Texas Senate Votes To Punish Wind, Solar For Blackouts Caused By Coal, Oil, Nuclear
From Wonkette:
The Texas state Senate on Monday passed a great big bill, SB 3, aimed at addressing some of the problems with the state's electric power system, which experienced huge outages during February's extreme freeze. Some four million people across the state were left without electricity, and at least 57 people died. There are some actually good measures in the package, like a requirement that utilities winterize their equipment, and a ban on the "indexed retail electric plans" that resulted in insanely large power bills when the wholesale cost of electricity spiked. But SB 3 also includes a provision that will increase costs for renewable energy sources, because wind and solar are supposedly "unreliable."
Many of Texas's power plants — of all types — froze up because they weren't winterized, even after a similarly devastating storm in 2011. But conservative media and Texas politicians, including Gov. Greg Abbott, went on TV to blame the blackouts on wind and solar, which wasn't the case at all. So now, even knowing that renewables didn't cause the power outages, Republicans in the Lege are gonna get back at renewable energy. Or at least they'll help out fossil fuels, which have seen their dominance of the Texas energy market slip as wind and solar have become a larger part of the state's overall power supply.
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It's fairly complex stuff, but Hancock's amendment basically seeks to shift a big chunk of the costs for keeping the grid functioning from power customers generally, as part of the costs of having a grid, to providers of renewable energy. That will drive up the cost of renewable energy and help out fossil fuels, which won't have to foot the bill for the ancillary services they use.
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That, as we'll see, is some bullshit.
more at linkinator:
https://www.wonkette.com/texas-senate-high-on-own-supply-votes-to-punish-wind-solar-for-storm-blackouts
Jeez we have to figure out a way to get more Ds elected here.
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abbott, paxton, patrick, cornyn, and stupidest of them all....cruz!
Don't get me started on the republican house and senate.
