Last year, over one-third of the country’s clean-power projects were in Texas. One reason, ironically, is that Texas is a low-regulation state that lets people easily build things. Plus, it has loads of open land swept by mighty winds.
But one of the bills before the legislature would require renewable energy projects to get permits from the state and an environmental impact statement from the Parks and Wildlife Department. Any property owners “within 25 miles” could call for a hearing. It goes on.
The Earth Liberation Front would look on that regulatory aggression with envy.
You would think that the self-interests in green energy would stir some brain cells in the Texas Capitol. But Gov. Greg Abbott blamed the 2021 electricity blackouts that left millions of Texans without heat on … wind turbines. They did freeze, as did gas-powered plants, coal-fired plants and a nuclear plant.
Industrial and consumer users of energy are complaining that the proposed disincentives for green energy will drive up their electricity costs. One of the biggest developers of renewables in Texas, Enel, now says it might reconsider its expansion plans if confronted with new bills targeting their projects with higher costs.
(Imagine a governor in Florida threatening his largest taxpayer and employer over some disagreement and then the company saying it would halt a planned development. These are strange times.)
Two years ago, Elon Musk moved his electric vehicle carmaker, Tesla, to Texas. His plan was to “end the Oil Age.” And when Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris accords, Musk quit Trump’s advisory council.
Sure, Musk has gone mental over woke activism but you wonder what he thinks about the bold efforts in Texas to punish the very industry he relies on. America now has 55 plants making EVs.
As for the Texas political leaders: What’s wrong with these people?
