Senate's power plant buying spree would cost $8 billion more than early estimates

When conversations picked up this year about the rebirth of the “Berkshire Hathaway bill” of 2021 — the then-$8 billion plan from Warren Buffett’s financial giant for the state build 10,000 megawatts of rarely used gas plants — rumors flew that the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) was working behind the scenes to get a piece of the action. 

The thing about rumors is, they’re often true.

Thanks to great reporting last week by Mose Buchele of KUT and Naureen Malik and Mitchell Ferman of Bloomberg, Texans finally know that, according to the LCRA’s own estimates, this gas plant building spree will cost almost double what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and many senators said it would.