{"id":1440563,"date":"2025-09-08T14:52:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T19:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1440563"},"modified":"2025-09-10T03:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T08:51:53","slug":"company-behind-east-texas-water-grab-hired-key-lobbyists-just-before-bill-delaying-it-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1440563","title":{"rendered":"Lobbyist hired to delay water grab bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN – \"\"The Houston Chronicle<\/a> reports the Texas Senate voted against delaying a controversial East Texas groundwater export project on the same day the company behind it hired one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick\u2019s top advisors as a lobbyist. Conservation Equity Management, a company affiliated with Dallas investor Kyle Bass, hired Allen Blakemore on Tuesday, the same day the legislation hit the Senate floor, according to lobbying records filed at the Texas Ethics Commission. Blakemore is Patrick\u2019s political consultant and has also worked on the campaigns of several Republican senators. The Senate, which Patrick oversees, ultimately agreed to back a state-led study of the company\u2019s proposal to pump huge amounts of groundwater out from under Anderson and Henderson counties. But it stripped a provision that would have put the project on hold until the findings came out in 2027.<\/p>\n

The change \u201cgutted the most important part of this bill,\u201d according to the author, state Rep. Cody Harris, whose district includes the counties Bass is looking to tap. The legislation ultimately died on Wednesday night when the special session ended, in a win for Bass. Blakemore directed questions to Bass, whose spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Patrick said in a statement that he was \u201cnot involved in it at any level.\u201d He said the senator who sponsored the bill and the one who chaired the committee that vetted it made all the decisions. \u201cI told them we would do whatever they decided \u2013 it was up to them,\u201d Patrick said. Two companies affiliated with Bass have applied for exploratory permits for wells capable of pumping more groundwater out from under the two counties than is currently available. The companies have not yet applied for permits to export the water, but Bass signaled that is his intention, saying that the water was needed to address looming shortages elsewhere and could go \u201canywhere south of Waco and\u2026 north of Dallas-Fort Worth.\u201d The permit decision now rests with the State Office of Administrative Hearings. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN – The Houston Chronicle reports the Texas Senate voted against delaying a controversial East Texas groundwater export project on the same day the company behind it hired one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick\u2019s top advisors as a lobbyist. Conservation Equity Management, a company affiliated with Dallas investor Kyle Bass, hired Allen Blakemore on Tuesday, … Continue reading Lobbyist hired to delay water grab bill<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1440676,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/04\/Lake-Tyler-e1757361145449-212x200.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1440563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-08 19:10:08","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2023\/04\/Lake-Tyler-e1757361145449-212x200.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1440563"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1440952,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1440563\/revisions\/1440952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1440676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1440563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1440563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1440563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}