NEW YORK — A lawsuit between a Chinese billionaire and a Texas power grid operator highlights growing tensions between U.S. federal and state restrictions on investment from China.
GH America Energy, a subsidiary of China's Xinjiang Guanghui Industrial Investment Group, sued the Texas independent power operator and its directors in June for violating the US Constitution's supremacy clause, which states that federal laws override state laws. The Electric Reliability Board of Texas (ERCOT), which runs the state's independent electric grid, blocked a Chinese company's wind farm project in 2022 using the One Star Infrastructure Protection Act, a state law that bans companies controlled by China, North Korea and Iran. and Russian citizens' access to the state's critical infrastructure on security grounds.