If it’s July in Texas it means the heat is on. Texans can be 100 percent sure of that as temperatures topped 100 degrees statewide.
Texans are a hardy bunch and they are used to the intense heat that arrives every summer, but it’s like ice cream. Most people like it, some love it, but no one wants a huge bowl every hour.
This summer that ice cream would melt across the Lone Star State, even with people staying indoors and turning on the air conditioning. But what might get them hot under the collar is the bills they will face as energy costs rise like a thermometer left out in the sun.
Bill Peacock of Austin, a longtime energy analyst, knows a few things about Texas heat and the cost of staying cool.
“Obviously, the hot temperatures forecasted for July and heading into August will drive up energy demand in Texas,” Peacock told Lone Star Standard. “Air conditioners, in homes, businesses and factories across the state will have to work harder to beat the 100 degree-plus temperatures. This will put a great demand on the state's generation capacity.”
An additional problem is the lack of governmental oversight to prevent energy bills from overheating, he said.
“The problem is not that the state is trying to regulate the price. The problem is that the state is trying to increase the price,” Peacock said. “Texas policymakers actually want consumers to pay more for electricity than the market price. Last year, for instance, the Texas government increased the wholesale price of electricity by more than $4 billion through two administrative price adders, the operating reserve demand curve (ORDC) and reliability deployment price adder (RDPA).”
He said the reliability of the state’s energy grid is also in doubt, in large part because of decisions made to favor and promote solar and wind power.
“The primary reliability problems the market is facing today is because of subsidies for renewable energy,” Peacock said. “The subsidies allow wind and solar generators to undercut competitors and are stifling investment in more reliable generation like coal and natural gas. This means that the Texas market is relying more and more on wind generation at the highest temperatures. However, there is no guarantee that the wind will be blowing when Texans need electricity the most.”
Jay Lehr, a Ph.D. and science director at The Heartland Institute, told the institute that betting on renewable energy is a dangerous gamble.
“While the threat of man-caused global warming is the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on society, its most immediate damage has been the growth of an unsustainable wind and solar industry that raises energy costs for the poorest Americans,” Lehr said in a January 2019 article. “Far from being replaced by wind turbines, fossil-fuel plants will always have to be on the ready as backup to supply life-sustaining electricity when the wind doesn’t blow within acceptable limits and the sun doesn’t shine.”
Peacock said Texans may learn that the hard way this summer. Consumers face higher electric bills, and he said they shouldn’t expect any relief soon.
“Retail electric prices went up in Texas last year even as other energy prices were dropping,” Peacock said. “It is likely that this year's costs of the prices adders will meet or exceed last year's $4 billion — on top of over $2 billion that Texas renewable generators will receive in subsidies this year.”
