State Sen. Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills), chairman of the Senate Business and Commerce Committee, is arguing that renewable resources are part of the state’s energy problem that caused Texas blackouts in February.
He has introduced a series of bills and amendments to remedy the issue. His legislation focusing on renewables will promote ancillary services backup generation for intermittent resources (SB 1278), reorient economic impact tests for new transmission toward consumer cost-savings (SB 1281), and provide consumer savings through transmission and interconnection cost reassignment (SB 1282).
“Texans deserve a comprehensive legislative response that keeps our eye on the main goal: real reliability,” Hancock said in a statement. “We can’t afford to get this wrong. No Texan should have to endure dangerously frigid temperatures in their own homes ever again, period.”
He also offered an amendment to SB 3 filed by Sen. Charles Schwertner (R-Georgetown) to address highs and lows in market prices.
The Advanced Power Alliance, a wind and solar industry group in Texas, called these measures, specifically SB 1278, an “unnecessary, discriminatory policy.” It argued these subsidies discriminate against traditional generation such as nuclear, coal and natural gas, and provide an unlevel playing field that has dramatically reduced investment in reliable thermal generation in Texas.
The Texas House also has passed several bills, which according to Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) are “important first steps in passing critical, essential reforms in the aftermath of Winter Storm Uri.”
