Texas enacts SB 7, deregulating its electricity market and creating ERCOT as independent operator

Governor George W. Bush signed Senate Bill 7 in 1999, restructuring Texas's electric utility industry by separating power generation from transmission and allowing retail competition. The law moved Texas from regulated monopoly utilities to a market where generators competed to sell wholesale power, with ERCOT managing the grid as an independent operator isolated from neighboring U.S. grids. Enron lobbied aggressively for the law and briefly dominated the Texas wholesale market before its 2001 collapse, and the grid's structural vulnerabilities went unaddressed until Winter Storm Uri killed at least 246 people in February 2021.