Texas House Approves Nuclear Power Incentive Program

House Bill 14 establishes the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office within the Governor's Office.

ERCOT photo of the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant southwest of Fort Worth, Texas

Weaknesses in Texas’s ERCOT power grid became apparent when it was only 4 minutes and 37 seconds from a complete failure during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. Since then, much debate has focused on what can be done to prevent such failures in the future. Most proposals to stabilize the grid and increase its capacity to handle the projected growth in Texas have focused on adding more dispatchable power generation, mainly natural gas-fired generation. Other types of dispatchable generation, such as nuclear power, have entered the discussion recently.

Texas has only two nuclear power plants, the South Texas Project near Bay City and the Comanche Nuclear Power Plant near Glen Rose, just southwest of Fort Worth. Both were built in the early 1970s and have a combined generation capacity of 5,100 MW, around 6 to 8% of total generation on most days. In recent years, support for expanding nuclear power generation in Texas has been building. Last year, the Texas Nuclear Alliance organized the Inaugural Texas Nuclear Summit. The event, themed “Time to Build,” brought together leaders from the nuclear industry, government, academia, business, and energy sectors to discuss advancing nuclear energy in Texas.

Yesterday, April 22, 3025, the Texas legislature acted to incentivise the expansion of nuclear power in Texas when the House approved House Bill 14 (HB 14) to create a nuclear power incentive program to revitalize the state's nuclear energy industry. The bill, authored by State Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine), establishes the Texas Advanced Nuclear Deployment Office within the Governor's Office to oversee nuclear energy projects, manage regulatory barriers, and administer grant programs. It proposes a $2 billion fund, though amendments could increase costs to $2.75 billion if voters approve a related constitutional amendment. The program includes a tiered funding structure to support early-stage development, construction, and operational costs for advanced nuclear reactors, prioritizing projects demonstrating financial viability and utilizing Texas-based resources.

The initiative has bipartisan support, with Republicans valuing nuclear power’s reliability and Democrats supporting its low-carbon potential. The bill requires Senate approval to become law, and a Senate companion bill has not yet advanced. Governor Greg Abbott supports the measure.

KVUE released this report:

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas House has given initial approval to legislation aimed at making the Lone Star State a world leader in nuclear technology and power.

House Bill 14 would establish the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office within the governor's office. Dubbed the Texas Nuclear Deployment Act, state lawmakers said the bill will make Texas the epicenter of a national nuclear renaissance.

The bill's author, State Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine), called the investment in nuclear energy a moral and strategic imperative, given the global race for energy dominance.

“The United States cannot afford to seek leadership in nuclear energy to China, which is aggressively expanding not only its domestic nuclear footprint, but in the developing world as well and Russia exports more uranium than any other country on Earth,” Harris said. “House Bill 14 will help ensure that America dictates the future of energy security and technological leadership, not our adversaries.”

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, in 2023, the United States led the world with 779,186 GW-hr of Nuclear Electricity supplied. China was second with 406,484 GW-hr, France was third with 323,773 GW-hr and Russia was fourth with 203,957 GW-hr of Nuclear Electricity supplied.

In addition to the national security implications, Harris said it will help the state deal with the growing strain on the electric grid driven by the expansion of energy-intensive industries such as data centers and advanced manufacturing.

“This bill is not just an energy policy. It is a strategic imperative for Texas and the nation,” Harris said. “By embracing nuclear energy, we guarantee a stable grid, foster immense economic growth and secure our geopolitical standing in the world, where we are losing ground by the day."

Harris said creating the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office will attract billions in investment and create tens of thousands of high-wage jobs in the state for things like uranium mining and enrichment, technology development and advanced manufacturing.

This new office will oversee nuclear energy projects, help with regulatory barriers, and manage grant programs for the projects.

“We're not creating any new permitting authority in the state of Texas,” Harris said. “The state of Texas can't go in and say, All right, we approve you for this site, but the federal government doesn't, so go ahead and build. That's not what we're doing in this what we're doing in this bill.”

The bill establishes a tiered funding mechanism that incentivizes the actual deployment of nuclear energy infrastructure. The tiers are for early-stage development, construction, and completion and operation incentives for nuclear facilities.

Harris said the program would prioritize projects that demonstrate financial viability, compliance with regulations, and utilization of Texas-based manufacturing and workforce.

It also directs the Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop training programs to randomly address gaps in skilled trade and labor in the advanced nuclear sector, to help the Texas Workforce meet the opportunity created by this investment.

Lawmakers gave initial approval with a voice vote. State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) spoke against the bill. He said he strongly supports increasing and growing nuclear production in the state but believes HB 14 is the wrong way to do it.

“This is going to cost a ton of our constituents’ tax money at a time when we should be cutting government and returning money back to them in the form of property tax relief. it's going to continue off the books accounting through constitutionally dedicated funds that allow us to skirt the constitutional spending limit,” Harrison said. “This burns through more of the surplus. It creates more government. It creates more bureaucracy. It adds more bureaucrats, and this is pure crony corporatism and corporate welfare.”

The bill establishes a tiered funding mechanism that incentivizes the actual deployment of nuclear energy infrastructure. The tiers are for early-stage development, construction, and completion and operation incentives for nuclear facilities.

Harris said the program would prioritize projects that demonstrate financial viability, compliance with regulations, and utilization of Texas-based manufacturing and workforce.

It also directs the Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop training programs to randomly address gaps in skilled trade and labor in the advanced nuclear sector, to help the Texas Workforce meet the opportunity created by this investment.

Lawmakers gave initial approval with a voice vote. State Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) spoke against the bill. He said he strongly supports increasing and growing nuclear production in the state but believes HB 14 is the wrong way to do it.

“This is going to cost a ton of our constituents’ tax money at a time when we should be cutting government and returning money back to them in the form of property tax relief. it's going to continue off the books accounting through constitutionally dedicated funds that allow us to skirt the constitutional spending limit,” Harrison said. “This burns through more of the surplus. It creates more government. It creates more bureaucracy. It adds more bureaucrats, and this is pure crony corporatism and corporate welfare.”

The Texas House has to vote on and approve HB 14 one more time before it can head over to the Senate for consideration.

My Take

Since the near-catastrophic ERCOT grid failure in 2021, Texas has been focused on growing and improving the reliability of its power grid. Most of that focus has been on natural gas-fired generation because Texas is the largest natural gas producer in the US. However, the long-term solution to a stable power grid is more nuclear power.

Robert Bryce summed it up in his 2010 book, Power Hungry, page 7:

[T]he smartest, most forward-looking U.S. energy policy can be summed up in one acroym: :”N2N”—natural gas to nuclear. Natural gas and nuclear power are the fuels of the future because they have high power density, are relatively low cost, and can provide the enormous quantities of energy we need.

Hopefully, the new focus on getting more nuclear generation in Texas will be successful. Texas needs an enormous amount of new power generation to meet the surge in demand that is coming, and natural gas alone will not be enough.

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