With divided government, major Texas energy shifts may be limited, educational experts say

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Texas is set to have its first Democratic governor in decades, but two educational experts say major changes to energy policies could be limited by a divided state government.

The state will soon have a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, and House, but the state senate will remain under Republican control.

Dr. Ramanan Krishnamoorti, Vice President for Energy and Innovation at the University of Houston, said that makes it hard to predict what could come next for the energy industry.

"I think we can be certain that it's uncertain, given the nature of how we have a split government," Krishnamoorti said.

Dr. Daniel Cohan, an environmental engineering professor at Rice University, made a similar point to ABC13 on Monday.

"It remains to be seen what will happen because we'll have a divided legislature," Cohan said.

Both experts said Texans could see rising energy rates stabilize as a result of potential changes related to data centers in the state.

Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has said she will direct the Public Utility Commission to freeze rates for residential customers until laws are created that place more regulations on data centers.

"I think we'll have a bit of a slowdown of the very rapid growth that was being expected from data centers," Cohan said. "It's going to tend to slow down the growth of the system and perhaps keep prices in check."

Both experts said it's also possible we see changes related to improving air quality in the state, though Krishnamoorti said not to expect any of those changes to be significant.