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Several good bills that will help create Texas' Clean Energy Future are moving forward this session. Emerging opportunities in clean energy are going to maintain Texas' position as an energy giant in a changing energy market, and I want to tell you about good bills that will expand energy efficiency, generate more renewable energy, and create jobs and competitive advantage for Texas businesses.
Energy efficiency is the cheapest, cleanest, quickest way for Texas to meet its power needs. It is cheaper than any option for new power generation. It reduces pressure to build power plants from polluting sources like coal, thereby reducing air pollution in urban areas that fail to meet federal clean air requirements. It can be implemented faster than new power plants can be constructed and creates high-quality, local jobs. Investments in efficiency pay for themselves in reduced energy costs, saving dollars for governments, businesses and individuals. And efficiency reduces emissions of dangerous greenhouse gases.
- The committee substitute for HB 280 would raise the goals of a successful existing program that requires electric utilities to invest in efficiency. It raises the efficiency goal to 30% of load growth by 2012, then it changes the metric and raises the goal to 0.5% of peak demand by 2013 and 1.0% of peak demand by 2016. SB 546 is a similar but less aggressive bill that ultimately raises the energy efficiency goal to the lower of 50% of growth in demand or 0.7 percent of peak demand by 2016. The weakness with that approach is that if there is no growth in demand, there is no mandate to invest in additional efficiency.
- SB 16 by Averitt and HB 2210 by Anchia adopt higher efficiency standards for certain appliances.
- SB 16 and the committee substitute for HB 2783 by Anchia update Texas' building codes to raise efficiency requirements to the levels of 2009 uniform codes.
Renewable energy is already a big industry in Texas, as the state is the nation's largest producer of wind energy. The potential for solar power in Texas is even greater than that of wind: the sun shines continually in Texas, and it is most powerful at those times of day when electricity is most needed. With a little push from the Legislature, solar power will take off.
- The committee substitute for SB 545 by Fraser creates a distributed solar generation incentive program administered by electric utilities for residential, commercial and industrial customers and funded by a small charge on electric bills.
- SB 541 by Watson establishes a renewable portfolio requirement of 3,000 megawatts by 2020 for technologies other than utility-scale wind. Technologies that would satisfy this requirement include solar PV, utility-scale solar, geothermal, and small wind.
- The LoanSTAR program is an existing low-interest revolving loan fund for cities, counties and school districts that funds energy efficiency retrofits to existing buildings. Some of the federal stimulus money is dedicated to this purpose and the LoanSTAR fund is the best vehicle for that money. The House has passed Rep. Anchia's budget rider directing up to $150 million in stimulus money into this fund. The Senate should do the same.
Incentives won't be needed forever. As production of energy from renewable technologies scales up, prices will come down. And federal legislation will force energy prices to reflect the external costs of fuels like coal and natural gas, further making renewable generation price competitive. By acting in advance of federal regulation, Texas will position itself to become a major producer of the clean power and technology that a carbon-constrained world needs.
Thank you for helping to create Texas' Clean Energy Future!
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