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 […]
Houses in this Texas development pay just $1 a month in energy bills. Here’s how
As extreme weather becomes more common, reliable heating and cooling may start coming from underground ‘geogrids.’ BY NATE BERG When uncommonly cold weather hit Texas in February 2021, the surge in energy demand knocked out the power grid, leaving millions of people without electricity or heat for days. The so-called Snowpocalypse was a catastrophe that left an […]
Inside Clean Energy: Texas Is the Country’s Clean Energy Leader, Almost in Spite of Itself
The Lone Star State led the nation in new renewable energy capacity in 2021, and is poised to continue to be the leader. In the race to build renewable energy projects in 2021, Texas lapped the competition. The state had 7,352 megawatts of new wind, solar and energy storage projects come online during the year, […]
COP, New Energy Laws, and the Power of Competition
There’s a lot going on in the energy world right now. The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) is happening in Glasgow, Scotland. Congress recently passed major new energy legislation in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. And as consumers soon will find out if they don’t already know: much higher energy costs and heating bills are coming […]
Welfare for Texas Electricity Generators Is Not a Viable Solution
October 21, 2021 By Matt Welch and Landon Stevens The blackouts in the ERCOT region this past February were a tragedy on multiple levels and should never happen again. The Texas Legislature passed several laws intended to improve reliability of the ERCOT electric grid, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) has been working […]
Texas Receives “B” on Electric Competition Scorecard
Academic study finds Texas possesses key tenants of a competitive electric market FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CEN CONTACT: Joanna Lewis – [email protected] October 19, 2021 – AUSTIN, Texas – The University of Texas has released a national “Electric Competition Scorecard” in conjunction with the release of “The State of Electric Competition in the United States of […]
Deregulation and U.S. Energy Independence
Fracking and an end to the oil-export ban turned America into a global powerhouse. By Paul M. Dabbar Oct. 5, 2021 The U.S. in 2019 became a net exporter of energy and achieved energy independence. Once at the mercy of hostile foreign governments that used energy supply as a cudgel, the U.S. is now the third-largest […]
Opinion: Texas’ rare opportunity to fix the energy marketplace
By Suzanne Bertin Abundant natural resources, free markets, and a strong commitment to innovation have long positioned Texas as an energy leader. However, Texans’ faith in that leadership was tested this year during Winter Storm Uri, and our state is still looking for solutions to reliably keep the lights on. After the storm, the Texas legislature […]