Energy Exchange

Texans Could Save Billions Through Efficiency

By Texas Staffer / Published: July 15, 2009

Jamie Fine is an economist with EDF who recently completed a study about the costs and benefits of energy efficiency investments in Texas. Read the summary.

Old wisdom says don’t spend a dollar to save a dime. Even better? Spending dimes to save dollars. There’s a real opportunity in Texas for every home and business to spend dimes on energy efficiency to save dollars and to combat climate change at the same time.

I recently helped develop a computer model that tells us how much money Texas residents and businesses can save through energy efficiency, and the results were impressive.

With just a handful of simple efficiency investments, Texans could save more than $15 billion by 2030 – this is $760 per year for an average household and $11,000 per year for an average commercial building.

But implementing energy efficiency measures provides more than cash in the pockets of hard-pressed households and small businesses, it fights climate change too. If these same measures are used broadly throughout Texas on existing and new buildings between 2010 and 2030, they will avoid over 760 million metric tons of global warming pollution from the electricity sector.

So what’s the next step? Read More »

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Texas / Read 6 Responses

Texas Can’t Afford Another Misguided Report

By Jim Marston / Published: July 10, 2009

It looks like the Texas bureaucrats are at it again. A state agency recently released a report that looks at the downside of federal climate change legislation without even trying to quantify the significant upsides that a number of studies have shown. This seems to be a theme with some Texas agencies – focusing only on the doom and gloom and ignoring the benefits for Texas.

Last month ERCOT issued a report that was so narrowly focused, the Comptroller’s office didn’t even bother trying to use it as a basis for its report. Now, the Comptroller’s office has released a deeply flawed report using the kind of biased studies that at least one TV station has refused to give paid air time to.

Posted in General, Texas / Read 18 Responses

Retaliation Veto?

By Kate Zerrenner / Published: June 30, 2009

Last week, Governor Rick Perry vetoed Senate Bill 2169 (by Sen. Rodney Ellis), which would have established a work group of state agencies that would meet regularly to discuss how to develop the state in a smart, sustainable way.

The group would have comprised all major state agencies involved in directing economic development and planning policies in the state, including the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and the Texas Water Development Read More »

Posted in General, Texas / Read 5 Responses

ERCOT Study: Why?

By / Published: May 15, 2009

I am perplexed. Texas news headlines are hyping the phrases “big electric bill” and “tax could raise bills,” misleading ratepayers everywhere and leaving out a big chunk of the whole story.

ERCOT released its “analysis” of the impacts of CO2 legislation on Texas this week and I’m not really sure what it’s an analysis of, except maybe some bizarre world in which the only option available for reducing carbon emissions in Texas in the next five years is switching entirely from coal-fired electricity to natural gas-fired electricity.

The whole story? In its much-publicized study, ERCOT failed to incorporate carbon offsets, energy efficiency or the impact of renewable energy beyond what is already planned, in the current bill before congress.

In fact, in the first paragraph of the paper, ERCOT acknowledges that it has not attempted to determine the equilibrium price of allowances, which is one of the fundamental benefits of using free-market economics to drive innovation and decision making in reducing greenhouse gasses.

To put it simply, what ERCOT is saying is: “There are a host of inexpensive ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Waxman-Markey bill. We have not analyzed any of those.” Given the statement Commissioner Smitherman, who requested the report, gave the Dallas Morning News, I can understand why ERCOT may have focused on such a narrow portion of the legislation. “I’m more concerned about climate change legislation than I am about climate change,” he said.

Posted in Renewable Energy, Texas / Read 10 Responses

The Sun Shines on Senate Bill

By / Published: May 12, 2009

TX Senate Today, Senator Watson led the Senate in passing its most important renewable energy bill this session: SB541. The bill is an expansion of the incredibly successful Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) that has been the flagship policy for renewables in our state for the last 10 years.

Ten years ago, Texas was ranked 4th in the nation for wind energy and only had 7 percent of the nations wind capacity. Now, we are the nation’s leader with 28 percent of the wind market, and at a net benefit to Texas electric consumers. If Texas were a country (since some seem to want it that way) we would be ranked 6th in the world in wind power—behind the rest of the US, Germany, Spain, India and China. Now, with the Senate passage of this 1,500 MW renewable energy bill, industry insiders agree we are poised to have exactly the same success with solar power.

The truth is, almost everyone supports this bill and the few who don’t are referencing outdated information and misrepresented data to support their contention that renewable energy would cost Texans too much without acknowledging any of the proven benefits. The PUC has shown that large amounts of “free fuel” renewable energy, reduces electric market prices in Texas. Additionally, the Texas General Land Office estimates more than $209 million could go to the Permanent School Fund from renewable energy, more if this RPS is passed. These benefits, along with the savings from reduced CO2, NOx and SO2 emissions, add up to a big bonus for Texas consumers. Did I mention the estimated 123,000 jobs this policy will help bring to Texas?

Posted in Renewable Energy, Texas / Read 27 Responses

The Truth Comes Out

By Jim Marston / Published: April 28, 2009

Senator Kirk Watson’s “No Regrets Bill,” which calls on the TCEQ to develop standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions, is making some headway in the legislature. If passed, the bill would help stimulate our economy and position Texas as a leader in greenhouse gas reduction. It’s great to see bills that represent how far we’ve come in our fight against global warming, but after reading last week’s New York Times, it’s apparent we’ve got a long way to go.

The article “Industry Ignored Its Scientists on Climate” was disturbing to say the least. Based on documents filed in a recent federal lawsuit, it gave an in-depth look at what we knew all along: Global warming is real and humans contribute to it.

However, something we didn’t know was that in 1995 the Global Climate Coalition ignored its trade industry scientists who had agreed that global warming was a problem and that the role of human contribution could not be denied. For more than a decade, the coalition led a campaign to persuade the public that greenhouse gases were not a problem. Something else we didn’t know: The coalition was (yup, you guessed it) financially funded by large corporations and groups representing the oil, coal and auto industries. But why would any group ignore its own qualified scientists on such a crucial issue?

Posted in Climate, Texas / Read 9 Responses