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New Wind and Solar Farms are Flooding Rural Texas (OCT 2019)
Texas Public Policy Foundation ^ | Oct 2019 | By Bill Peacock, Carly Good

Posted on 02/16/2021 12:43:45 PM PST by fightin kentuckian

Somebody definitely saw it coming and tried to sound the warning. In 2018/19 The city council of Round Rock committed the entire city to "alternative" energy and nearly drove all residents away with the high electricity costs. Here's the article:

Wherever you go in rural Texas today, you are likely to run across a new wind farm or solar farm being constructed.

And why wouldn’t they be?

Taxpayers and consumers are currently paying more than $2 billion annually to renewable energy companies operating in Texas. And with the threat that eligibility for the biggest renewable subsidy, the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC), might expire at the end of the year, there is a mad rush by renewable companies—many of which are multibillion-dollar, multinational conglomerates—to take even more of our money from us through the largess of our local, state, and federal governments.

The cost of these renewable energy projects, though, is not just measured in dollars.

The reliability of the Texas electricity grid is being strained by both wind and solar farms that cannot guarantee electricity when Texans most need it, and then (as the case with wind) drive down prices at night by dumping electricity onto the market when we don’t need it. The result is a lack of new investment in natural gas or coal-fired plants that can provide reliable and affordable energy when we need it—usually between 4-7 p.m. on hot summer afternoons.

Additionally, these farms are scarring rural Texas and creating a cleanup problem beyond what any of us can currently imagine once they can no longer generate electricity.

Below is a list of companies seeking local tax abatements from counties, school districts, hospital districts, etc. across the state. A total of 34 projects in 27 counties want taxpayers to subsidize their businesses so they can make more profits. And with each of these projects likely to produce fewer than 10 permanent jobs each, there isn’t anything in it for county residents.


TOPICS: Government; Outdoors; Politics; Weather
KEYWORDS: energy; solar; texas; wind
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1 posted on 02/16/2021 12:43:45 PM PST by fightin kentuckian
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To: fightin kentuckian

bookmark


2 posted on 02/16/2021 12:45:54 PM PST by GOP Poet (Super cool you can change your tag line EVERYTIME you post!! :D. (Small things make me happy))
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To: fightin kentuckian
Gotta get rid of that global warming. Look how Texas is cooking.


3 posted on 02/16/2021 12:52:21 PM PST by GrandJediMasterYoda (As long as Hillary Clinton remains free equal justice under the law will never exist in the USA)
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To: fightin kentuckian

I recall Lady Bird Johnson’s dream of beautifying the American landscape with wild flowers. The wind mills and solar farms are in no way beautiful. Yet the libs are OK with them.


4 posted on 02/16/2021 12:55:12 PM PST by llevrok (I'm old enough to remember when the quarantine was to be 3 weeks)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Yes and the apologists are all over the airwaves claiming it’s also due to natural gas plants freezing up. BS. Oklahoma is not having these kinds of problems with their natural gas plants and the temperatures there are even colder.


5 posted on 02/16/2021 12:57:34 PM PST by DarrellZero
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To: llevrok

“I recall Lady Bird Johnson’s dream of beautifying the American landscape with wild flowers. The wind mills and solar farms are in no way beautiful. Yet the libs are OK with them.”

The libs in Martha’s Vinyard and Beverly Hills are OK with wind and solar somewhere else. I think that’s what you meant lol.


6 posted on 02/16/2021 12:58:28 PM PST by fightin kentuckian
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To: fightin kentuckian

70° and sunny here in Phoenix today!


7 posted on 02/16/2021 1:18:07 PM PST by wildcard_redneck ( COVID lockdowns are the Establishment's attack on the middle class and our Republic)
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To: wildcard_redneck

You know people are dying in texas right?


8 posted on 02/16/2021 1:23:14 PM PST by willyd (I for one welcome our NSA overlords)
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To: willyd

Just need cages on the windmills like we do with airboats to protect the birds. Then add solar powered deicers. Solar panels need windshield wipers and eicers also. Problems solved.


9 posted on 02/16/2021 1:26:42 PM PST by oldasrocks
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To: willyd

We’re all aware that this cold spell is killing people everywhere under it’s reach. What’s your point?


10 posted on 02/16/2021 1:26:52 PM PST by fightin kentuckian
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To: DarrellZero

It is not the plants. It is the wells themselves. Most of the gas in East Texas and North Louisiana comes from the Haynesville Shale. These wells make a lot of flowback water from the frac. Hundreds of barrels a day. When the trucks can’t get in because of the roads to empty them, the wells have to be shut-in. Couple that with many compressors going down on the pipelines and you have the perfect storm. They will be back up in a few days.


11 posted on 02/16/2021 1:28:09 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: oldasrocks

“Just need cages on the windmills like we do with airboats to protect the birds. Then add solar powered deicers. Solar panels need windshield wipers and eicers also. Problems solved.”

Are you sure you’re not a left wing politician posing as a freeper. lol


12 posted on 02/16/2021 1:28:26 PM PST by fightin kentuckian
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To: fightin kentuckian

Bird killers, on top of the fact that they don’t freakin work when you need them to the most.


13 posted on 02/16/2021 1:30:48 PM PST by Pajamajan ( PRAY FOR OUR NATION. I will never be a peacful slave in a new Socialist America.)
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To: willyd
"You know people are dying in texas right?"

Nice virtue signal! Death happens everywhere all of the time so I guess we should never have fun at all, right? We should be crying a tear for every village that failed to raise a child!

I grew up in Montana and have suffered walking to school in -40° below zero temperatures so I really can't get teary-eyed about cold Texans while I am enjoying 70° weather in Arizona.

14 posted on 02/16/2021 1:42:47 PM PST by wildcard_redneck ( COVID lockdowns are the Establishment's attack on the middle class and our Republic)
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To: crusty old prospector

One if the biggest ironies of this situation is the commitment by pipeline operators to use renewable energy for pipeline operations. So when you need the gas, all the line heaters and compressors have no power. Virtue signaling at its worst.


15 posted on 02/16/2021 1:49:24 PM PST by con-surf-ative
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To: con-surf-ative

So true. Let’s use a solar panel to run the line heater on our natural gas pipelines.


16 posted on 02/16/2021 2:23:23 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: wildcard_redneck

What if one of your parents was homebound and on dialysis? Have a little compassion. This isn’t just snowflakes who can’t watch Netflix and who have to wear a jacky in the house.


17 posted on 02/16/2021 2:25:40 PM PST by crusty old prospector
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To: fightin kentuckian

I really want to laugh at all of this, but I can’t.

First, because people are dying and suffering through all of this because of corrupt politicians and the people that are allowed to buy them off.

Second, because our political process, whether elections or just the day to day administration of government is so F*CKING CORRUPT that it’s a wonder the country still exists.

A deep, deep dive into the finances of every person, and their family and friends, in Round Rock that made this decision should be conducted.

I’d actually liken this to the corruption in NYS and Cuomo. Unaccountable politicians making decisions that are hurting their constituents and taking lives.

Are there any honest, hard working elected officials left in this country?

There was one. And all these local and state politicians took part in making sure he didn’t get sent back to the White House.


18 posted on 02/16/2021 2:42:45 PM PST by qaz123
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To: crusty old prospector
"What if one of your parents was homebound and on dialysis? Have a little compassion. This isn’t just snowflakes who can’t watch Netflix and who have to wear a jacky in the house."

Virtue signaling is a mental disease. If you feel better after trying to shame someone with your fake compassion you may have a problem.

virtue signalling
Advocating a political or philosophical position, and/or taking up a public cause, from a position of vanity, for the primary purpose of demonstrating your conformity with fashionable pop culture values.

19 posted on 02/16/2021 2:54:58 PM PST by wildcard_redneck ( COVID lockdowns are the Establishment's attack on the middle class and our Republic)
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To: crusty old prospector

https://homedialysis.org/life-at-home/articles/disaster-planning-for-pd-and-home-hd


20 posted on 02/16/2021 3:00:20 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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