Lobbying from renewable energy companies has paid off with approximately $36 billion in federal and state subsidies awarded to green companies from 2006 through 2029, Transparency USA reported.
A previous Transparency USA report found that renewable energy companies have spent more than $71 million on lobbying the Texas Legislature since 2015, according to Austin News. Some experts claim that these lobbying efforts have resulted in renewable energy receiving large subsidies to the detriment of grid reliability and higher prices for consumers.
“Beyond the weather, environmental policies that have been pushing renewable energy across the country and in Texas for a long time are largely keeping the Texas grid from providing reliable power,” Bill Peacock, policy director at Energy Alliance, previously told Lone Star Standard.
Energy Alliance Policy Director Bill Peacock
| linkedin.com/in/bill-peacock-1a12526
A strong push for renewables has led to at least 25% of the state's power coming from wind and solar energy. This overreliance on intermittent power sources may have contributed to this winter's disastrous storm that left millions of Texans without power and more 200 dead.
“What's contributing is the fact that we're relying on wind and the turbines are frozen as well as the fact that we're relying on solar and there's no sun shining,” Peacock continued. “We could have a reliable natural gas backup in place but we don't. All three of those are related to the renewable energy policies in Texas and in the United States.”
According to a Texas Public Policy Foundation study, renewable corporations with operations in Texas will receive an estimated $36 billion in government subsidies from 2006-2029. The federal Production Tax Credit alone will hand $16 billion to renewable operators in Texas, with the largest portion from state and local governments, which will offer $18 billion in incentives by 2029.
“We need to stop renewable energy subsidies, eliminate excessive regulation by the Texas Public Utility Commission and let the market work,” Peacock said. “Then, we will have a system that we can rely upon.”
Of the top 5 renewable corporations that spent the most on lobbyists, only one company is actually headquartered in Texas. NRG Energy has a headquarters in Houston, as well as Princeton, New Jersey.
The other four, Next Era Energy, EDP Renewables, Invenergy, and E.ON, are headquartered in Florida, Spain, Chicago and Germany, respectively.
Approximately 40% of the top five lobbying spenders are headquartered outside of the United States.
