Texas Senate Votes to Abolish Renewable Energy Programs

Wind Energy / Economics

Kaibawhite reports that the Texas Senate passed the Senator Fraser anti-renewable energy Senate Bill 931. If passed by the House, this bill will abolish two of the Texas few renewable energy programs the renewable portfolio standard and building of competitive renewable energy zone transmission lines. Job growth, economic development, stable business climate he thought those were conservative bread and butter.

The wind industry should have earned the good graces of Texas lawmakers. Wind farms annually pay over 85 million dollars in taxes to rural Texas counties, plus about 65 million dollars in lease payments to landowners. And the solar industry is rapidly becoming a significant driver of Texas job growth as well. As of November 2014, there were almost 7,000 solar jobs in Texas. That is a 68 per cent increase from 2013, a job growth rate 24 times greater than in the Texas economy overall. And yet, the Texas Senate has decided that Texas should have no renewable energy goal and that it should be more difficult for the Public Utility Commission of Texas to build transmission lines to prime areas for wind and solar energy development.

Abolishing the Texas renewable energy portfolio standard would cause a devaluing of the Texas Renewable Energy Credit market and would cause renewable energy developers to lose a revenue stream they counted on when making investments. Existing projects used REC revenue when applying for financing. Now developers will have to go back to their financers and let them know that the Texas market has changed, and not for the better.

Original URL: http://www.texasvox.org/texas-senate-votes-to-abolish-renewable-energy-programs/