Texas House panel weighs anti-renewable energy bills fueled by winter storm
The bills would tack big, grid-related costs on wind and solar power producers, who say that would chill, possibly halt, their rapid growth.
An official with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in February that 16 gigawatts of renewable energy generation, mostly wind generation, were offline during the winter storm. Nearly double that, 30 gigawatts, had been lost from thermal sources, which includes gas, coal and nuclear energy.(Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune)
AUSTIN A package of bills debated by a House panel this week aims to attack the state’s burgeoning renewable energy industry through added charges and responsibilities.
LIST: Texas lawmakers tell us what they are doing to fix the state’s electric system
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TEXAS – State lawmakers are pouring through more than 200 proposed bills in Austin that would bring change to Texas’ electricity market. While almost all of the proposed laws focus on requiring power generators to maintain their plants to avoid another massive outage like we saw in the winter freeze, one bill would make wholesale and variable rate electric plans (like the plans sold by Griddy) illegal in Texas.
We asked all of the state representatives and state senators from the greater Houston area the same three questions to find out which lawmakers are working to resolve the issues with Texas’ electric market. Twenty-four lawmakers didn’t answer our questions. You’ll see who didn’t reply at the bottom of this article.
ERCOT: Blackout primarily caused by plants freezing up expressnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from expressnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Starting in late February, over 2.7 million Texas households were left without energy and over 100 people died as a severe winter storm caused a series of rolling blackouts across Texas, drawing national attention to the state’s energy grid. While some leaders blamed the state-wide outages on wind and solar, an emerging expert consensus suggests that multiple cascading factors including non-winterized power plants and the state’s deregulated, independent grid system culminated in the energy crisis. Now, several weeks out from the crisis, new solar opportunities and challenges are beginning to take shape in the Lone Star State. While Texas lawmakers have advanced legislative proposals to impose additional costs and burdens on solar providers, private demand for solar energy solutions especially rooftop solar has increased as households across Texas seek independence from their state’s independent grid.
Monday, April 5, 2021
Starting in late February, over 2.7 million Texas households were left without energy and over 100 people died as a severe winter storm caused a series of rolling blackouts across Texas, drawing national attention to the state’s energy grid. While some leaders blamed the state-wide outages on wind and solar, an emerging expert consensus suggests that multiple cascading factors including non-winterized power plants and the state’s deregulated, independent grid system culminated in the energy crisis. Now, several weeks out from the crisis, new solar opportunities and challenges are beginning to take shape in the Lone Star State. While Texas lawmakers have advanced legislative proposals to impose additional costs and burdens on solar providers, private demand for solar energy solutions especially rooftop solar has increased as households across Texas seek independence from their state’s independent grid.