. For a time, the state would set what homes pay. Critics say that does not fix what drives prices up. The libertarian magazine Reason called a freeze "a superficial fix for a problem that requires less government thumb on the scale, not more." A University of Houston energy expert, Ramanan Krishnamoorti, said a freeze could work if big users like data centers "pay their fair share."
Prices have gone up. Texas homes paid 11.71 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2020 and 15.40 cents in 2025, federal data show. That is a 32% jump. The U.S. average rose 31% over the same years.
Can she do it? Some experts doubt it. The state's disaster law lists storms, floods and fuel shortages, among other things. It does not mention high prices. Nick Loris of C3 Solutions, a conservative group, told Fox News there is "a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers." Most Texans buy power in an open market, where companies set prices. A 1999 state law says regulators "may not make rules or issue orders regulating competitive electric services, prices, or competitors." Still, Gov. Greg Abbott used the same disaster law in September over a diesel shortage. His order eased fuel and trucking rules. It did not set prices. The governor also picks all five members of the state utility board, with Senate approval.
Texas has frozen and set power prices before. The 1999 law, signed by Gov. George W. Bush, froze utility base rates until 2002. During Winter Storm Uri in 2021, the state utility board held power at its $9,000 price cap for four days. A market watchdog said keeping it there too long cost $16 billion. That order pushed prices up, not down.
Freezes in other places often ended badly:
- California froze rates in 1996. When power costs soared in 2000, its biggest utility, PG&E, could not pass them on. It went bankrupt in 2001, in part because of the freeze, the Associated Press reported. PG&E had helped write the law.
- Ontario, Canada, froze rates in 2002. Taxpayers covered the gap: 830 million Canadian dollars by July 2003. The next government said the freeze cost too much.
- Maryland's rate caps ended in 2006. Customers of one big utility faced a 72% jump. The state spread it out, and customers paid it back later.
Two newer freezes are holding for now. New Jersey froze some rate hikes in January and set aside $500 million for bill relief. In August, its average home price was down 0.4% from a year before, while the U.S. average rose 3.4%. Georgia froze base rates in 2025. Its home prices rose 2.3% in the year to August, less than the U.S. average.
Hinojosa has not said which charges the freeze would cover or who would pay if costs rise, in the statements Profoundd reviewed through Nov. 10. Her office did not immediately answer when Fox News asked what she would do if a freeze caused shortages.
Reporting through Tuesday, November 10, 2026. Sources: Hinojosa campaign and data-center page; Texas Tribune, Oct. 30, 2026; Fox News, Nov. 10, 2026; KPRC, Nov. 5, 2026; Reason, Nov. 9, 2026; Energy Choice Matters, Nov. 4, 2026; Texas Government Code ch. 418; Gov. Abbott's disaster proclamation, Sept. 28, 2026; SB 7 (1999) and its history; U.S. Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Annual table 2.10, Electric Power Monthly tables 5.6.A and 5.6.B, and the February 2022 issue; Troutman Pepper Locke, Nov. 5, 2026; Dallas Morning News, June 14, 2024; Texas Tribune, Nov. 9, 2026; California Public Utilities Commission record; California Senate energy committee; Associated Press via Consumer Watchdog; Electricity Forum, Nov. 2003; Maryland fiscal note, HB 1 (2006); New Jersey Monitor, Sept. 24, 2026; CBS News New York, Oct. 2026; Georgia Power, July 1, 2025; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 2025; Georgia Power via Barchart, May 2026.
