Texas requires a reliable power grid. The reforms under consideration won’t give us that.
There is no guarantee that the PUC changes will lower costs for consumers
As the anniversary of the devastating February 2021 winter storm approaches, the Public Utility Commission of Texas approved reforms that it claims would fix the issues related to our grid.
Go to Texas to see the anti-green future of clean energy: lessons for liberals from climate-sceptic wind ranchers.
For more than 140 years John Davis’s family has owned the Pecan Spring Ranch on the prairie lands of West Texas. He has a photo of his great-great-grandmother, known as “the sheep queen of Texas”, sitting in a horse-drawn carriage beneath a tree that still stands in front of the hay barn. It’s a tough […]
New report: Dispatchable Battery Storage and Renewable Energy projects Are Boon to Texas Economy
Renewable energy and battery storage projects generate tens of billions of dollars in tax revenue and landowner payments, 60 percent of which benefits rural counties, according to a report released today by Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation (CTEI), the Advanced Power Alliance (APA) and the Texas Association of Business (TAB).
Texas plan to stop next grid disaster could cost customers billions
Those types of resources could help meet Texas’ summer peaks in power demand when heat waves cause air conditioner energy use to spike up for hours at a time in afternoons and early evenings, Milligan said. It would be less useful in the winter, when freezing temperatures can cause much longer-lasting spikes in demand both for […]
The Time Is Now: Stepping Up Cyber Security for the Energy Sector
By Leo Simonovich & Amit YoranOctober 18, 2022 It’s time to step up on cyber security for the energy sector. The recent passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act will incentivize a new wave of investment in energy infrastructure. With that wave, we have an opportunity to build cybersecurity approaches that keep up with […]
Secretive committee of utility insiders could undermine Texas energy leadership and affordability
The Texas Legislature needs to ensure that self-interested electric generation actors are not sacrificing Texas families and businesses to protect their market share. The following is a contributed article by Landon Stevens, policy director for the Conservative Energy Network. Last month, the Texas State Energy Plan Advisory Committee voted 7-5 to narrowly approve its report to the […]
Wind and Solar Are Saving Texans $20 Million a Day
In a year of record-high prices for fossil fuels, as lawmakers consider new policies that can help fight inflation, renewable energy is already helping to shield Americans from steep jumps in their electricity bills. For example, in Texas, even as some observers have incorrectly blamed renewables for the state’s strained power grid, more than a third of electricity […]
Solar Power Is Bailing Texas Out This Summer
Enjoying that AC? Thank the mighty power of the sun and the renewable energy source keeping the grid afloat. On Monday the good people of Texas, many still suffering from lingering trauma as a result of the February 2021 failure of the state’s power grid, braced for bad news. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, […]
May heat wave exposes myth of fossil fuel reliability as Texas coal- and gas-fired generators fail early season performance test
June 27, 2022Dennis Wamsted and Seth Feaster Fossil fuel proponents consistently argue that renewables are too intermittent to maintain grid reliability, and that wind and solar generation is replacing “dispatchable” coal and gas, claiming these resources are always available when needed. But May’s early season heat wave in Texas showed just the opposite: Renewables were […]
Texans are getting stuck with high electricity bills and we have no idea how high
July 16, 2022 OPINIONBy Matt Welch With such pain at the pump right now and our struggling economy, it has been easy to miss what is happening with Texas electricity prices, which, unfortunately, is even worse. While gasoline prices are about 60% higher than a year ago, retail electricity rates are up even more, about 70% […]