Why Texas wants to hobble a growing energy industry

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Froma Harrop / Creators.com

Texas is currently America’s leader in wind and solar power. It provides 28 percent of America’s wind energy. If it were a country, it would be the fifth biggest source. Surprisingly, it’s about to eclipse California in production of solar power.

And so why aren’t Texas Republicans bragging about all that? Why, on the contrary, are they attacking clean energy with regulatory and tax burdens? Perhaps it’s their co-dependance with oil and gas interests.

On the psychosis level, renewables serve as a right-wing, culture-war toy. After all, they are the pride and joy of President Biden and concerned environmentalists everywhere. Same goes for the science behind planet warming.

Renewables have become “a four-letter word,” according to a big Texas landowner trying to stop a real rancher from putting a wind farm near his rich-man ranch. (His land is his land, and so is his neighbor’s.)

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-why-texas-wants-to-hobble-a-growing-energy-industry/

[republianmushroom]

1. fossil fuel

Why else.

[Igel]

3. The ERCOT report that said at this point we wouldn't have

enough dispatchable power under some conditions. That's a warning that policy makers should take seriously--you want to avoid predicted and even planned-for blackouts.

Consider that right now solar and wind are required for meeting forecast peak demand needs. But if it's night *and* still that means rolling blackouts. There's not enough backup power. We saw what Germany and some other European countries ran into when they relied on wind power and they were in the doldrums for days. They closed a lot of businesses to be able to keep power flowing to families and hospitals and schools.

Also consider the disinformation from winter storm Yuri. A smaller percentage of a larger portion of the power supply failed (that would be natural gas), but a larger percentage of a small portion also failed (that would be wind power). In other words, wind failed to a larger extent than natural gas (that claim was true, but relies on understanding the claim). Overall, the smaller percentage of the dominant source accounted for a larger number of lost megawatts, so natural gas plant failures were responsible for more of the shortfall (that claim was also true). The contribution of wind power (and solar) has increased and some fossil fuel plants have been decommissioned. If that trend continues we'd be relying more on a lesser reliable energy source (assuming that the quick fix that nobody claimed would happen actually happens).

I like nuclear. France derives a lot of its electricity from nuclear power (and even as Germany was shutting down nuclear plants because "green!" Germany was important French electricity.

[Martin68]

2. The death throes of the fossil fuel industry are not a pretty sight. Cutting off their own

sustainable energy industry could result in a backlash against Republican domination of the state.