Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has said that within an hour of taking the oath she will “declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas” and issue an emergency executive order to “freeze electricity rates”, in a written statement quoted by the Texas Tribune. She has not named the law the order would rest on. The one cited in Fox News’s 10 November report, the Texas Disaster Act, says a state of disaster “may not continue for more than 30 days unless renewed by the governor”.
The plan is not new: the Tribune published her statement on 30 October. Kalshi posted it as breaking news at 09:20 UTC today. What is new is the question Fox raised, about legal authority. By our count, the Act’s definition of a disaster names 20 causes, and none of them uses the word price or cost.
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The key insight: Hinojosa has said she will declare “a high-cost emergency” and freeze electricity rates within an hour of taking office on 19 January; under the Texas Disaster Act cited in Fox’s report, a state of disaster lapses after 30 days unless renewed, and by our count none of the 20 causes in its definition of disaster uses the word price or cost.
Her written statement to the Tribune said the order would “one, suspend the gas and diesel tax; and two, freeze electricity rates”. She takes office on 19 January 2027, Fox reported, 70 days from today by our arithmetic.
Her campaign page frames the freeze as residential and tied to data centers: “As Governor, Gina will direct the Public Utility Commission to freeze the rates residential customers pay until we have laws to ensure that data centers and other high-load users pay for themselves.”
Fox quoted her telling the site texaspowercost.com: “On Day One as governor, I’ll freeze residential electricity rates and make corporations finally pay their fair share”. Her office did not immediately respond to Fox’s questions about what it would do if a freeze caused an energy shortage.
Large loads in ERCOT’s Batch Zero study and the all-time demand peak, in gigawatts. Data: ERCOT Board materials, 14-15 September 2026, as reported in our 4 November piece; the 2.1x ratio is our arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
BREAKING: Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa plans to freeze Texas electricity rates
The Kalshi account posted the plan as breaking news at 09:20 UTC on 10 November. The post cites no source; Hinojosa’s own written statement on the plan was published by the Texas Tribune on 30 October.
What the Disaster Act Allows
Under Chapter 418 of the Government Code, “The governor by executive order or proclamation may declare a state of disaster if the governor finds a disaster has occurred or that the occurrence or threat of disaster is imminent.” Orders issued under the chapter “have the force and effect of law”.
Section 418.016 lets the governor “suspend the provisions of any regulatory statute prescribing the procedures for conduct of state business or the orders or rules of a state agency” if strict compliance would “prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with a disaster”. Nick Loris, president of C3 Solutions, told Fox: “The Texas Disaster Act lets the governor declare disasters and suspend the regulatory laws and statutes that are in existence.”
The definition in section 418.004 lists causes from fire and flood to extreme heat and cybersecurity events. It ends with “other public calamity requiring emergency action, or energy emergency”. An energy emergency is defined as “a temporary statewide, regional, or local shortage of petroleum, natural gas, or liquid fuel energy supplies that makes emergency measures necessary to reduce demand or allocate supply”.
Fox’s report questions whether the governor has the legal authority to freeze prices. Loris told Fox “there is a high degree of skepticism, both from courts but also from state policymakers”, and that any challenge would likely come from “those affected parties”.
Then there is the clock. Beyond the 30-day limit, the Act says “The legislature by law may terminate a state of disaster at any time.” The Tribune notes that declarations “can be extended indefinitely by the governor”. Declared on 19 January, a first renewal would fall due by 18 February, by our arithmetic.
What the 1999 Law Says About Prices
Texas opened most of its market to retail choice under Senate Bill 7 of 1999, Fox noted. The resulting Chapter 39 of the Utilities Code says “the production and sale of electricity is not a monopoly warranting regulation of rates, operations, and services”.
Apart from “transmission and distribution services” and stranded costs, it says prices “should be determined by customer choices and the normal forces of competition”. Regulatory authorities “may not make rules or issue orders regulating competitive electric services, prices, or competitors”, “except as authorized in this title”.
The same chapter leaves the commission some fixed prices. Providers of last resort must offer a standard package “at a fixed, nondiscountable rate approved by the commission”. Most of the chapter “does not apply to a municipally owned utility or an electric cooperative”. Fox quoted Loris: “Price signals really kind of act like a traffic light.”
The Data Center Link
Her campaign page ties the end of the freeze to new laws on high-load users. Texas already has a large-load law. Senate Bill 6 of 2025 sets a 75-megawatt threshold for large loads and a study fee of at least $100,000. It tells the commission to amend its rules by 31 December 2026 so that transmission charges assign costs for transmission investment, as we reported.
The 90th Legislature opens on 12 January 2027, a week before she is sworn in, per the session calendar we cited. Democrats “took the Texas House with a comfortable margin”, while the Senate “retains a Republican majority”, the Tribune reported.
Republican state Rep. Brian Harrison has urged Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session to limit emergency powers before then. He told Fox News Digital: “Governor-Elect Hinojosa has pledged to use them on day one”, and “Republicans are still in control for ten weeks, we need to start acting like it.” Abbott’s office did not respond to Fox.
The Structural Read
As we read the two statutes, the plan sits where they meet: the Disaster Act lets a governor suspend agency rules in a disaster, while chapter 39 says competitive prices should be set by customer choice and competition, except as that title authorizes.
As we read the calendar, the Legislature convenes a week before the inauguration, and the Act lets it end a state of disaster by law; that makes the 30-day renewal cycle and the Senate’s Republican majority part of the same question.
Texas Government Code, Sec. 418.014(c)
“A state of disaster may not continue for more than 30 days unless renewed by the governor.”
Three Implications
FOR TEXAS HOUSEHOLDS Her campaign page says the freeze would cover the rates residential customers pay until laws make data centers and other high-load users pay for themselves.
FOR RETAIL POWER PROVIDERS Chapter 39 says regulatory authorities may not issue orders regulating competitive electric prices except as that title authorizes; Loris told Fox any challenge would likely come from affected parties.
FOR DATA CENTER DEVELOPERS SB 6 already tells the commission to amend its transmission cost rules by 31 December 2026, and ERCOT’s study holds 194.3 GW of large loads, 2.1 times the record peak, by our arithmetic.
The framework argues: “The structural bottleneck isn’t computing, it’s electrons.”
As we read it, the Texas fight has moved from the electrons to the bill: Hinojosa ties a residential freeze to laws that make high-load users pay, while ERCOT’s study already holds more than twice the record peak in large loads. The framework predates her plan and does not discuss it.
What Is Not Established
No order has been drafted in public. Hinojosa has not said which statute it would cite. Her statements also differ on scope: the Tribune quote says electricity rates, while the campaign page and the texaspowercost.com quote say residential rates.
It is not stated whether a freeze would reach retail providers’ prices, wire charges, or city-owned utilities and cooperatives, or how long it would last. No court has ruled on any of it. Kalshi’s post cites no source. We did not contact her office for this piece.
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Hinojosa has said she will declare a high-cost emergency and freeze electricity rates within an hour of taking office on 19 January. The Disaster Act cited in coverage of the plan caps any declaration at 30 days unless she renews it, lets the Legislature end it by law, and defines an energy emergency as a fuel shortage. Texas’s 1999 market law says competitive prices should be set by customer choice and competition, except as that law authorizes.
A note on sourcing. Hinojosa’s statements are quoted from the Texas Tribune (30 October and 4 November 2026), Fox News (10 November 2026) and her campaign page. Statute text is from the Texas Legislature’s statutes site (Government Code chapter 418; Utilities Code chapter 39). ERCOT and SB 6 figures are from our 4 November piece, which read the ERCOT board papers and the enrolled bill.
Day counts and the count of causes are our arithmetic. This piece does not assess whether the plan is lawful. Hinojosa’s office was not contacted for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
