Posted on 07/22/2024 11:19:59 AM PDT by JeepersFreepers
Policies subsidizing generators, utilities, and unreliable energy have raised the cost of electricity in Texas by $19.9 billion in 2023, constituting 42.7 percent of total electricity costs.
In a study published Wednesday by the Energy Alliance, the group found that the total government-imposed cost of electricity in the Texas Interconnection operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas was $84.3 billion.
Texas state and local governments are responsible for causing 85.7 percent of that $84.3 billion.
“The massive increase in subsidies has done nothing to address the primary cause of unreliability in the Texas market, renewable energy,” stated Bill Peacock, the report’s author. “All it has done is to make electricity more expensive for Texans.”
The Energy Alliance’s research also found that government-imposed costs have risen drastically as a percentage of total electricity costs over the last decade.
In 2014, government-imposed costs accounted for only 6.78 percent of the total cost, representing roughly $2.1 billion of the $31.3 billion spent. However, by 2021, that number skyrocketed to a new record of 41.24 percent of the total, nearly $20.5 billion of the year’s $49.7 billion.
Peacock concluded that, apart from construction efforts by the state legislature-created Texas Energy Fund last year, most rising subsidy costs can be attributed to unreliable initiatives to incorporate wind and solar energy.
He particularly pointed to the state’s response to Winter Storm Uri, which illustrated both problems. Instead of ending unreliable energy subsidies, “policymakers decided to throw more taxpayer dollars at all generation sources.”
“Continuous subsidies for renewable energy have compromised grid reliability and increased costs,” explained Peacock. “Eliminating all subsidies, instead of increasing them, is the only path toward a reliable, affordable supply of electricity for Texans.”
Between 2014 and 2018, unreliable energy subsidies represented $9.4 billion of Texas’ total $14.7 billion in ERCOT costs. From 2024 until 2028, the cost of unreliable energy subsidies is projected to be upwards of $29.2 billion, with ERCOT’s total costs being around $69.9 billion.
Texans have struggled for years with a costly system that increasingly fails to deliver on both security and reliability.
Just in the last month, electricity operators and providers have been scrutinized for their response to Hurricane Beryl, which saw roughly 2.3 million individuals lose their power at its peak and hundreds of thousands waiting days and even weeks later for theirs to be fully restored.
The issue, which the Texas House and Senate have struggled to address, is slated to be a major focus of the upcoming legislative session.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick previewed that anticipation earlier this week, revealing in a Wednesday press release that he would establish a Senate Special Committee on Hurricane and Tropical Storm Preparedness, Recovery, and Electricity.
This is a very bad look for Texas Republicans. They have literally turned into the capitalists that sell the rope used to hang them. They feasted like hogs on government subsidies for windmills and solar. In the old days of Reddy kilowatt, there was no such thing as a power outage in Texas unless a storm blew lives down, and it wasn’t expensive. They have taken large numbers of coal fired plants off-line. Now with Ercot, the energy reliability Council of Texas, energy is not reliable, and the board is made up of leftist people from all over America, and even Germans.
I think some of this was the deliberately destroy the Texas grid and then push for it to be connected to the national grid.
As an aside, Texas Scorecard is one of the few somewhat conservative media outlets in Texas. Contributions are encouraged.
Boasting about how they can choose their provider offering the lowest rate...Blah, Blah, Blah.
“This is a very bad look for Texas Republicans.”
Scratch a little deeper and you’ll find a rat underneath.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.