CPS Energy is in this fight to protect its customers from unconscionable charges. Because CPS Energy is a city-owned utility, fuel costs ultimately are passed on to customers. Had CPS Energy treated Winter Storm Uri and the unprecedented costs associated with it as “business as usual,” residential customers’ post-Uri bills would have been hundreds of dollars higher, and some commercial customers’ post-Uri bills would have been millions higher.  

But the statewide declared winter disaster was far from “usual,” and CPS Energy took steps to protect its customers, including initiating and responding to litigation.

During Winter Storm Uri, temperatures plunged to single digits, San Antonio experienced over 100 consecutive hours at or below freezing and four separate calendar days with measurable snow (with over 6” in some parts of the city), more than 4 million Texans lost power, and Texas’s electrical grid came within 4 minutes and 37 seconds of complete collapse. Unfortunately, some companies exploited this catastrophic and unprecedented statewide disaster for profit. Knowing that CPS Energy had no option but to buy large quantities of natural gas to try to keep power and gas flowing to its customers, these companies demanded that CPS Energy pay prices for natural gas that were as much as 15,000% higher than prices just before the winter storm. To put that price into perspective, that would have been like gas stations charging Texans up to $425 per gallon to fill up at the pump during the storm.  CPS Energy asserted a legal challenge to these prices, asserting they are prohibited by Texas law.

CPS Energy has paid for the natural gas it purchased during Winter Storm Uri. We paid more than $80 million to the companies involved in these two lawsuits for the natural gas they delivered to CPS Energy over just 7 days – using a price that was already approximately 1,000% more than the price of gas shortly before the storm. But CPS Energy disputed (as permitted under the relevant contracts) the additional $362 million those companies tried to charge for that natural gas. To put those numbers into context, CPS Energy spent $195 million on natural gas in all of 2020.     

These trials are about whether the prices the gas suppliers are trying to charge are unconscionable. “Unconscionable” is just a legal word for grossly unfair contractual terms extracted through an unequal bargaining process.  For well over a century, Texas law has recognized that unconscionable contract terms are unenforceable. Not only is unconscionability a longstanding doctrine in Texas law, but also something the pretrial judge already determined was a viable defense warranting a full trial on the merits in these cases—when he denied the gas suppliers’ attempts to dismiss CPS Energy’s unconscionability challenge. 

Both lawsuits were consolidated by the state’s Multi-District Litigation (MDL) panel before a pretrial judge for pretrial purposes (discovery, dispositive motions, etc.), where they have remained for the past several years. When the pretrial phase ends, the pretrial judge will send each lawsuit back to its original court for trial.  

On January 21, 2026, the pretrial judge signed an order setting trial in the lawsuit against the two Energy Transfer subsidiaries to begin March 30, 2026 in Bexar County District Court. That will be a bench trial, so there will not be a jury.  The lawsuit with Enterprise Products has not yet been set but will be in a Harris County District Court.

CPS Energy’s positions are more fully set forth in the below court filings.  Please note that some evidence in these lawsuits is under seal by order of the court. Therefore, that information has been redacted or omitted from what is provided below in compliance with the court’s order.

KEY COURT DOCUMENTS:

• CPS Energy v. Houston Pipe Line Company, LP and Oasis Pipeline, LP (Energy Transfer)
  • CPS Energy’s First Amended Original Petition 
  • CPS Energy’s Response in Opposition to Energy Transfer’s Motion for Summary Judgment & Exhibits

• Enterprise Products Operating, LLC v. City of San Antonio Acting By and Through the City Public Service Board (CPS Energy)
  • CPS Energy's Third Amended Answer and Counterclaim 
  • CPS Energy’s Response to Enterprise’s Motion for Summary Judgment on CPS Energy’s Counterclaims  & Exhibits 
  • CPS Energy’s Traditional Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Enterprise’s First Affirmative Defense of Force Majeure & Exhibits
  • CPS Energy's Sur-Reply in Opposition of Enterprise's MSJ on its Breach-of-Contract Claim and CPS Energy's Affirmative Defenses

• Court Orders
  • Order of Multidistrict Litigation Panel 
  • Order on Motions for Summary Judgment in CPS Energy v. Houston Pipe Line Company, LP and Oasis Pipeline, LP
  • Order on Motions for Summary Judgment in Enterprise Products Operating, LLC v. CPS Energy
  • Order Setting Bexar County Trial Date

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