Multibillion-dollar Winter Storm Uri Showdown at the Texas Supreme Court

More than a dozen of the largest electric power companies operating in Texas will face off with their state regulator Tuesday at the Texas Supreme Court. At stake are billions of dollars paid and received under emergency circumstances during Winter Storm Uri three years ago.

The energy companies, led by Dallas-based Luminant and Houston-headquartered Pattern Energy, claim that the Texas Public Utility Commission illegally and unnecessarily increased the rates to buy and sell electricity for the four days that unprecedented cold temperatures and freezing rain engulfed the state in February 2021 — rate increases that cost some companies to lose billions of dollars while providing other energy companies billions of dollars in sudden profits.