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
Supporters say the legislation would improve the public’s safety after February’s winter storm, which caused
at least 125 deaths and damage estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
After the crippling blackouts and water outages, some state Republicans, including Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott,
placed blame for Texas’ grid failure on the unreliability of energy sources that depend on sunshine and wind and what they consider unfair market advantages given to the renewable energy industry through subsidies.
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Mark Stover, director of government and regulatory affairs for Apex Clean Energy, which builds and owns wind and solar plants across the U.S., testified Thursday against HB 4502. He said the chilling effects of the legislation were already evident in the marketplace.
“This bill and a few others working their way around the Capitol right now have brought our business development activities to a grinding halt,” Stover said. “That’s bad for a pro-business state. We were in discussions on four wind and solar projects. … All of those conversations have come to a complete stop.”