Texas
Fishing for bass on a small Texas lake brings back great memories of past days | Leggett
MULDOON — My friend Maurice Estlinbaum sat, boat tied to a dead tree, casting into a bathroom-sized spot along the outside edge of a line of aquatic vegetation in a small lake on land owned by his neighbor in this small community on the outskirts of La Grange.
For more than an hour, I don’t think either of us was able to retrieve the plastic lizards and creature baits we threw without getting a strike and catching or hooking a bass. Most were in the 1½-pound to 3-pound range, but every once in a while we’d latch on to a fish that would weigh as much as 6 or 7 pounds.
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It was the ultimate adventure in small lake fishing, much like the times I fished in my childhood with my brothers and father and grandfather in East Texas. We were able to switch around to different lakes and properties owned by Maurice’s friends and still catch about as many fish as one person could stand.
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One morning on a rather large lake on property owned by a neighbor, the two of us caught and released more than 100 bass on top water plugs, spinner baits, worms and lizards.
All through turkey season, Maurice had harangued me about coming down to visit him on the ranch he’d bought several years before just on the outskirts of the Muldoon community. We used to fish together in Galveston Bay, always wading for speckled trout, and Maurice is legendary for his ability to find and catch trout. He’s been doing that for nearly 50 years.
A great start on a day walking the lake
We met in 1981 during a trip arranged by our mutual friend Charlie Paradoski, shortly after Maurice had retired and began fishing full time. Not guiding, just fishing, from an old yellow Lamar that he still uses. He just changes out the engine every few years. I knew if he was willing to pass up time fishing for speckled trout, then the bass fishing must be truly remarkable. And it was!
I caught a fish on the first cast I made the first afternoon we fished, which was following a huge rainfall event that had left the lakes off color and the creeks running bank full.
Obviously, if you’re catching bass at rates such as these, you’re fishing lakes that probably are holding far too many fish. However, the lakes have been around for many, many years and are still producing large fish, so the adult bass are getting enough to eat in the form of bass fry and fingerlings and the occasional bluegill. The fish are healthy and fat and not showing signs of not having enough to eat.
One of his friends has 16 lakes on his place, from swimming hole size to more than 100 acres. One of those lakes produced a bass over 15 pounds a few years ago. The largest I caught was between 6 and 7 pounds, so I’m planning my next trip right now.
The times have changed, but the fishing’s the same
We walked the banks of several lakes, which carried me back to my childhood in Panola County. We would climb a fence to reach the lakes (most of which we had permission to fish) and throw spinner baits such as H&Hs to catch the fish.
It was fun and productive fishing, especially when a friend and I could sneak onto the golf course and fish at night. I’m not recommending poaching like that since the worst that would happen to us then was maybe getting yelled at and run off by the landowner. Now things like that can be felonies, and people don’t have as casual an attitude about snot-nosed kids sneaking in to fish their lakes.
But you didn’t need a fancy boat to fish, just a kind of strong belief that those things brushing against your legs aren’t snakes or snapping turtles or alligators and that the next cast could be the big one.
Maurice knew where to go to catch fish walking the banks of the lakes, and I used my instincts honed over years of fishing like that to find my own. I caught two fish around 5 pounds the first afternoon we fished. I saw Maurice hook and land maybe 50 bass on a tiny white lure he called a jig. I explained that in freshwater it was called a “swim bait.”
It was the only time I could gain a little advantage over him, but it felt pretty good. If I could have had a moderate-sized water snake bang into his leg as he walked, that would have felt even better.
Texas is planning its grid around an unprecedented wave of AI-driven power demand that the state’s energy regulator says may not fully materialize on projected timelines.
In a recent filing to the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) projected statewide power demand could surge to nearly 368 GW by 2032 – more than four times the state’s current peak demand record of 85.5 GW. But the filing also contains an unusual warning from the grid operator itself.
“ERCOT has concerns with using the preliminary load forecast values for the Reliability Assessment and any other transmission and resource adequacy analysis,” the organization wrote in its April 2026 long-term load forecast filing.
The organization added that it may seek adjustments to the forecast based on “actual historical realization rates or other objective, credible, independent information.”
ERCOT has already begun adjusting for realization risk internally. In its 2025 long-term load forecast report, the grid operator said the “average peak consumption per site was 49.8% of the requested MW” and applied that factor to projected non-crypto data center load additions in some planning models.
ERCOT President and CEO Pablo Vegas said the forecast reflects “higher-than-expected future load growth” tied to changing large-load planning dynamics.
Texas has emerged as a hotspot for data center growth, with numerous new projects reshaping the energy market and challenging grid capacity. (Image: Alamy)
Texas Developers Race Ahead of Grid Capacity
Texas has emerged as a key data center market, driven by its abundant land, competitive energy prices, and favorable regulatory environment. This combination has positioned the state as a magnet for hyperscale operators and AI infrastructure investments. The state is estimated to account for around 15% of all data center connectivity in the US.
Recent and proposed AI data center campuses tied to OpenAI, Oracle, Meta, Crusoe, CoreWeave, Soluna, and other hyperscale operators are reshaping Texas grid planning. Developers have proposed large campuses across North Texas, Abilene, West Texas, and the Houston corridor, many requiring hundreds of megawatts of capacity and, in some cases, dedicated onsite generation to bypass interconnection delays. That buildout pushed ERCOT’s non-crypto data center forecast above 228 GW by 2032.
Developers are continuing to pursue Texas aggressively because ERCOT still offers faster timelines and more flexible market structures than many competing regions. Several proposed campuses pair AI infrastructure with onsite gas generation, colocated power assets, or flexible-load arrangements to navigate mounting transmission constraints.
Utilities across the US are grappling with AI-driven electricity growth, but ERCOT’s projections stand apart for both scale and uncertainty. PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, expects summer peak demand to climb above 241 GW over the next 15 years as data centers and electrification expand. ERCOT, by contrast, projects demand potentially reaching nearly 368 GW by 2032, driven largely by proposed non-crypto data center loads. At the same time, the grid operator openly questions how much of that demand will materialize on schedule.
Bigger Than Texas
Similar pressures are emerging elsewhere. In California, CAISO’s latest transmission plan cited “data center load growth” as a driver of major grid upgrades and described interconnection volumes as “unmanageable” before recent queue reforms.
A recent Grid Strategies report reached a similar conclusion nationally, warning that the “data center portion of utility load forecasts is likely overstated by roughly 25 GW” compared with market-based deployment estimates.
Ihab Osman, an independent strategist specializing in data center and other mission-critical infrastructure, said the distinction is less about “real” versus “fake” AI demand and more about “announced versus deliverable demand.”
“A large share of the current AI/data center planned load should be treated as paper megawatts until it is validated through physical gates,” Osman said, citing factors including site control, transmission deliverability, generation availability, turbine and transformer supply, permitting, financing, and credible energization schedules.
Osman said ERCOT’s forecast is best understood as “a stress-test map, not as a fait accompli build map.”
Separating ’Paper Megawatts’ From Real Demand
The filing shows Texas regulators and grid planners struggling to distinguish operating AI infrastructure from a rapidly expanding pipeline of proposed projects.
“The vast majority” of ERCOT’s projected load growth comes from submissions provided by transmission and distribution utilities, according to the filing. Those requests include hyperscale AI campuses, GPU clusters, and other large industrial loads seeking future grid capacity reservations.
Alison Silverstein, a former senior adviser to the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said “a large proportion” of projects in ERCOT’s large-load interconnection queue have already been canceled, particularly among smaller developers facing long interconnection delays and high turbine and transformer costs.
Forecasts Collide With Physical Infrastructure Limits
ERCOT has also signaled that many projects may not materialize on the timelines shaping transmission planning.
The grid operator said summer 2026 peak demand is likely to land between roughly 90.5 GW and 98 GW – far below the preliminary 112 GW figure embedded in the long-term forecast. ERCOT said it appears “unlikely” that new large-load projects and existing site expansions will ramp quickly enough to push demand that high this year.
The filing suggests uncertainty around AI-related load growth is beginning to influence broader infrastructure planning assumptions. By 2032, ERCOT projects non-crypto data centers reaching 228 GW of demand, compared with just 9 GW from cryptocurrency mining and roughly 3 GW each from hydrogen/e-fuels and oil-and-gas-related industrial growth.
The move also suggests the regulator is no longer simply forecasting AI-driven growth, but also working to determine how much of the proposed boom can actually be financed, supplied, interconnected, and energized before utilities commit billions to long-lived infrastructure.
AUSTIN, Texas — Bravo is developing a new reality series set in the Texas Hill Country, the network announced on Instagram Monday.
“Secrets, Lies, Texas Wives” would follow a group of women in Boerne.
According to the network’s description, the series centers on “a tight-knit circle of glamorous women” navigating family life, ranching, and social obligations in a community rooted in rodeo and tradition. They promise drama with “forbidden romances” and relationship angst.
No premiere date or cast have been announced.
If picked up, the series would join Bravo’s long-running portfolio of region-specific reality franchises, which includes the “Real Housewives” lineup.
AUSTIN, Texas — With the average price of a gallon of gas in Texas topping $4, some leaders from Austin to Washington, D.C., are backing a temporary pause on gas taxes as a way to deliver relief.
Veronica Valdez Rodriguez was pumping gas at a southeast Austin station on Tuesday. She said the rising costs are becoming unmanageable.
“They’re sky high,” Rodriguez said. “I can barely get by, you know? It’s too expensive.”
She said she is spending $40 more every week on gas.
According to AAA Texas, the average cost of a regular gallon of fuel stood at over $4.01 in the Austin area on Tuesday, $1.24 higher than the average one year ago.
President Donald Trump said he is working to pause the federal gas tax, which is 18 cents per gallon.
A reporter asked the president on Monday how long the tax would be suspended.
“Until it’s appropriate. It’s a small percentage, but it’s, you know, it’s still money,” Trump said.
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KEYE
In Texas, an 18-cent-per-gallon pause could add up to savings of about $2 to $3 on an average tank of gas.
Support for a federal pause is coming from both parties. State Rep. and U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico (D-Austin) backed the idea last month.
“Lowering prices at the pump should be a bipartisan commitment,” Talarico said in a statement Monday.
Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said he didn’t know the details of the president’s plan.
“There’s a difference between a temporary suspension and a permanent suspension,” Cornyn said Monday. “I don’t know exactly what the President has in mind. I think a temporary suspension getting through this sort of bumpy time because of uncertainty about energy prices, I can live with that.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is calling for a state gas tax pause as well. The state tax currently sits at 20 cents per gallon, according to the Texas Department of Transportation.
The state pause is also being urged by Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who has called on Governor Greg Abbott to act.
“Governors in Indiana, Georgia, and Utah have already stepped up to provide relief for their citizens, and I once again renew my call for Governor Abbott to follow the lead of President Trump and act decisively for Texas families,” Miller wrote on Monday.
The governor’s office, however, said a state gas tax pause is not an option under his executive authority.
In a statement, the governor’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, wrote in response to Miller:
There’s a reason Sid Miller lost his election, it’s because he doesn’t shoot straight with Texans. Any suggestion that the Texas governor is authorized by law to suspend a gas tax is entirely uninformed or purposefully misleading. If the Texas governor could suspend taxes, he would have suspended the property tax years ago.
At the federal level, the Bipartisan Policy Center said a gas tax holiday would require an act of Congress. The group also estimated that a five-month pause could cost as much as $17 billion.
Some drivers, like Rodriguez, said any break would help.
“Pause the taxes!” she said.
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